(East Coast Premiere)

Screening Time: Friday, May 2, 4:30 PM, Charles Theatre 2

Director: Brian Knappenberger

Cast: Sarah Chayes, Quyam Karzai

Country: U.S.
Year: 2003
Running Time: 80 minutes
Format: Beta SP

Having built a distinguished career reporting from several war zones around the world for NPR, Sara Chayes faced an unexpected challenge while covering the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. “Why not stop reporting, and really help people?” asked one of her interview subjects. Sarah decided to do just that, and began the incredible odyssey that is described in this film, and is still in progress. Under the guidance of the President of Afhanistan’s brother, Quyam Karzai, Sarah set out to rebuild one remote village- thirteen simple houses. As America starts the rebuilding of Iraq, while continuing to shoulder some responsibility for Afghanistan, Life after War reminds us that rebuilding a village, much less a country is a complicated, humbling, nonlinear process.

--Jed Dietz

Presented By: Brian Knappenberger, Quyam Karzai, and Sarah Chayes

Brian Knappenberger is a distinguished cameraman, having shot Doug Pray’s Scratch, Elvis Took a Bullet, and Closing the Deal. Brian produced and directed Ascent: The Story of Hugh Herr for National Geographic, and he also just completed Into the Body. Brian also teaches filmmaking

Since 9/11/01, Quyam Karzai has devoted his energies to helping his brother bring new life to Afghanistan, beginning as Hamid Karzai’s representative to the first and seminal post-9/11 meeting of Afghanistan leaders in Rome, and continuing through his current efforts depicted in Life after War. Quyam has done this while overseeing his two restaurants in Baltimore, the Helmand and Tapas Teatro. He is about to open a third in Bolton Hill.

Sarah Chayes studied the Middle East at Harvard, and solidified her fluency in Arabic while serving in the Peace Corps in Morocco. Her much admired NPR reports from Kabul, Afghanistan, reflected an unusual street-level perspective and a prescient understanding of the complexities of the new post-Taliban life that was emerging.