Description:
Beyond Iraq follows young soldiers, severely injured during the War in Iraq, as they find freedom and adventure in the Rocky Mountains. Awaiting discharge from "medical hold," referred to by the veterans as the "medical hole," the soldiers travel to Colorado to participate in an adaptive winter sports program with Challenge Aspen. Bradley, one of the young subjects of the documentary, had been hit by sniper fire and his body was littered with shrapnel. He came to the program while awaiting yet another surgery at his twelfth hospital to date. He and the other veterans are at first skeptical of the Challenge Aspen program, wary of causing more harm to their already severely injured bodies. They soon find their fears are groundless as they enjoy the mountain sports, encouraged and supported by the Challenge Aspen team. They return to their lives of rehabilitation in hospitals with revitalized spirits and a new sense of purpose. Uplifting and intriguing, Beyond Iraq includes awe-inspiring footage of severely disabled veterans as they ski, snowboard, and sit-ski. The footage is supplemented with discerning interviews that reveal how these soldiers have changed through their experience of war in Iraq.

Biography:
Tom Eldridge is the owner of the U.K.-based company iKandi Media. He has worked in the television and film industry since 1999. He began his career producing and directing award-winning snowboarding videos. Tom has been the cameraman and editor for several U.K. reality TV shows such as Sex in the Sticks, a twelve-part series The Tanner Brothers, and Cruise Line. Tom won the Jury Award for outstanding film and cinematography for the short documentary From Fear to Faith: Ordinary People Extra Ordinary Lives at the Aspen Shorts Fest 2005. Beyond Iraq was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival 2006. Tom is currently working on an observational documentary following eighteen newly injured veterans of the war in Iraq as they take a white water raft trip through the Grand Canyon.

Contact Information:
Annalisa Hodgkins, Producer
937 Vito's Way
Carbondale, CO 81623
970 309 7588
annalisa@ikandifilms.com
www.ikandimedia.co.uk

FILMS

America's Brutal Prisons
Are the Kids Alright?
Baghdad ER
Between Two Stones: Nepal's Decade of Conflict
Beyond Iraq
Beyond the Call
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Blowing Up Paradise
Busting Out
Bystander
Epitaph
In the Tall Grass
Independent Intervention
Interview with an Executioner
La Sierra
Lessons in Fear
Lima's Streets
Malaria: Killer Number One
The Man Who Saved a Million Brains
The Peacekeepers
Pilgrimage
Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border
Rosita
The Shape of Water
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
Small Town Gay Bar
They Chose China
Thin
The Tribe
True Whispers
The Tsunami Generation