Crowdfunding campaign kickstarted for Iraq’s lost Jews

London-based musician Carol Isaacs (aka New Yorker cartoonist The Surreal McCoy) is turning to the world wide web to fund her new audio-visual project The Wolf of Baghdad, the little-known story of Iraq’s lost Jews as told through her family’s memories. With the graphic memoir drawn and turned into a motion comic (semi-animated film) all that’s needed is to record the music soundtrack to complete the project and turn it into a DVD.

Through an online campaign on Kickstarter, she is hoping the age-old patron-artist relationship will provide the necessary pledges from fans already gained to date and spread the word over the internet to new ones. However if the £8000 budget isn’t raised over the 30-day fundraising window all pledges are cancelled and it doesn’t go ahead.

Early critical responses to the live performances have been extremely positive. 

Claudia Roden (food writer and cultural anthropologist) said it was “an enthralling and moving combination of art and music” and “magical”. Lyn Julius of Harif called it a “tour de force” and “the most exciting animated audio-visual experience since Persepolis”. Edwin Shuker (protaganist of the documentary film Remember Baghdad) remarked “A masterful artistic production capturing the essence of a 2,600 sojourn in Mesopotamia through visuals and sound. I cannot wait to watch it again and again.” 

Through this exciting new genre of a motion comic, the story has a chance to be seen by a much wider audience with some international film festivals already expressing aninterest in showing the finished product. The pledges will pay for London-based Judeo-Arabic band 3yin - pronounced “ayin”, Hebrew for eye - to record the soundtrackfor the animation using traditional instruments and repertoire and for the manufactureof DVDs and music CDs. Other rewards include limited-edition signed prints from the graphic memoir and an exclusive house concert by 3yin.

The project runs until Tuesday July 16th 2019 so please visit the Kickstarter pitch page here for details on how to pledge.

About Carol Isaacs:

As a musician Carol has worked extensively with international artists including Sinead O’Connor (Ireland), Indigo Girls (USA), Phongsit Kampee (Thailand) and Ahmed Mukhtar (Iraq). As cartoonist The Surreal McCoy, her work has been published in the New Yorker, Sunday Times, Readers’ Digest, Spectator and more. Her first graphic memoir The Wolf of Baghdad will be published by Myriad Editions in January 2020.

For more information please see thewolfofbaghdad.wordpress.com