Heavy Metal in Baghdad

Tonight, at the Alamo South Lamar, there's a free screening of a documentary about a Heavy Metal band in Iraq. Heavy Metal in Baghdad follows the boys in "Acrassicauda" through the heady days of post-Saddam, pre-insurgency life, when they thought that after years of repression, they might finally be able to Live the Rawk, and then chronicles the downturn of their dreams as their country falls to pieces. (Think the dancers in "Footloose" were oppressed? Think again!)

It sounds like directors Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi (two of the folks behind Vice Magazine) have avoided the typical "Behind the Music" trajectory of music docs, and shown that sometimes larger problems of society can affect bands just as much as drug use or petty jealousies. (Though maybe there's some drug use in here as well - can't promise there won't be.)