Films

Women of the Revolutions: The New Faces of Arab Feminism

Angele Ellis

“Nada’s Revolution” follows the tale of the 27-year Nada Ahmed, an Alexandrian woman looking to make decisions about marriage and career in the years after the revolutionary wave of the Arab Spring. In “Feminism Inshallah: A History of Arab Feminism,” Feriel Ben Mahmoud, the film’s director, traces the beginnings of feminism to male feminists such as the Egyptian Qasim Amin (1863-1908), whose nationalist aspirations for Egypt fueled his assertion that the Quran supported women’s rights—essential to throwing off the yoke of colonialism and joining the modern world.

Feminism Inshallah: A History of Arab Feminism
Directed by Feriel Ben Mahmoud
Women Make Movies, 2014

Nada’s Revolution
Directed by Claudia Lisboa
Women Make Movies, 2014

(Un) hyphenated Complexities?

Angele Ellis

The son of an Iraqi Muslim father and a Palestinian mother, Alshaibi immigrated to the United States as a child in the mid-1970s. Though he did not become a U.S. citizen until 2002, he is in many ways American – a lover of punk and metal music, a director of music videos, and the husband of a white Midwesterner. In his youth, he found solidarity with a group of American experimental filmmakers, musicians, and artists, and identifies himself as an atheist, who nonetheless feels respect for the “Mother Mosque” in Iowa City and its thoughtful imam....When his mother encourages him to change his name from Usama as part of his new citizenship, Alshaibi – who can be quite humorous – says, “At least now people know how to pronounce it.”

A Subtle Approach to Unmasking the Assad Regime

Bobby Gulshan

I struggled a bit to know what to say about PBS Frontline's “Inside Assad's Syria.” Searching the internet for reviews of the film, I found a rather uninteresting piece in a Hollywood business daily, as well as a blogger who felt that PBS had finally abandoned any pretext of truth in favor of outright propaganda in order to sell Assad to the American people. Clearly, they weren't paying attention to the fact that Smith registers his frustration throughout the program, wearing a purposefully tired expression while being carted along on an obvious pro-regime tour. Their inability to identify this clue made me wonder if the blogger and his approving commentators proved equally oblivious to the fact that Frontline obviously recognized the dog and pony show being provided by the regime, and could see just how easily people could fall for such tactics.

Gender Relations in ‘Women’s Jail’

Aisha K. Nasser

The fasting month of Ramadan is a time for celebration in the Muslim World. During the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset every day. Family gatherings in the evenings are marked with prayers, celebration, food, and television shows. Each year, networks produce a great number of television musalsalat (soap operas) especially for airing during the month of Ramadan, which represents the peak of soap opera production in the Arab world.

Films

Iran’s ‘Lost and Silent Voices’ of 2009 Elections Heard in Abadi Film

Lynne Rogers

"The Green Wave," by filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi, skillfully utilizes animation, blog posts, film footage, and interviews, to restore the “lost or silenced voices” of that ill-fated election.

The Green Wave
By Ali Samadi Ahadi
Cinema Guild, 2011, 80 minutes

Films

The Legacy of a Martyr

Paige Donnelly

The late Mohamed Bouazizi was a butterfly for Tunisia. In life, he went unnoticed by society’s radar. But in death, his small wings blew tremors throughout the Arab world; his self-immolation on December 17, 2010 was seismic for the region. His death epitomizes the butterfly effect.

Rouge Parole
Directed and written by Elyes Baccar
Cinema Guild, 2011, 94 minutes

.The late Mohamed Bouazizi was a butterfly for Tunisia. In life, he went unnoticed by society’s radar. But in death, his small wings blew tremors throughout the Arab world; his self-immolation on December 17, 2010 was seismic for the region. His death epitomizes the butterfly effect.

Films

Film Sheds New Light on ‘Assad Twilight

Salam Mir

Failed Promises: Film Sheds New Light on 'Assad Twilight’

Why did Bashar al-Assad fail to deliver the modern, liberal leadership he promised in 2000? What were the successes and failures of his father, Hafez al-Assad, whose bloodless 1970 coup launched a 30 year presidency? The Film, “Syria: The Assads’ Twilight”by directors Vincent de Cointet and Christophe Ayad, chronicles the rise of the regime, and its subsequent decline.

Right

Having won 97.3% of the vote, Bashar al-Assad was sworn President of Syria in July 2000, promising a modern liberal leadership. The following decade of the son’s rule proved to be as oppressive as that of the father, the directors reveal.

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Films

Genderless God and Pluralistic Islam Focus of New Film

Salam Mir

Film Redirects the Discussion: Pluralistic Islam and the Quran

How can we change negative perceptions in the West concerning Islam and Muslims? Philosopher-historian Fons Elder’s film, “Islam Unknown,” reviewed by Salam Mir, addresses this issue. In search for answers, Elder interviews eight respected, but unconventional Muslim intellectuals, on the War on Terror, nationalism, identity formation, “Otherness,” gender, sexual equality, and secularism.

Right

Elders additionally shows how both Reza Aslan and Anouar Majid take European and Muslim history into account when they tackle questions of identity and “Otherness.” Both scholars agree that in the early modern period Christian Europe defined itself in opposition to Islam.

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Films

Documentary Film Gives Voice to the Erotic Body

Kim Jensen

Joumana Haddad, Lebanese feminist, author, and poet, founded Jasad, the Arabic Journal of Erotic Arts, in order to advocate for the sexual liberation for the Arab World. In her film, “Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions” Amanda Homsi-Ottosson combines interviews with Haddad, Jasad journal contributors, and critics, as well as reactions from the street, and footage taken from the literary salons of Beirut, the Queen of Contradictions herself.

Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions
A film by Amanda Homsi-Ottosson
Women Make Movies, 2011, 40 minutes

Wives in Tension

Rebecca Joubin

In this exemplary documentary film, women (both veiled and unveiled, religious and secular) discuss the presence of Islam and secularism in contemporary Turkish ...

Women of Turkey: Between Islam and Secularism
A film by Olga Nakkas
Turkey/Lebanon
WMM, 2006

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