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Abdulaziz
(Part I Unity; Part II Building a Nation) (Saudi Arabia) 1999 45 min. each Directors: David W. Martyn and Anthony Wilkinson; Producer: McKinnon Films for King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives. Courtesy of the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives. Arabic with English narration and subtitles. Unity (Part I) tells the dramatic story of King Abdulaziz’s progress towards the unification of the Kingdom. With rare archive footage with dramatic reconstructions, this portion tells the story of battles, diplomacy and religious commitment to bring Saudi Arabia into the modern world. Building a Nation (Part II) is
a chronicle of the less well-known story of the work of King Abdulaziz in
building a modern state. Unification made it possible to develop water
supplies and western agriculture, educate his people for the future and to
exploit the country’s oil reserves. Rare archive footage shows the King
at work in his palace, presiding over the annual pilgrimage in Mecca and
with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. This first Israeli-Jordanian collaborated production
traces the journey of Abraham, father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
from the Iraqi desert to Arabia to Canaan. This story, told by Hisham
Yanis, Jordanian writer/actor and Alex Anski, Israeli actor/journalist, is
rich with quotations from the Torah and Qur’an set in the dramatic
scenic diversity of 8 different countries. Youth (#2) Filmmakers: Muriel Aboulrouse (Lebanon); Samia Chala (Algeria); Ali Bilail (Egypt). Each of four women are rebelling against the social boundaries imposed on them. In Lebanon, Nancy refuses to accept her mother’s dictum that she must stay at home until she marries. Sara is a star soccer player defying her family’s disapproval. When she kicks the winning goal for the Woman’s Egypt Cup, despite an injured leg, her family begins to understand her aspirations. Shahra and Linda are famous for their performances of rap in their Messenger Group, a poignant cry against the fundamentalist society. This film dispels any ideas that Arab women in these countries are all swaddled in black. Love and Marriage (#3) Filmmakers: Muriel Aboulrouse (Lebanon); Samia Chala (Algeria); Ali Bilail (Egypt). Leila, Muslim, and Fouad, Christian, believe they can make a happy life in an interfaith marriage, although society forbids this. Marita, a single woman in her 40s, mulls over her miserable life because societal rules forbid her to marry her loved one of another faith during the Lebanese Civil War. Beyond
Borders: Arab Feminists Talk About Their Lives
Tania Kamal-Eldin returns to Cairo after her father’s death to document on film the images of the Cairo of her childhood and the realities of Cairo today. Old-timers reminisce with memories blurred by time. Viewers are introduced to a Cairo rarely filmed with such loving yet clear-sighted intimacy. Closed
Doors “Closed Doors” is an intense film. Atef Hetata does not hesitate to confront the social and political turmoil of an adolescent living in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Cairo. Mohammad, failing in school, sexually awakening with guilty lust for his mother, is caught in a whirlpool of passion and frustration with fundamentalists beckoning with assurances that Islam is the answer. Daughters
of Allah Filmed on the West Bank and Gaza, this documentary penetrates a facet of Palestinian life that has hitherto been concealed. Includes interviews with militant, but heavily-veiled female activists, a group of young intellectuals from Birzeit University, also veiled; and a rural grandmother, who insists on her right to worship in her own way. Other women choose subterfuge or compromise in order to pursue their chosen careers. Finally, two sisters find pressures so unbearable that they flee. The
Day I Became a Woman DJOMEH This is tale of a gentle and lonely Afghan emigré who
fled to a mountainous corner of Iran because he had smirched his family’s
honor by courting a widow. Still eager for love, marriage, and village
acceptance, he falls in love with Setarah, a shopkeeper’s daughter. The
intricacy of the story revolves around Mr. Mahmoud, owner of the dairy
farm where Djomeh is a hired hand. Every day they ride together in Mr.
Mahmoud’s pickup truck. Every day they hold sparse conversation. Habib,
older kinsman and appointed guardian, becomes jealous. Throughout the
film, one feels the influence of his mentor, Kiarostami. The film ends
abruptly when Mr. Mahmoud returns from his go-between visit to Setarah’s
father. Yet the last few scenes leave the viewer with much to ponder. A
Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbès Good
Kurds, Bad Kurds IN
THE SHADOWS OF THE CITY Rami, a 12-year-old boy, is forced to leave his war-torn village in South Lebanon. In Beirut he finds a job in a café run by a warmhearted widow. When the civil war breaks out in the city, Rami’s musician friend is murdered and his best friend Yasmine left the neighbourhood. Twelve years later, Rami and his father are kidnapped near the frontline dividing Beirut. Rami escapes and joins the militia. He meets Siham, a woman, who is determined to find her missing husband… Islam Rising Series (In 5 Parts)— Hajj: The Pilgrimage (Part 1); Islamic Resurgence and Holy War: The Former Soviet Union and Indonesia (Part 2); Money: Man-Made or a Divine Gift from Allah? (Part 3); The Qur’an and the American Dream (Part 4); Which Way Next for Iran? (Part 5). Shown is an excerpt from: Part II: Islamic Resurgence and Holy War: The Former
Soviet Union and Indonesia Over the last decade, Islam is the fastest growing religion—so much so that today one in every five people on earth is a Muslim. With this resurgence has come an increase in friction between Muslims and non-Muslims. Segment one of this program focuses on four divinity school students from Tatarstan who dropped out to join the jihad in Chechnya. JagadAkeer
…between the near and east The
Life of Frank Iny: A Granddaughter’s Journey What started out as a project entitled, “The Last Jews
of Baghdad,” has grown into a three-part documentary, of which “The
Life of Frank Iny” is the first. Granddaughter Carole Basri investigates
the 200,000 strong flourishing Jewish community of Baghdad of the early
1900s as it dwindled to less than 50 today through the life of Frank Iny.
Includes archival footage and an authentic Iraqi sound track. This program goes behind the scenes at Al Jezeera, “the CNN of Arabia.” Dedicated to freedom of speech, Al Jezeera has earned the admiration of the West and the ire of the Arab nations—with the exception of Qatar, where the independent news agency is based. Includes interviews, clips of the highly controversial and extremely popular debate show, The Opposite Direction, and reportage covering the first democratic election in Qatar and an interview with Osama bin Laden. Mount
Nemrud: the Throne of the Gods A beautifully filmed documentary solves a 2,000-year-old mystery in a remote area in eastern Turkey, first excavated in 1882 and re-excavated by the first woman archaeologist in Turkey, Theresa Goell, in the 1950s. This academic puzzle is resolved by a combination of excavation and scholarly research. Mt. Nemrud was once considered the eighth wonder of the ancient world and shares certain characteristics with Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. My
Beard Forever A few minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing, major US
news networks reported that three Middle Eastern men were seen fleeing the
scene of the explosion. Fingers across the nation seemed to point at Arabs
and Arab-Americans. This film is a reminder of the ignorance of both the
general public and the media of the Middle East at the time of the
bombing. The film brings to light the plight of the thousands of Arabs and
Arab-American men living in the US who are stereotyped as Islamic
fundamentalists and terrorists. A good comparison to today’s efforts in
all the media to educate people about the Middle East and Islam. This film is an intriguing look at the questions that some Muslim women in the West ask themselves: what is Islam’s relationship to me and my relationship to it, as I live in the West? Rasool’s personal quest to answer these questions also introduces the viewer to the lives of several Muslim women (mostly non-Arab), including a convert and a Lebanese woman who is marrying an Indian Muslim. Rasool’s portraits are particularly striking, accompanied by visually compelling images of everyday Muslim life. While this is not an introductory guide to Muslim women, it is an important film that shows how they reconcile and interpret the requirements of their faith within the boundaries of Western culture. My
Mother’s Home, Lagoon Together with her semi-invalid 100-year-old mother, 67-year old Kufra lives in a ramshackle cottage at the edge of the lagoon, eking out a meagre living by fishing. Pictures of their loved ones, a Qur’an and a radio tuned to the voice of a mullah mean home. In every sort of weather, Kufra goes out in her rowboat to pull in her nets and count her catch. She fights with fishermen over her territorial rights, bargains at the market for the best price so that she can buy the mirror and other symbols needed to celebrate No Ruz properly for her mother. Kufra represents all that is feisty, compassionate and loving. Naguib
Mahfouz: the Passage of the Century Director: Francka Mouloudi; Producer: Patrice Barrat for Le Sept Arte and Article Z. Courtesy of First Run Icarus Films. In 1988, Naguib Mahfouz was awarded a Nobel Prize in
Literature, or as a friend put it “Egypt was awarded a Nobel Prize and
world recognition.” Now at 88, half-blind, deaf and crippled by a recent
assassination attempt, Mahfouz is still the insouciant, sage writer who
has captured the very soul of everyday old Cairo. This film is a
brilliantly woven tapestry of interviews with Mahfouz, reminiscences by
his friends, scenes of his beloved quarter in old Cairo, clips from his
movies and a canny selection of his many aphorisms. “The present is a
light which flickers between the shadows—those of the past, those of the
future.” This exuberant film shows Algerian immigrants in Paris, the clash of popular culture and fundamental religious beliefs. With comedic elements, this film showcases the infectious, rhythmic “Rai” music. There is always something going on in Arabica, a rundown district on the outskirts of Paris named after a broken advertising sign. The mayor, who is running for reelection, wants things to quiet down and strikes a deal with two small-time crooks converted for the occasion into pseudo-imams. Starring the internationally renown Rai singers, Rachid Khaled and Cheb Mami (of “Sting” fame). Runaway SEPTEMBER 11 SPOT PROJECT La Goulette is a small harbor town on the edge of Tunis
where various populations have always lived together amicably. Rightly
billed as a comedy about tolerance, the plot of La Goulette revolves
around three longtime close friends, a Muslim, a Jew and a Catholic, and
their three teenage daughters, also inseparable. The girls as an
adolescent caper, solemnly vow to lose their virginity by mid-August. When
each girl fancies a boy of a different religion, and the families get some
news of what is going on—a fine tangle is to be unraveled. Taliban
Legacy The title is apt: a journalistic historical summary and contemporary overview of the brutal Taliban regime under its rigid and oppressive interpretation of Islam. Note that the Catalan film crew was able to visit and film areas forbidden to many other western nationalities. The plight of Afghans within the country and the more than two million in refugee camps in Pakistan is vividly recorded. The destruction of the two ancient statues of Buddha is horrible to watch. The filmed evidence of the current daily desperate surge of thousands of Afghans across borders to Pakistan is equally troubling. Ta’zieh
in Another Narration Ta’zieh, one of the oldest theatrical traditions in Iran, chronicles the events on the desert at Karbala leading up to the killing of Husayn in 680 CE in the month of Muharram. This dramatized Shi’a passion play, presented every year throughout the country, is marked by the emotional interaction of actors and an actively mourning audience. Scholarly discussion and commentary is enlivened by scenes of a typical Ta’zieh performance in a rural village in Mazandran province in northern Iran. Thirsting for
War Under
One Sky: Arab Women in North America Talk About the Hijab Part I Arabs Make Their Entrance: Islam and the Empire. This episode, beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire and rivalry between the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires, follows through to the dual role of Mecca as a place of religion and a center for trade. The august authority Maxime Rodinson explains the reasons why Muhammand’s recital of the Word of God, dictated to him by Gabriel, were so appealing, and why the spread of Islam was so rapid. Part V The Muslim Town: Urban Life under the Caliphate. As an historical, architectural, cultural commentary about many of the major cities of the Islamic heartland, this becomes a study of space, light, tradition, adaptation to the environment, as well as the omnipresent sense of proportion and beauty. Art historians explain various aspects of mosques and souks, and add the responsibilities of the professional classes. The French, Spanish and Arabic spoken at times is well subtitled. The
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DISTRIBUTORS Access Productions PO Box 91641 Santa Barbara, CA 93190 tel/fax: 805 966-9770 kevinmck@silcom.com www.kevinmckiernan.com
American Kurdish Information Network
(AKIN) Center for Armenian Studies D-Squared Media Films for the Humanities & Sciences First Run Icarus Films HerWay Productions
International Film and Video Center BAHMAN
KIAROSTAMI King Abdulaziz Foundation for
Research and Archives
P.O. Box 48764
Los Angeles CA 90048
323 656-2749
Landmark Media New Yorker Films Nour Productions University of North Carolina Olive
Branch Productions Women Make Movies
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The
following films were screened at the MESA 2001 annual meeting. The list of distributors follows the film
listings.