The
early years of Arab cinema
From the first Egyptian film in 1925
The new
Arab cinema
From the 1960s
onwards ... films with a social conscience
The
struggle to be seen
Censored films, exiled directors - and the problems of
reaching a mass audience
Arab cinema, past and present
A brief history by Professor Viola Shafik
Moroccan
cinema
History of the film industry in Morocco, with a guide to Moroccan films. Produced by the
Ministry of Information, but factual and interesting.
The
legacy of Salah Abu Seif, master of realism in Egyptian cinema
Ibrahim al-Aris
Al
Jadid magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15 (February 1997)
Father of neo-realism in Egyptian cinema passes away
With the death of Atef al-Tayeb, Egyptian cinema lost one of its prominent figures.
Al
Jadid magazine, Vol.1, No. 1, (December 1995).
Banned
film premieres 43 years late
Nicolas Tohme
Ila Ayn? - a film by George Nasr - was first shown
in Lebanon 43 years after it was made.
Daily Star (Beirut), 15 May 2001
INTERNET
MOVIE DATABASE
This is probably the most comprehensive
catalogue of Arab films. See country lists for titles
and links to directors, actors, locations, etc:
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Middle
East Filmography
The University of North Carolina claims to have the most comprehensive and diverse collection of
films and videos of the Middle East and Islamic world. More than 500 titles
are listed, with full credit annotation and a
brief commentary. The
collection covers a wide range of topics and genres:
documentaries on art and architecture, anthropological,
geographical and political studies, literary classics and feature
films.
Middle East
Video Collection
At the University of California-Berkeley. Covers ancient,
classical, contemporary, immigrants, culture to politics.
Arab Film Distribution, based
in the United States, probably has the largest selection of Arab films available via
the Internet. Videos may be purchased worldwide, using a credit card. This extensive
website includes a catalogue
with critical descriptions of the films, which are listed by title or
country of origin.
August Light Productions is another
US-based distributor of films from the Arab world. Website has
contact details only.
Films
about the Arab world
National Film Board of Canada. Includes documentaries.
Hollywood
Harems
Review of a documentary, written and produced by Tania
Kamal-Eldin, on Hollywood's perceptions and fantasies of Middle
Eastern women in films. (CafeArabica)
Filmmakers'
protestations fail to justify 'The Siege'
Judith Gabriel
Yet another American film portraying Arabs and Muslims as
fanatics, extremists, bombers and terrorists. Al
Jadid magazine, Vol. 4, No. 25
(Fall 1998)
The
'towel-heads' take on Hollywood
Rules of
Engagement is the latest in a long line of Hollywood
films portraying Arabs and Muslims as fanatics,
extremists, bombers and terrorists.
Black
Hawk Down
Ridley Scott's film about the 1993 American military fiasco in
Mogadishu. [Arab Media]
A
tentative qualification
Mustafa Darwish
Gannet al-Shayatin ("Fallen Angels' Paradise")
won seven of the 15 awards at the sixth National Festival for
Egyptian Cinema. But does the film deserve it? (al-Ahram
weekly, 6 July 2000)
Arab
Elsewhere
David Tresilian
Report on the 5th Biennale of Arab Cinemas in Paris (al-Ahram
weekly, 6 July 2000)
Comic
Twist for Cairo Film Festival
Janet Fine
On the 23rd Cairo International Film Festival, 24 November - 7 December, 1999. (Transnational Broadcasting Studies)
Beirut International Film Festival
The second annual festival has long since passed its view-by date, but this website, created specially for the
occasion in 1997, still gives a fair impression of the range and diversity of contemporary
Arab cinema.
Cinema
Novo
An annual festival held in
Brugge, Belgium (formerly called the Third World Film Festival).
The Centennial
of Arab Cinema
This event, in 1996, marked the largest presentation of Arab
films ever shown in the U.S.
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| "The
Arab cinemas are both the product and the expression of a long and unresolved struggle for
the control of the image, for the power to define identity. That identity is clearly
rooted in the crossroads of culture of the region, extending as it does between Europe and
Black Africa, between the Atlantic and the Arabian Gulf, but also between the city and
countryside and desert ... between a colonial past and a nominally independent
present." - film critic Mariam Rosen |
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| BOOKS
Arab Cinema:
History and Cultural Identity
Viola Shafik, 1999. Order from Amazon (US)
Reel
Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
by Jack G. Shaheen. Order from Amazon (US)
or
(UK)
Studies in the Arab Theatre and Cinema
Jacob M. Landau.
Order from Amazon (US)
Arab and African Film Making
Lizbeth Malkmus, Roy Armes, 1991. Order from Amazon (US)
or (UK)
VIDEOS World
Language offers
a range of Arabic films on video, for sale over the
internet.
YOUSSEF
CHAHINE
Chahine:
the great director
His life and his films [Channel Four television]
Chahine's
films
A complete
list of his works [Internet Movie Database]
Youssef Chahine
Notes about some of his films [Cornell University]
Youssef
Chahine Retrospective
New York Film Festival, 1998
Youssef
Chahine: biographical notes
New York Film Festival, 1998
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