A conference including documentary and feature screenings, panels and symposium, organized by Levantine Cultural Center and the University of California, Irvine, the Middle East Studies Student Initiative (MESSI). Cosponsored by the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies/UCI, American Friends Service Committee, LA Jews for Peace and supported by Diane and Jeanette Shammas, Lawrence Joseph, Kanan Hamzeh, Casey Kasem, Bana Hilal, Asad Farah and the Salaam-Shalom Educational Foundation.
UC Irvine Student CenterThis conference takes place at the UC Irvine Student Center in the Crystal Cove Auditorium and Pacific Ballroom. [Map].
This panel discussion and lecture series, sponsored by The Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore the landscape of American Middle Eastern ethnic comedy and its intricate relationship with Islamophobia.
Panel Members: Mucahit Bilici (Professor of Sociology at John Jay College-CUNY), Jordan Elgrably (Founder of Levantine Cultural Center, and the Sultans of Satire: Middle East Comic Relief) and Rahim Armat (of Kodoom.com, Cultural Events Search Engine).
Roles for Arab/Muslim Actors in Film and TelevisionEven as the United States finds itself increasing enmeshed in the Arab/Muslim world politically, Hollywood exports a great deal of film and television programs watched in the Middle East. We are indeed the dominant cultural force in many Arab/Muslim countries. Meanwhile, Americans are finding more and more Arab/Muslim characters in their film and TV programming…
Read Andrew Gumbel's L.A. Weekly feature, Arab Adventures in Hollywood.
INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR SHORT FILMS
Short-shorts and shorts: docs and features: 1m-15ms
After decades of war in the post-colonial Middle East, statesmen and women of the region—particularly the battle-fatigued Israelis-have finally understood something about war and peace that most of us have known all along: there is no military solution to our problems. Lines will be drawn and peace will be achieved through negotiated agreements—or there will be no lasting peace for anyone...
The artwork for the New LATC's "Jihad Jones" productionWhether or not Arabs and Arab Americans are represented in their genuine diversity in Hollywood films and television remains an open question—one which author Jack Shaheen, to be sure, has addressed in his book (and eponymous documentary) Reel Bad Arabs. As well, a number of recent forums in Los Angeles have looked at just how Arabs/Muslims are depicted in film/TV. [Levanine Cultural Center, SAG and MPAC will present a roundtable on the topic in January 2009, “Broadening the Scope, Roles for Arab/Muslim Actors in Film/TV”; we invite you to stay tuned or sign up to receive our email blasts.]
By Yussef El-Guindi
I’ve come to the decision that I don’t much care to be an Arab anymore. No, I don’t think I do. I think I’m going to disintegrate this whole contraption of race consciousness, this accident of time and place that had me born in a particular area (an undemocratic a process, I must say, being born.—I do hope that with the development of genetic engineering that some way may be found to allow the budding citizen to opt out or request a transfer); with the resultant effect that being born an Arab I find myself continually having to juggle pride—that sniveling little pride with all its hoarding tendencies—and abject states of humiliation; and doing so with the regular, and annoying, certainty of a person droning on and on about one complaint after another until you think the only solution for the person is to just lie down and die.
"You need balls to be an Arab these days."