Looks like I'm going to have to miss tonight's showing of "High" Hitler - I forgot, the Dubai International Film Festival starts today!
The festival is really quite diverse, lots of American movies (For Your Consideration, World Trade Center, Fast Food Nation, Bobby) but then also lots of Indian and world movies, with a handful of local offerings.
What with the end of the semester, I'm only going to go see a couple of movies, sadly.
Tonight we're seeing what sounds like an interesting one - Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People.
Based on Dr. Jack Shaheen's best-selling book, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People examines the slanderous Arab stereotypes produced by America's dream factory for the past 100 years. Drawing on hundreds of derogatory images, from early silent films to blockbusters such as Back to the Future and True Lies, Dr. Shaheen identifies Hollywood's Arab caricatures: "over-sexed Bedouin bandits, submissive maidens, buffoons, barbarians and bloodthirsty terrorists." Since 9/11, there has been an ever greater need to counter this form of anti-Arab prejudice, and although pernicious celluloid images persist, Reel Bad Arabs also looks with guarded optimism at the more complex and compassionate depiction of Arab characters in several recent American films, including Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, and in Hany Abu-Assad's Oscar-winning Paradise Now, DIFF's Opening Night Gala Screening in 2005. Produced by America's Media Education Foundation, which promotes "critical reflection" on the varied global impact of American media, Reel Bad Arabs is a powerful and provocative documentary, which shares this section's goal of building cultural bridges.
I'm a little wary of this movie, honestly, in the blurb they've brought up Back to the Future and on the poster is a picture of the guard Razoul from Disney's Aladdin. Back to the Future and Aladdin are, far and away, two of my favorite motion pictures of all time.
And you know that they're not even going to talk about the sheikh from 1981's The Cannonball Run.
So we'll see.
If it's cool I'll tell you, apparently it's already available on DVD from the Media Education Foundation.
Then on Saturday we're going to check out Death of a President.
A discovery that had people queuing round the block at its recent Toronto International Film Festival premiere, no doubt on account of its subject matter, is a brilliant piece of film-making. Totally fictional in its story, but made utterly authentic by documentary clips, fake interviews and skilful digital effects, it presents us with an 'investigative documentary', set in an imagined near future, about the assassination of George W. Bush and the pursuit of the perpetrator. With a brilliantly convincing collage of actual documentary footage and equally convincing interviews with those involved, Death of a President takes us through the lead-up to the assassination during a protest outside a Chicago hotel. Almost inevitably, a Muslim is fingered for the killing, despite limited evidence. Only slowly is the true culprit revealed. The whole has a haunting sense of real possibility.
I've been psyched to see this since early September when I heard about it. Some of the reviews were mixed, I remember (Richard Corliss from Time was so-so, and I trust him quite a bit) but still, talk about a compelling movie to see while over here. |
