Dr. Waleed Mahdi’s book, Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation (Syracuse University Press) offers a comparative analysis of the portrayals of Arab Americans in film and interrogates how such representations have been, and continue to be, disrupted and challenged.
By approaching such cinematic representations a ... Show More
Nov 19
Dustin Condren, "An Imaginary Cinema: Sergei Eisenstein and the Unrealized Film" (Cornell UP, 2024)
An Imaginary Cinema: Sergei Eisenstein and the Unrealized Film (Cornell UP, 2024) explores the unfinished cinematic projects developed and abandoned by Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein between 1927 and 1937. Centred on seven major film concepts, the book examines what it means ... Show More
1h 7m
Nov 17
Lester D. Friedman, "Citizen Spielberg" (U of Illinois Press, 2022)
Steven Spielberg's extraordinary career redefined Hollywood, but his achievement goes far beyond shattered box office records. Rejecting the view of Spielberg as a Barnumesque purveyor of spectacle, Lester D. Friedman presents the filmmaker as a major artist who pairs an ongoing ... Show More
48m 48s
Nov 16
Christina Lane, "Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock" (Chicago Review Press, 2020)
A platinum beauty with an ugly secret; a tall, dark, and handsome husband with murder in his eyes; starkly lit interiors that may or may not include the silhouette of a rotund British gentleman…. This may sound like a catalog of images from the films of Alfred Hitchcock, but it i ... Show More
1h 1m
Dec 2020
Waleed F. Mahdi, "Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation" (Syracuse UP, 2020)
It comes as little surprise that Hollywood films have traditionally stereotyped Arab Americans, but how are Arab Americans portrayed in Arab films, and just as importantly, how are they portrayed in the works of Arab American filmmakers themselves?
In Arab Americans in Film: Fro ... Show More
1h 6m
Nov 2024
Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet | Alia Yunis
Discover cinema from the Gulf from its beginnings to the present day. Filmmaker Alia Yunis draws on her rich knowledge of the Arab Gulf’s cinema to give us a full picture of the scene's early days, its current state and what is anticipated for its future. Rejecting the widely hel ... Show More
58m 7s
Dec 2024
Firat Oruc | Petro-Documentaries & Colonial Anxiety Over Gulf Cinema
In this last episode in 3 Kawalis podcast special zooming in on cinema in the Gulf, Alia Younis hosts associate professor of Culture and Politics at Georgetown Qatar, Firat Oruc, to explore the history of cinema in the Arab Gulf region. Firat delves into the colonial emergence of ... Show More
52m 20s
Aug 7
Nezar AlSayyad and Heba Safey Eldeen, "Cinematic Cairo: Egyptian Urban Modernity from Reel to Real" (American U in Cairo Press, 2022)
The relationship between the city and cinema is formidable. The images and sounds of the city found in movies are perhaps the only experience that many people will have of cities they may never visit. Films influence the way we construct images of the world, and accordingly, in m ... Show More
1h 8m
May 2024
Hala Auji et al., "The Arab Nahda as Popular Entertainment: Mass Culture and Modernity in the Middle East" (I. B. Tauris, 2023)
What was popular entertainment like for everyday Arab societies in Middle Eastern cities during the long nineteenth century? In what ways did café culture, theatre, illustrated periodicals, cinema, cabarets, and festivals serve as key forms of popular entertainment for Arabic-spe ... Show More
41m 24s
Mar 2023
Beirut Street Culture on Film | Amin Dora
From Shankaboot to Brando Al Sharek, we talk with innovative Emmy-winning filmmaker Amin Dora about cinema, advertising, working with George Khabbaz, Shankaboot, Beirut, and where we are today in TV and Film in Lebanon.Amin Dora is an Emmy-Winning Film Director and Visual Artist ... Show More
1h 7m
Jul 2025
Maknana at DAF: Glossary of New Media Art From the Arab World | Ala Younis & Haytham Nawar
<p>Live from Diriyah Art Futures in Riyadh, we're joined by Haytham Nawar, the director of Diriyah Art Futures, and Ala Younis who co-curated its latest exhibition, which delves into the New Media Art scene in the Arab world. They explore the lack of recognition for Arab names in ... Show More
1h 2m