Dear Faculty and Staff,
As a free part of the Teaching the Middle East Workshop on October 10 and 11, two evening films will be presented. Students are encouraged to attend. Consider whether your course work might be enriched by offering either film opportunity as an additional assignment. Descriptions follow.
Friday 7:30 JCLRC Clarkston T.V.'s Promised Land and News War excerpts;
Saturday 6:45 Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
T.V.'s Promised Land and clips from NEWS WAR
Disney's Aladdin, Indiana Jones.., Warner Brothers' cartoons of crazed Middle Eastern villains, international terrorists... These are America's pop culture depictions of Arabs and Muslims.
With T.V.'s Promised Land, director Nicholas Dembowski creates a clever montage of found footage from Hollywood movies, cable news networks, European news broadcasts, American Westerns, etc. The accumulated evidence powerfully asserts that Western media has long demonized a catch-all "Arab/Muslim world" via selective coverage and dehumanizing imagery that boosts the "good vs. evil" rhetoric of politicians and pundits. By offering no narration or other commentary of its own, T.V.'s Promised Land lets news outlets, Hollywood and politicians incriminate themselves.
News War examines the political cultural, legal and economic forces challenging the news media today and how the press has reacted. FRONTLINE traces the recent history of American journalism from the nixon administrations' attacks on the media to the post-WAtergate popularity of the press, to the challenges presented by the war on terror and other global forces now changing the role of a free press in our society.
Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?
Documentarian Morgan Spurlock rocketed to fame after daring to take on the fast food industry in the entertaining and much-lauded SUPERSIZE ME. For his follow-up, Spurlock wades back into controversial waters, and attempts something even more dangerous than a month of eating Big Macs: he decides to hunt down the globe's foremost terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. When the film opens, Spurlock has just learned that his wife, Alex, is pregnant. Using this news as a springboard, he decides he must hunt down the "world's most dangerous man" in order to guarantee the safety of his new child. Thus begins Spurlock's journey into some of the most wartorn and perilous places on the globe: Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. Spurlock travels from country to country, popping into mosques, fundamentalist Muslim schools, shantytowns, army bases, the Gaza strip, and the local mall, asking everyone along the way if they might know where he can find Osama. The provocative question never fails to elicit an interesting response, and Spurlock uses it to open up a dialogue about the people's feelings and attitudes toward America and the war on terror. Throughout the film, Spurlock comes across as one of the most genial fellows you could ever meet, and his good-natured charm goes a long way in getting interviews with people who might otherwise become hostile when smirkingly asked, "Where's Osama?" Some viewers might find fault with Spurlock's rather gimmicky, stunt man techniques, but others might enjoy his light approach to such a complex and heavy issue. While the film will undoubtedly spark a few heated debates, one thing is for certain: Spurlock does nice job of removing some of the mystery that surrounds the Middle East. He creates a very human portrait of the people, and reminds us that, at the end of the day, we are perhaps not so different.
Debra Denzer Center for International Education, Georgia Perimeter College
Alta Schwartz, Director of Outreach
The Middle East Institute
Georgia State University
Phone 404-413-6146
Fax 404-413-6141
Visit our web site:
http://www.gsu.edu/mideast
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