Films

Hope , Fraud, ....Freedom? The 2009 Iranian Election

By

Lynne Rogers

"The Green Wave"by filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi combines animation, film footage, interviews, and actual blog posts to record the “lost or silenced voices” of the Iranian 2009 elections. In the preceding years under Ahmadinejad, Iran had experienced numerous economic problems despite their lucrative oil revenues. As a result of the economic suffering,

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The Green Wave
By Ali Samadi Ahadi
Cinema Guild, 2011, 80 minutes

Wives in Tension

By

Rebecca Joubin

In this exemplary documentary film, women (both veiled and unveiled, religious and secular) discuss the presence of Islam and secularism in contemporary Turkish ...

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Women of Turkey: Between Islam and Secularism
A film by Olga Nakkas
Turkey/Lebanon
WMM, 2006

When "Honor" Becomes Murder

By

Rebecca Joubin

In this exemplary documentary film, women (both veiled and unveiled, religious and secular) discuss the presence of Islam and secularism in contemporary Turkish society, where it is common for educated urban women to choose to wear the hijab. Turkish-born and Lebanese-raised filmmaker Olga Nakkas combines historical footage with interviews of Turkish women with ...

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In the Name of the Family
A film by Shelley Saywell
WMM, Canada, 2010, 60 minutes

Shelley Saywell’s "In the Name of the Family"provides an in-depth investigation of “honor killings” of girls in Muslim immigrant families. The documentary tells the story of three North American teenagers (Aqsa Parvez along with sisters Amina and Sarah Said) and one college student (Fauzia Muhammad), who were all victims of honor killings by male members of their family. Fauzia Muhammad was the only one among them who survived.

Innocence Crushed

By

By Lynne Rogers

The Israeli and French filmmaker Simone Bitton has composed yet another powerful documentary with her new film "Rachel." The story begins with Rachel’s fellow activists reading excerpts from her personal journal five years after her death. Bitton’s camera dexterously shifts from the accounts of Rachel’s family, friends, and teachers, to those of the Palestinians living on the ...

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Rachel
By Simon Bitton
100 minutes, subtitles French, Hebrew and Arabic
Distributed by Women Make Movies, 2009

The Modesty of the Intellectual: Waiting For Abu Zayd

By

MICHAEL TEAGUE

Contemporary debates about the role of Islam in modern Middle-Eastern societies are often captive to the vocabulary of “moderate vs. extremist,” leaving little room for discussions that move beyond these black and white distinctions. Fortunately, Mohammed Ali Atassi’s recently released documentary about the late Egyptian “liberal” Islamic intellectual Dr. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd is a rare exception.

A Dangerous Business

By

Al Jadid Staff

In March 2007, Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo set out with his Afghan driver, Sayed Agha, and his ‘fixer,’ the 24 year old Ajmal Naqshbandi, to interview a “notorious one-legged Taliban commander.” Instead, the trio found themselves in a nightmare, ...

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi

Directed by Ian Olds

The Cinema Guild, 2009

Man As Nation

By

Al Jadid Staff

“Mustafa Kemal Ataturk” commences with images of Modern day Turkey, replete with contradictions and tensions between Islamists and secularists. Since September 11 Turkey has often been hailed as an example of a successful Middle Eastern democracy, ...

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: The Birth of a Republic

A Film by Séverine Labat, 2005

Icarus Films

A New Look at the Unchanging

By

Al Jadid Staff

“The Koran: The Origins of the Book” challenges the prevalent Muslim belief that the Koran has remained unchanged since it was revealed to the Prophet Mohammad between 610-632 AD. Director Bruno Ulmer commences by recounting...

The Koran: The Origins of the Book
A Film by Bruno Ulmer, 2009
ICARUS FILMS

The Cost of Feminism

By

Lynne Rogers

In the documentary, “Unveiled Views”, Muslim feminists with and without the veil, speak of their costly pursuance of art and freedom. In Turkey, the glamorous and tenacious Eren Keskin, a human rights attorney with a classically trained singing voice, ...

Unveiled Views: Muslim Women Artists Speak Out
Directed by Alba Sotorra
Women Make Movies, 2009

Life at the Wall

By

Al Jadid Staff

While most documentaries on the occupation of Palestine focus on the abuse of innocent civilians,”This Way Up,” winner of several awards including the 2008 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, takes an original and poignant view ...

This Way Up

Directed by Georgi Lazarevski

Icarus Films, 2008

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