Audio/Visual Lending Library Film Descriptions

• 500 Dunam on the Moon (2002, color, 48 min, Arabic, Hebrew, and French with English subtitles, VHS & DVD). Ayn Hawd is a Palestinian village that was captured and depopulated by Israeli forces in the 1948 war. In 1953 Marcel Janco, a Romanian painter and a founder of the Dada movement, helped transform the village into a Jewish artists' colony, and renamed it Ein Hod. This documentary tells the story of the village's original inhabitants, who, after expulsion, settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills. This new Ayn Hawd cannot be found on official maps, as Israeli law doesn't recognize it, and its residents, deemed "present absentees" by the authorities, do not receive basic services such as water, electricity or an access road. Rachel Leah Jones' filmmaking debut is a critical look at the art of dispossession and the creativity of the dispossessed.
   
• Abouna (Chad, 2002, 84 minutes, Chad Arabic and French with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. Eight-year-old Amine and fifteen-year-old Tahir's world is shattered when they awake one morning to find that their father has deserted them and their mother. The brothers leave their poor Chad village and head for the Cameroon border to begin their journey in search of him. Soon after, they are stunned to see what they believe to be an image of their father onscreen at a local movie house. After getting caught for stealing the reel of film, their weary mother sends them away to a Koran school to learn discipline. All the while, Amine and Tahir are determined to escape and continue their search in this devastatingly powerful, magnificently photographed drama from director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. A triumphant follow-up to his international award-winning Bye Bye Africa.
   
• About Baghdad (Iraq, 2004, color, 90 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Bassam Haddad. In July of 2003, exiled writer and poet, Sinaan Antoon, returned to his native Baghdad with a team of independent filmmakers, artists, and poets to document the effects that decades of oppression, war, sanctions, and occupation have had on his city. The result is a fascinating mosaic of opinions, perspectives, desires, and memories that offers a picture far more complex than the limited one presented by mainstream US media. About Baghdad pays tribute to the brave people Baghdad as they struggle to come to terms with the tragic fate of their beloved city.
   
• About the Jews of Yemen: A Vanishing Culture (1986, color, 77 min, English, VHS). Directed by Johanna Spector. During their 2000 year long sojourn in Yemen, Jews developed special traditions, customs, ceremonies, art, music, and dance. Dr. Johanna Spector's stunning documentary captures this rich culture as it is practiced today in modern Israel. The film includes beautiful footage of traditional Yemenite celebrations, culminating in the magnificent pre-wedding ceremony of a young bride.
   
• ADC 11th National Convention: Toujan Al-Faisal (VHS) -- No Description Available.
   
• Adliye -- The Ethnography of a Turkish Law Court (1985, color, English, VHS). Directed by June Starr.Good research film. Discussion of the law court accompanies footage of the law court but without people. Better suited to viewing for research than for the classroom.
   
• Adrift on the Nile (1971, black and white, 115 min, Arabic with English and French subtitles, VHS). Directed by Hussein Kamal -- Based on the novel by the Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, this 1971 production offers a revealing look at the Egyptian elite on the eve of the 1967 War. By this time, Nasser had ushered in an age of enormous social change, leaving the sons and daughters of the old bourgeoisie high and dry. Arabic with English and French subtitles.
   
• The Advocates (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Afghan Nomads: The Maldar (VHS, 1974, 21 min, color, 16mm, Study Guide). This film portrays interactions between nomadic pastoralist and townspeople (part of the Afghanistan Faces of Change Series)
   
• Afghan Village (1974, 45 min, color, VHS, Study Guide). View of daily life in a northern village of Afghanistan. (part of the Afghanistan Faces of Change Series)
   
• Afghan Women (1974, 45 min, color, VHS, Study Guide). Activities of a group of women in northern Afghanistan. (part of the Afghanistan Faces of Change Series)
   
• Afghanistan: The Unconquered Spirit (60 min, English, VHS). Produced by the BBC as an overview of both recent and earlier attempts to defend Afghanistan from outside British and Russian control.
   
• Alexandria, Why? (1978, 133 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). The first film in Chahine's autobiographical Alexandria trilogy, Alexandria, Why? was a (widely banned) revelation in Arab cinema for its use of first-person narrative and for testing boundaries of cultural identity. In 1942, as Rommel's army nears Alexandria, some cheer the victors, Jews prepare to flee, and a vengeful aristocrat buys British soldiers to seduce and kill them--until he falls in love with one young captive. A young student (Chahine's avatar) adores Shakespeare and Hollywood, dreaming of studying filmmaking in the USA, but as he discovers the lies of European occupation and Americanization, and experiences a sexual awakening, he profoundly reevaluates his identity and allegiances.
   
• Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (Morocco, 2003, color, 98 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Nabil Ayouch. Ali, Kwita, Omar, and Boukber are a group of street urchins living on the hard streets of Casablanca. Their lives are filled with violence, begging, and indifference. The bond of friendship and family that the boys create between themselves is challenged when Ali is senselessly killed at the beginning of the film. Not wanting him to be buried in a potter’s field if they report his death to the police, the boys decide to give Ali a proper burial on the private island he often dreamed of. Ali Zaoua captures the power of dreams and presence of hope despite the harsh circumstances.
   
• All Colors of the World (Dunyanin Tum Renkleri) (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Amazing Grace (Israel, 95 min, 1993, VHS). Eighteen years old Jonathan leaves the home of his "refugee from the sixties" mother to live with his friend Mickey. But Mickey, a handsome, arrogant, bed-hopping youth is hardly ever at the apartment. Jonathan then meets Thomas who has returned to Israel after many years in New York. Thomas believes he has HIV, but he is hiding this fact. Thomas and Jonathan develop a hesitant relationship. Jonathan placed all his hope for happiness in his new friend. Thomas, distant and secretive, knows that their relationship is necessarily transient.
   
• American Muslim Teens Talk (USA, 2004, color, 30 min, English). Made in conjunction with the television programs PBS Frontline: Muslims & Muhammed: Legacy of a Prophet. Thrust into the media spotlight post-9/11, Muslim teenagers have faced suspicion and often, intolerance. This video features nine teens in a first-person look at modern Muslim-American youth who illustrate the diversity that is Islam: African-American, American Caucasian, Middle Eastern, from the Asian Subcontinent and Africa.
   
• Ancient and Modern: The Fall and Rise of the Middle East (1984, color, 24 min, VHS). This film probes the question: "Why did the Middle East begin to decline just as the Renaissance in Europe began?"
   
• Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa (color, 13 min, VHS). This short film traces the rise and fall of the Ancient Nubian Kingdom and civilization, its role as a crossroads for trade between Africa and Egypt, and its shifting power locus down the River Nile.
   
• Al-Andalus (1992, color, 57 min, VHS). Directed by Agusti Villaronga. This program is based on the 1992 exhibition "Al- Andalus, Islamic Art in Spain", held in Granada and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It depicts the artistic and cultural achievements of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghrib in the years 711 to 1492. This Islamic heritage is presented by Mohammed, a learned man of the Nazari court, providing a retrospective account staged on the eve of Granada's conquest. His story takes us to the Cordoba of Caliph Abd-el-Raman III. Taifa's kingdom in Saragossa, Almohade Marrakesh and the Granada of the Nazari. The program is a joint production of Sogetel, S.A., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
   
• Apple (Iran, color, 85 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf. This is the winning film debut by the great Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's daughter, Samira Makhmalbaf, who was 17 years old when she made this film. The Apple tells the true story, using the actual people who lived this tale, of two 12 year-old twin girls in Tehran - Zahra and Massoumeh, who have been confined to their home all their life. Their mother is blind and their father is a strict religious man who is concerned about their honor should they be left on their own or subjected to the sinful influences of the outside world while he is out of the house. Consequently the girls have been locked in their home for twelve years, live unbathed, can scarcely walk, and can only speak in inarticulate grunts. The neighbors, concerned at the situation, inform the health and welfare authorities who examine the situation and warn the man that the girls will be taken into care if their circumstances do not improve. When the social worker returns to check on the girls however, she finds them once again locked-up by their father. Even when freed, the girls are initially unable to function in a world they have no conception of and return to the only place they are familiar with – their backyard. The social worker needs to employ stronger measures to ensure their freedom and development.
   
• Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land (1989, color, 120 min, VHS, Study Guide). Directed by Robert Gardner. A 2 hour PBS special based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same title by David Shipler. The program looks at (1) history and claims to the land, (2) war, terrorism and military occupation, (3) stereotypes and prejudice, and (4) attempts to overcome bigotry and teach tolerance.
   
• The Arab Gulf States (2002, color, 50 min, VHS). Traveler Megan McCormick visits 3 of the 6 Arab Gulf States. She starts her journey in the battle scarred Kuwait traveling onto the U.A.E., visiting glittering Dubai and the oil industry capital Abu Dhabi. She ends her journey in biblical Oman in search of Frankincense and the Empty Quarter, one of the last great wildernesses on earth.
   
• Arab Stereotypes, Part One - RKO's Aesop's Fables: Gypped in Egypt (USA/UK, 1998, 44 mins, Engish and silent with English title cards, VHS).
   
• Arab Stereotypes, Part Three - George Melies: Palace of the Arabian Nights (USA/UK, 1998, 58 mins, English and silent with English title cards, VHS). These videos feature a collection of documentary films, cartoons, and early silent era films that provide examples of some of the extreme stereotypes of the Arab world that were common in western media and entertainment during the first half of the twentieth century.
   
• Arab Women at Work (27 min, VHS). This is an excellent film for breaking down visual stereotypes of Arab Women. This tape is from a conference on development in the Arab World, and includes interviews with participants in the conference.
   
• Arabia: The Quest from the Past (60 min, color, VHS). This film reviews the ancient and modern history of the Arabian Peninsula. Distributed by the Saudi Cultural Mission.
   
• Arabs in America (1981, color, 28 min, VHS). This film provides an overview of the history of Arab immigration to Arab immigration to America.
   
• Arabs, Muslims, and Islam (USA, 2004, color, 40 min, English, VHS). Part of the Teacher's Discovery series. "Suddenly, we needed to know. We needed to know the human face of one billion real Muslims. Not the Muslims of documentaries, or of TV news, but the everyday people. Seven of us entered the Muslim world with just 23 days to complete this film. We had no script. We were strangers arriving with no introductions. The families had never heard of us hours before filming. They opened their homes to us. This is what we found.
   
• The Arabs Now (1985, color, 50 min, English, VHS). Directed by Basim Musallam. Part 10 of the 10 part series "The Arabs: A Living History" which explores Arab history, culture and society from within and through the lives and opinions of Arabs today. The series portrays a unique document of Arab life and thought. It offers an unvarnished view of the Arab people; which attempts to be accurate in execution as well as intentions. In this series, it's the Arabs themselves who lead the camera into the lives of their fellow-Arabs today- into the powerful sense of deep and recent history that still affects those lives. This episode explores issues of political revolution, labor migration and education in the Middle East in the context of increasing globalization.
   
• Aramco at Fifty (color, 60 min, VHS ). This film traces the Arab American oil Company from the first team of engineers and researchers that braved the Saudi desert in search of oil in the mid 1930's, to the current processes and technological advances of the modern-day oil industry in Saudi Arabia. Produced by Aramco.
   
• Art and the Islamic World (1993, color, 33 min, VHS). This film was directed and produced by Art Historian, Walter Demney, for the Middle East Institute. It is an excellent survey of Islamic art - calligraphy, architecture, ceramics, metalwork, miniature painting, scientific drawings of plants, water clocks, and fountains.
   
• Art of the Book: Persian Miniatures from the Shahnameh (1975, color, 30 min, VHS). This film provides an overview of three centuries of Shahnameh painting. An example of oral recitation from coffeehouse is included.
   
• Atalia: War Widow (Israel, 1985, color, 90 min, Hebrew with English Subtitles, VHS). Directed by Akiva Tevet. 1973. Israel on the eve of war. On an agricultural kibbutz, two young men, Ofer and Mati, join a crack unit of the army. In their tightly-knit community, Ofer's girlfriend reaches out to her "adopted" Kibbutz mother, Atalia. Atalia, widowed in a war twenty years earlier, has never recovered from the sense of abandonment and alienation her loss caused her. Defiant, she loves the men of the kibbutz who use her, breeding jealous hatred among their women who perceive her as a threat. Meanwhile, to his disappointment, 18-year old Mati is rejected by their small community for health reasons from the serving in the army, just as Atalia is rejected by their small community for her social rebelliousness. In their loneliness, sharing a sense of rejection and abandonment, 40-year old Atalia and Mati find each other. With the war as a tragic background, their passion for each other grows, scandal erupts and tempers flare around them. Yet, their burning love for each other gives them the strength to escape the society which, without pity, excludes them.
   
• Atatürk (1998, 2 40 min segments, English, VHS). Directed by Tolga Ornek. This documentary about the life and career of Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, intersperses interviews along with archival footage of World War I, the Turkish War of Independence, and Atatürk's fifteen years as president of Turkey until his death in 1938. The passion of both Atatürk's public and private life, as a single parent to six adopted daughters, a loyal friend and a leader of critical international importance, is reflected in part through his private collection of books, memoirs, and photographs. Interviews with scholarly and military experts give insights into Atatürk as a military and political leader, exploring issues of his personal psychology and motivations. This is an excellent and original piece of work by Turkish filmmaker, Tolga Ornek and has received critical acclaim.
   
• Bab El Oued City (1994, 93 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Merzak Allouache. Boualem is a young man who works the local bakery's graveyard shift in the Bab El-Oued district of Algiers. One morning, shortly after the bloody riots of October, 1988, he commits an unthinking act which jeopardizes the entire district: Unable to stand the noise from one of the many rooftop loudspeakers broadcasting the propaganda of a local fundamentalist group, he rips the speaker out and throws it away. The extremists, led by Said, regard this act as deliberately provocative and aim to make an example of the culprit.
   
• Bahrain - Gateway to the Gulf (20 min, color, VHS). This video provides a brief overview of Bahrain.
   
• Bahrain - The Pearl of the Arabian Gulf (23 min, color, VHS). This is a tourist’s introduction to Bahrain. Nonetheless it is a good portrayal of the rich archaeological past, the geographical setting in the Persian Gulf and current activities on the island.
   
• Bahrain National Museum (18 min, color, VHS). The Bahrain Museum is a spectacular museum with excellent archeological, natural history and cultural exhibits, and this video gives you a brief love of these treasures. Best of the Bahrain videos - but the others give the flavor of the island today.
   
• Baran (1999, color, 96 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Majid Majidi. In a Tehran building site, a 17-year-old Iranian named Lateef is known for more than his playful antics than his hard work. Then things take an unexpected turn when an Afghan coworker falls from the building and the worker's son, Rahmat, enters the scene to become the new provider for his family. But even as Lateef finds himself irreversibly drawn to Rahmat, it's not until the revelation of Rahmats's secret (that he is actually a young woman, posing as a man) that both of their lives are forever changed.
   
• Bashu, The Little Stranger (1986, color, 120 min, Persian, VHS). Directed by Bahram Beizai. A film by Persian director, Bahram Beizai, Bashu is the story of the touching relationship between a lost boy and a war widow, set against the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war. Despite differences in nationality, language and culture, it is a shared commitment to kindness and compassion that helps these two to form the alliance that alludes their respective nations. Starring Sussan Taslimi and Adnan Afravian.
   
• The Battle of Algiers (1966, black and white, 121 min, French and Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Gillo Pontecarvo. Gillo Pontecarvo's The Battle of Algiers (La bataille d'Alger) vividly recreates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafes, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. This special edition set includes two bonus DVDs that include "Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth," a documentary narrated by Edward Said; a documentary on the making of The Battle of Algiers; "Five Directors," a documentary where Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone talk about the film's influence; "Remembering History," a documentary that reconstructs the Algerian experience during the battle for independence; "Etats d'armes," a documentary featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the rebellion; "The Battle of Algiers: A Case Study," with Richard Clarke, former nation counterterrorism coordinator; "Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers," a documentary in which the filmmaker revisits the Algerian people after three decades of independence.
   
• Beggars and Noblemen (1991, 92 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). The setting is Cairo, June 1945. Gohar, a former university professor, encounters a young prostitute an empty brothel and kills her in a moment of insanity. Assigned to the case, police inspector Nour El-Din stays on Gohar's trail hoping for a confrontation and a confession of the crime. In this remarkable adaptation of the novel by Albert Cossery, both the detective and the criminal are faced with startling realizations as one closes in on the other.
   
• Benaat Chicago (Daughters of Chicago) (1996, color, 30 min, English, VHS). Directed by Jennifer Bing-Camar and Mary Zerkel -- Arab-American teenage girls on the southwest side of Chicago discuss their lives and communities.
   
• Bent Familia (Tunisia, 1997, color, 105 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Nouri Bouzid. Aida and Amina are old friends who, now in their early thirties, have re-connected after a long separation. Their reunion provides an opportunity to examine their lives and relationships. Amina appears to be happily married while Aida has chosen divorce but still takes in male callers. Their friendship with the ambitious Fatiha, an Algerian refugee living in Tunisia, sparks a desire in the two friends to work at overcoming their respective societal limitations. While Fatiha is on the threshold of a new life in Europe, Amina searches for the strength to stand up to her overbearing husband. Relying on each others’ strength and energy, the three friends take charge of their lives in this moving examination of the power and beauty of friendship between women. “A sort of Tunisian A Doll’s House.” – Mark Harris, Vancouver International Film Festival.
   
• Berlin Jerusalem (1989, 85 min, DVD). Directed by Amos Gitai. This moving drama of the birth of Israel focuses on two women - Else Lasker-Schuler, a German poet, and Tania Shohat, a Russian revolutionary. They meet first in Berlin, where utopian ideals and fear of the Nazis force their escape to Palestine. Re-united in Jerusalem, they confront a harsh reality in the city idealized in their dreams.
   
• Between Two Worlds (1985, color, 50 min, VHS). This film by Abdullah Hammoudi portrays the manners, beliefs and ideas which Arabs share today, set against the image of the Arabs' unique medieval society. The film explores the life of a man from Fez, Morocco from his traditional childhood to a diplomatic career. Part 9 of 10 from The Arabs--A Living History Series.
   
• Blackboards (2003, 85 min, Kurdish with English subtitles, DVD). A group of male teachers cross the mountainous paths of the remote Iranian Kurdistan region. They wander from village to village in search of students, carrying large blackboards on their backs, sometimes using them as shelter, camouflage and as shields for gunfire. One teacher ventures away from the group and meets up with a group of young boys who are carrying contraband across the border. Another teacher comes upon a group of old refugees who want to return to their village in Kurdistan, which was chemically attacked by the Iraqis. The teachers must also face other hardships and obstacles along the way, including unseen enemy helicopters and gunfire. Samira Makhmalbaf's award-winning film is a visually powerful and compelling depiction of a group of people who must battle for survival every day of their lives.
   
• Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (2003, 94 min, DVD) - Directed by Shemi Zarhin. Shlomi takes care of everyone. He feeds his grandfather, bathes him and listens to his fictitious stories from World War II. He reminds his older brother to take his medication on time and intently listens to his pornographic thoughts. He calms his quick-tempered mother and mediates between her and his hypochondriac father who was thrown out of the house after cheating on her. He looks after his older sister`s twins and makes sure she keeps going back to her husband who can`t tell between the identical babies. And most of all, Shlomi makes sure to make everyone happy by cooking their favorite dishes. Shlomi knows – they’ll eat and calm down. Because his home is a battlefield and Shlomi runs around between everyone, making peace. But no one in the family really sees Shlomi. Even Shlomi doesn`t see Shlomi. Until one day a routine math test arouses the suspicions of Shlomi`s math teacher and school principal. After meeting and talking with him, they realize that a very unique personality is hiding behind this neglected and dormant boy. With their help and the help of Rona the gardener with whom he falls head over heels in love, Shlomi discovers himself.
   
• The Bride Market of Imilchil (Morocco, 1988, 58 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Steffen and Christian Pierce. For three days each September men and women gather in front of the Imilchil shrine, choose mates, and marry in a nearby tent. The uniqueness of the tradition has become so popular that even the Moroccan government itself promotes the ritual as a tourist attraction. Beautifully capturing the essence of the Bride Market, this film questions the presence of Western observers, including the filmmakers themselves. It also challenges our views on relationships and moral structures between Arabs and Westerners.
   
• Broken Wings (2002, 82 min, DVD). Directed by Nir Bergman. This is a realistic drama that takes place in a middle-class Israeli neighborhood and involves the Ulman family - Dafna and her four children. The father has recently died under trivial circumstances and his death has left the family hurting, and in economic straits. It is the beginning of September, the first day of school. In most families this occasion generates excitement; for the Ulmans it produces one crisis after the other. As the day starts their stories develop and intertwine. The five-year-old girl suffers from feelings of abandonment, the ten-year-old boy tries to break the world record in the free jump (into an empty swimming pool), the teenage boy has quit school and works handing out flyers disguised as a mouse. The two women try to function as mothers. One of them, however, is herself only 17 years old.
   
• The Broken Wings (1962, 90 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Lebanese artist/poet Khalil Gibran reveals the same artistry and wisdom that have enshrined his name in the hearts of millions. With great sensitivity and lyricism, Gibran describes his youthful passion for his first love, Selma Karamy, the beautiful girl from Beirut. But theirs was a love doomed from the beginning: Social conventions and family tensions eventually force Selma to marry another man. American audiences got their first taste of this sensitive adaptation in the late sixties. Since then, all film prints were lost or destroyed ... only to be recovered recently in a church in Beirut. A film of great historical and artistic value.
   
• Brothers and Others (US, 2002, color, 54 min, English, DVD). Directed by Nicolas Rossier. The atrocities witnessed by the world on September 11th were hateful acts committed by terrorists who choose to view their victims not as human beings but as symbols of a perceived evil. By jailing thousands of Arabs and Muslims without evidence or due process, is the Patriot Act perpetuating the cycle of hate and ignorance which claimed so many innocent lives? Brothers and Others chronicles the impact of 9/11 on Muslims and Arabs in America. We follow immigrants and Americans as they struggle in the heightened climate of hate, FBI and INS investigations, and the economic hardships that erupted following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
   
• Building a Nation (1985, color, 50 min, VHS). Since its independence in 1962, Algeria has been in the process of industrialization. This film discusses the effect of industrialization upon a traditional farm and peasant-based economy and upon the quality of day to day life as services and facilities have tried to keep pace with the rush to the cities. Part 8 of 10 from The Arabs: A Living History Series.
   
• Cairo: 1001 Years of Art and Architecture (VHS). This video series, in four parts, takes the viewer into the environs and actual space and sound of the great heritage of Islamic art and architecture in Cairo. Previewed at the annual MESA Convention in November 1999, this is a wonderful scholarly overview and experience of medieval Cairo. The overview is accompanied by three sections of extensive historic and artistic detail, suitable for art history, related coursework, and academic research of individual mosques and buildings.
   
• Cairo: The City Victorious (1983, color, 55 min, VHS). Lured by the prospect of a better and more exciting life in Cairo, a young man leaves the village. Through his life we see the struggle and hopes of villagers and city workers.
   
• Camondo Han (2005, Turkey, 35 min, English and Turkish with English subtitles, DVD)
  Director Peter Clasen documents Camondo Han, a battered and neglected apartment building in Galata which was one of Istanbul’s architectural treasures. The tragic history of its Jewish owners and waves of social change it has witnessed are brought to life by the experiences of the locals, who reflect all aspects of contemporary Turkish life. Dr. Oktem of Oxford University raves, “A thrilling visual anthropology, bringing to life the complex fabric of the past.”
   
• Canticle of the Stone (1990, 110 min, VHS). Two Palestinians, now in their 40s, had barely fallen in love nearly twenty years ago when he was imprisoned for political activity and she ran off to the United States to forget. Now, in the mist of the Intifada, she comes back to Jerusalem to study the meaning of sacrifice in Palestinian society and finds him released from prison. Against a backdrop of daily resistance and repression, they will love each other again, filling the gaps in their histories, their memories, and their passion.
   
• Celebrating the Prophet in the Remembrance of God: Sufi Dhikr in Egypt (1997, 39 min, VHS). This film describes in detail the spiritual and social aspects of the controversial practice of Dhikr among Sufis in Egypt, including such topics as spiritual content of chants, the quality of singers, gender roles in participation, and the place of the ritual in as both a religious act and as a form of entertainment.
   
• Century of Stereotypes: Depicting Arabs (VHS) Contents include: The Cinematic Arab: aCentury of Stereotypes; Excerpts from fils depicting Arabs (Outpost in Morocco, Sahara, Jewel of the Nile, Ishtar, The Little Drummer Girl).
   
• The Challenge (color, VHS). This film follows the building of two new industrial centers in Saudi Arabia. Distributed by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
   
• Checkpoint (Israel, DVD, 80 min). Over three million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli military authority since 1967. Israeli director Yoav Shamir documents the impact of the enforced boundaries known as "checkpoints" on the Israeli border, guards drafted to monitor them, and the Palestinians citizens who must pass through them daily. Shot in a cinema verite style, a style of documentary filmmaking that stresses unbiased realism, the film shows these anonymous, one-time encounters between both sides and the lasting political, social, and cultural effects. Checkpoint gives a chilling look at the destructive impact on both societies.
   
• Children of Fire (color, 50 min, VHS). Intimate portraits of a five year old boy and an eleven year old girl in Nablus give a personal perspective to the Palestinian intifada. The film maker, Mai Masri, is originally from Nablus.
   
• Children of Heaven (1999, 88 minutes, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Majid Majidi. When Ali loses his sister Zahra's school shoes, this young pair dream up a plan to stay out of trouble: they'll share his shoes and keep it a secret from their parents! But if they're going to sucessfully cover their tracks, Ali and Zahra must carefully watch their step on what rapidly turns into a funny and heartwarming adventure. An award-winning film that was also a nominee for the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.
   
• Chimny Khan (VHS). Directed by Samad Sheikh. -- No description available.
   
• Chronicles of a Disappearance (1996, color, 88 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Elia Suleiman. The film is a personal meditation upon the spiritual effect of political instability on the Palestinian people, their psyche and their identity. As such, it is an invaluable contribution to the struggle for peace in the region.
   
• The Circle (Iran, 2000, color, 91 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Jafar Panahi. A woman gives birth to a baby girl. Little does she know, but she and her daughter are already unwanted. Three women are released from prison and their need for money leads them to take desperate measures. An unmarried woman seeking an abortion is rejected from her father's house by the violent threats of her brothers. Their crimes are vague, their guilt or innocence unimportant. Their paths cross, the suspense of their intrigues heightens. Their plights are often too tragically similar. Their world is one of constant surveillance, bureaucracy and age-old inequalities. But this stifling world cannot extinguish the spirit, strength and courage of the circle of women.
   
• Circle Within the Square (2000, color, 52 min, English, VHS). The stunning visual legacy of Islam's greatest architect. The genius of Mimar Sinan's classic Ottoman style is illustrated in this profile of his life and work. His magnificent mosques and palaces, bridges and hundreds of public buildings have influenced architecture through the ages. The great 16th century architect Mimar Sinan rose from humble beginnings to become chief architect to the Ottoman ruler Suleyman the Magnificent. This beautiful film traces the development of Sinan's unique Islamic style in the context of his times- and highlights some of the 500 known buildings he designed during his amazing career. The famous domed structure of his masterpiece - the Selimiye Mosque in the Turkish town of Edirne- is recognized throughout the world as the solution to the classic architectural puzzle of the Circle Within the Square.
  
  
• Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain (2007, color, English, DVD) Over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed land of southern Spain was home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, living together and flourishing. Their culture and beliefs intertwined, and the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. Here were the very seeds of the Renaissance. But this world too quickly vanished … Greed, fear, and intolerance swept it away. Puritanical judgments and absolutism snuffed out the light of learning. Within a few centuries, the fragile union of these people dissipated like smoke. The time of tolerance was lost, forever.    
   
• The Clay Bird (2002, 98 minutes, Bengali with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Tareque Masud. A visually stunning, culturally fascinating, politically timely film based on the director’s own childhood, THE CLAY BIRD has been called one of the most important works to come out of the Muslim world. Set against the backdrop of Pakistan during the turbulent 1960s, a family is ripped apart by religious beliefs and civil war. Anu, a shy young boy from rural East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), is sent away by his father Kazi, an orthodox Muslim, to a Madrasah. Far from his family and the warmth of his region’s vibrant Hindu festivities, Anu struggles to adapt to the Islamic school’s harsh monastic life. As political divisions in the country intensify, a split develops between moderate and extremist forces within the Madrasah. In the village, these same tensions create a growing divide between the stubborn Kazi and his increasingly independent wife, Ayesha. THE CLAY BIRD is an authentic and loving portrait of Bangladesh, showing the country in all its color and complexity – its seasonal beauty, rich folkloric traditions, extraordinary music, and pluralistic culture. Touching upon themes of religious tolerance, cultural diversity, and the complexity of Islam, Tareque Masud’s poignant film has a universal relevance in a crisis-ridden world.
   
• Close to Home (2005, 99 minutes, Hebrew with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager. Two young, different female soldiers patrol the anxious streets of Jerusalem, questioning Palestinians and looking for suicide bombers. The rebellious one finds the army demeaning; the controlled one is obedient. Under intense pressure, against a backdrop of any-minute-now terrorist attacks, a friendship takes hold and roles reverse.
   
• The Closed Doors (1999, 105 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Atef Hetata. The movie touches on several taboos in contemporary Egyptian society, examining their social and political implications. Set during the Gulf War, it tells the story of Mohamad, a highly impressionable young man who embraces fundamentalist ideas as a way of dealing with the confusion of adolescence and sexual awakening.
   
• CNN: The Oslo Accords (includes Rabin's speech) (VHS).
   
• Color of Paradise (Iran, 2000, color, 90 min, Farsi with English, French, and Spanish subtitles, DVD). Directed by Majid Majidi. Mohammed joyfully returns to his tiny village on Summer vacation from the Institute for the Blind, unaware of his widowed father's intentions to disown him in order to win the hand - and dowry - of a local woman. With the wedding swiftly approaching, Mohammed's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that's so clear to his son.
   
• Conquest of Darkness (Qahir al-Zalam) (VHS). An Egyptian feature film about Taha Hussein's education
   
• Control Room (DVD) (86 min). Documentary on the al-Jazirah television station. Control Room is a rare film that is both timely and timeless: timeless because it explores the ancient and complex relationship between the Western and Arab worlds, timely because it reveals how satellite television has changed the way wars are reported - from news providers, driven by the patriotism of their audiences, to Army information officers, driven by military objectives.
   
• The Cow (Gaav) (Iran, 1971, black and white, 100 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD & VHS). Directed by Dariush Mehrjui. Influenced by Italian neo-realism, The Cow has the beauty and simplicity associated with the great films of that movement. In a small village in Iran, Hassan cherishes his cow more than anything in the world. While he is away, the cow mysteriously dies, and the villagers protectively try to convince Hassan the cow has only wandered off. Grief stricken, Hassan begins to believe his is his own beloved bovine.
   
• Crimson Gold (2003, color, 97 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Jafar Panahi. Based on true events and written by acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami, Crimson Gold is the story of Hussein, a humble pizza deliveryman who feels continually humiliated by the injustices he sees all around him. When his friend Ali finds a receipt for a stranger's necklace purchase, Hussein is stunned by its exceptionally high cost. He knows that his pitiful salary will never be enough to afford such a luxury. Soon after, he and Ali are refused entry to an uptown jewelry store because of their scruffy appearances; his rage over this slight sets off a series of events. But Hussein will taste the luxurious life for one night before his deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge.
   
• Crossing The Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul (2006, 90 minutes, German/Turkish with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Fatih Akin. In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed film Head-On, director Fatih Akin's documentary introduces an international audience to the diversity and uniqueness of the historic and recent expressions of musical creativity in the heart of Istanbul, discovering a broad spectrum ranging from modern electronic, rock, and hip-hop to classical "Arabesque".
   
• The Crusades (color, 4 videos, approx. 50 min each, VHS). Directed by Alan Ereira and David Wallace. -- This chronicle of the Crusades is filmed on location throughout Europe and the Middle East. It traces the 200 years of the Crusades and demonstrates how they left a legacy of distrust between East and West that continues to shape our world today. Narrator Terry Jones lends a light touch throughout.
   
• The Cycle (Daireh-i-Maneh) (color 103 min, VHS). Story of a young man's corruptive relationship with blood racheleers in Tehran co, 1976. Based on Saedi's 1972 novel Gur va Gahvarah.
   
• The Cyclist (1989, color, 75 min, VHS). Renowned Iranian director Mohsen Mahmalbaf directs this film about an Afghan refugee who undertakes a bicycle marathon to pay his wife's medical expenses.
   
• Dances of Egypt (color, VHS). This film discusses the social and cultural significance of different styles of dance in modern Egypt. Glimpses into the dancing of Cairo, Alexandria and Upper Egypt are presented as well as the urban and folkloric musical traditions.
   
• Dark Holiday (1989, color, 96 min, VHS). This drama, based on a true story, chronicles the terrifying experiences of an American divorcee who went on vacation to Turkey. As she tried to leave she found herself wrongfully accused of smuggling antiques. To her horror, she is sent to a dreaded Turkish prison.
   
• The Day I Became a Woman (Iran, 2003, color, 88 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Maziyeh Meshkini. The stories of three women enslaved by love in Iran. On the morning of the day she turns 9, Havva is kept from joining her friends to play outside of the house. She is warned by her mother and grandmother that she has become a woman. Learning that she was born at noon, Havva insists she should be given another hour to go out as a girl one last time. A young woman is competing in a women's biking race on an island as she is persistently pursued by her husband, in-laws, and the elders of her clan. While riding their horses to catch up with her, they all try to persuade her to return to her family life. An old lady in a wheelchair lands in an island airport and hires a local young boy to assist her in a shopping spree, in search of what she's always needed.
   
• Death of a Princess (1980, color, 92 min, English, VHS). This docudrama of the alleged public execution of a Saudi princess and her lover for adultery caused a diplomatic furor in 1980 in the US and Europe. An earnest reporter, played by Christopher Ryder, attempts to find out the "truth" of many conflicting tales leading to the execution.
   
• Dervishes: Lovers of God (color, 27 min, VHS). Sufi orders in Turkey. "Footsteps of Abraham" Series.
   
• Deserted Station (Iran, 2002, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD) Directed by Alireza Raisia drom a story by Abbas Kiarostami. On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.
  
   
• Devarim (1995, 90 min, DVD). The movie, based on the novel Past Continuous by Yaakov Shabtai, follows three main characters - Caesar, Yisrael and Goldman, who live their lives in a cycle while looking for meaning to their existence. Caesar womanizes obsessively, Goldman is on a constant search for the reason for his existence and Yisrael views himself as a pianist and artist. The film studies the main characters' relationships with their families and amongst themselves over a nine month period in Tel-Aviv.
   
• Distant (Turkey, DVD, 105 min). Winner of the Grand Prix and two Best Actor Awards at the Cannes International Film Festival, Distant, set in a wintry, contemporary Istanbul, is a profoundly beautiful film about detachment and isolation. Mahmut, a relatively successful commercial photographer, has been struggling to come to terms with the growing gap between his artistic ideals and his professional obligations. His workload, coupled with the lingering loss he still feels for his ex-wife, leaves him clinging to the obsessive routines of his solitary life. Without warning, Mahmut's distant relative Yusuf arrives in Istanbul determined to find a job. In need of a place to stay as he searches for work, Yusuf imposes himself on Mahmut, who resents the sudden intrusion, but nonetheless feels obligated to help his family. As the two men struggle to make a connection, communication is slowly reduced to the bare minimum; and their time together must come to an end. Buoyed by comic moments, Distant is an unforgettable and insightful meditation on the human condition and the bittersweet feeling of being alive.
   
• Divine Intervention (Palestinian Territories and Israel, 2003, color, 90 min, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Elia Suleiman. Heralded by critics from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Time Magazine as “One of the top ten films of the year,” “Blissfully surreal, a one-or-a-kind experience,” and winner of the Jury Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Fipresci Prize at Cannes, Suleiman’s critically-acclaimed satire chronicles the absurdities of life and love on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli border. Like his Chronicle of a Disappearance Suleiman mixes tragic comedy and deadpan irony to explore the contemporary lives and realities of Palestinians in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
   
• Divorce Iranian Style (1998, color, 80 min, English and Persian with English subtitles, VHS). A new documentary that goes where Western cameras have never before gone: into an Iranian divorce court. The film is directed by award-winning independent filmmaker Kim Longinotto (co-director of DREAM GIRLS, an expose of the Japanese all-woman musical theater company, which played at Film Forum) and Ziba Mir-Hosseini, an Iranian anthropologist and writer, based in London, whose specialty is women's rights and family law in the Mid-East. Her 1993 book, Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law, inspired Longinotto to collaborate with her on this production. Inside an Iranian divorce court, a stream of veiled women (some only teenagers, others elderly ) make use of reason, wit, charm, and chicanery to get what they want above all else: a divorce. English and Persian with English subtitles.
   
• Door to the Sky (1989, color, 107 min, Arabic, VHS). This Sufi mystical tale from Moroccan director Farida Ben Lyziad explores issues of spirituality, gender and friendship in the context of a moving family tragedy. When the Westernized Nadia returns from Paris for her father's funeral in Fez, she is overcome by the Koranic chanting of Karina. Together, the two build a beautiful friendship and, moved by the power of their relationship, turn Nadia's father's palace into a shelter for Muslim women.
   
• A Dream of Justice and Freedom (1995, color, 52 min, English, VHS). Framed by the story of Hanan Ashrawi a former spokesperson for the PLO and key delegate on the 1991 Madrid negotiating team, this is a fascinating Palestinian narrative of contemporary "peace issues" that began decades ago. With archival footage and interviews with major Palestinian and some Israeli political figures, this video offers a history of Palestinians' efforts - the sidewalk news conference in Madrid, the "Palestinian Speech" - to be recognized as a people with legitimate rights and interests. This discussion is enriched throughout by early footage of and interviews with Ashrawi from her student days at the American University of Beirut; her term as dean at Birzeit University; and in her current role as founder of the watchdog group, the Commission for Citizens' Rights. A way to understand a part of Palestinian history through the work of one of its major women leaders.
   
• Dreams of Hind and Camelia (1987, color, 120 min, Arabic, VHS). Directed by Egyptian filmmaker, Mohamed Khan, director of Kharag W'lam Ya'ud (1984). Hind and Camilia are two housemaids who are abused both by their employers (who overwork them) and by their male relatives (who mistreat them). After many misfortunes and disappointments, they decide to strike out on their own. Dreams of Hind and Camilia offers a very convincing portrayal of the brutality and hopelessness that mark the lives of Cairo's poor, especially its women. Starring Zaki, Naglaa Fathy and Ahmed Zaki.
   
• The Dreams of Sparrows (Iraq, 2004, color, 75 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Hayder Mousa Daffar. The Dreams of Sparrows is the first feature documentary from the IRAQeye Group, a collaboration between American and Iraqi filmmakers. After the capture of Saddam Hussayn, Daffar’s search for the truth takes him through all walks of life in Iraq, and particularly into the heart of the arts community of Baghdad. As the film unravels, the interviews veer towards the politics of occupation and resistance, concluding with the battle over Falluja and the devastating death of one of the crew members. In somber self interviews made following the production, the filmmakers reveal the dramatic changes in their beliefs caused not only by the situation in Iraq, but also by the process of documenting it. Iraqi director Daffar and his team of contributing filmmakers share their vision of life in Baghdad under the US occupation.
   
• Driving an Arab Street (2002, color, 35 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Arthur Hurley. The film follows Egyptian taxi drivers as they navigate the streets of Cairo and share their diverse perspectives on American and Egyptian society, culture, politics and the relationship between these two civilizations.
   
• The Druze (2003, color, 210 min, Arabic with French and English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Mohammed Abou Feleh. Compared to the other religions of Lebanon, the Druze, who originated in Egypt and settled in Syria, Palestine, and the mountains of Lebanon, have gone relatively unnoticed. They are members of a monotheistic Muslim sect that follows the teachings of Al-Hakim (985-1021), a Fatimid Caliph. Like most religious communities in the Middle East, Lebanese Druze have suffered the tribulations of political strife and foreign conquest. In spite of this, the Druze have preserved their traditions and religious beliefs, written between 1017 and 1043, for nearly one thousand years. Using rare footage, gripping interviews, and reliable historical documents, this fascinating documentary presents a vivid portrait of this little-known community.
   
• The Dupes (1972, 107 min, Arabic, VHS). An adaptation of the acclaimed novel Men In the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani, the screenplay for this black-and-white classic from Egyptian filmmaker Tewfik Saleh was co-authored by Kanafani himself.
   
• Echoes of Conflict (1991, 33 min; 29 min; 29 min; VHS). A new wave of young Israeli filmmakers is giving vibrant expression to the turbulent realities of a society in which struggles between Palestinians and Israelis cover every aspect of life. Echoes of Conflict is a trio of recent short films, all prize-winners at international festivals, placing Israel in the vanguard of political cinema. Echoes of Conflict is a small collection of three films by young Israeli filmmakers: Night Movie, directed by Gur Heller; Don't Get Involved, directed by Jorge Johanan Weller; and The Cage, directed by Amit Goren.
   
• Egyptian Peaks (VHS). This series provides brief overviews in three broad areas of interest: History, Geography, and Culture. Each program surveys the "peaks", or major contributions, of this ancient civilization. In each program, students from Colorado join tour guide Reynelda Muse in a brief visit to both ancient and modern Egypt.
   
• Egyptian TV Footage (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Empty Quarter (1966, color, 50 min, VHS). This video re-enacts the post World War II trip of British explorer, Wilfred Thesiger and portrays Bedouin life and values. Based on Thesigers' Arabian Sands, the film has a poetry quality as well as being a valuable historic portrayal of the Bedouin. (Print is somewhat faded).
   
• The English Sheik and the Yemeni Gentleman (Yemen, 2000, color, 76 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Bader Ben Hirsi. This lyrical film introduces us to Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-born Yemeni living in London after his parents' exile from Yemen. Bader returns to Yemen to rediscover his country, its people and traditions. Under the guiding hand of eccentric Englishman Tim Makintosh-Smith, who has been living as a Yemeni in the ancient city of Sana'a for the past 16 years, Ben Hirsi travels throughout his ancestral homeland.
   
• The Extras (1993, Syria, 100 min, Arabic, VHS). Award-winning film from Syrian director, Nabil Maleh. The moving story of the courtship of a young working-class couple in Syria as they struggle for privacy and intimacy under the watchful eyes of family and society. Variety Magazine called this film, "often funny and ultimately devastating." Starring Bassam Kousa and Samar Sammy.
   
• Family Ties (1983, color, 50 min, VHS). Discussions with Arab women and their families with a focus on a large extended family of Jordanians in Amman. Part of The Arabs - A Living History Series.
   
• Farag (VHS) - No description available.
   
• Fertile Memory (West Bank, Palestinian Territories, 1980, color, 99 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Michel Khleifi. The first full-length film to be shot within the Palestinian West Bank Green Line, the film blends both documentary and narrative elements. A portrait of two Palestinian women whose individual struggles both define and transcend the politics that have torn apart their homes and lives. Grandmother Romia fights an unending legal battle with the Zionist authorities who confiscated her ancestral land in 1947. Sahar Khalifeh, a divorced novelist and young mother living in the West Bank, struggles to maintain a modern role for herself within the increasingly intolerant occupation community. Representing both contemporary Arab womanhood and vanguard Palestinian conscience, Sahar must balance the changes in her world after the Six Day War with the changes in herself since achieving personal emancipation. Fertile Memory is the feature debut of acclaimed director Khleifi whose Wedding in Galilee was a triumph of the Cannes Film Festival.
   
• The Fifthe Reaction (2003, color, DVD, Farsi with subtitles and English, 107 minutes, DVD). Directed by Tahmineh Milani. From the controversial director of Hidden Half and Two Women comes another tale of clash between modernism and tradition in contemporary Iran. A progressive, recently widowed teacher and her conservative, controlling father-in-law fight for custody of her two small children. According to tradition, Fereshteh should remain in her father-in-law's home with her children, which he sees as an opportunity to force her to marry his younger son, but she refuses. Afraid of losing custody of the boys, she decides to take them and disappear from her father-in-law's realm of control, aided by her women friends. Tahmineh Milani's film captures the tumult of a nation plagued by the conflicting philosophies of hard-line religious groups and an educated, cosmopolitan population.
   
• Final Solution (2003, color, DVD, Hindi/Gujarati with subtitles and English, 218 minutes, DVD). Directed by Rakesh Sharma. Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat, India, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 pogroms against Muslims in Gujarat. The film examines the aftermath of the deadly violence that followed the burning of 58 Hindus on the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra on February 27 2002. In "reaction" to that incident, some 2,500 Muslims were brutally murdered, hundreds of women raped, and more than 200,000 families driven from their homes. Borrowing its reference from the history of Nazism, the title of the film exposes what the film director calls 'Indian Fascism' and seeks to remind that "those who forget history are condemned to relive it." An incisive, unflinching look at Muslim-Hindu relations, and winner of numerous international film awards.
   
• Five Pillars of Islam (1984, color, 30 min, VHS). This film presents the five essential principles upon which Islam rests.
   
• Flashpoint: Arab-Israeli Conflict (VHS, 2 parts) -- No description available.
   
• The Flying Camel (Israel, DVD, 92 min). A charming comic escapade about a Jewish professor and an Arab garbage collector who embark on an exciting adventure in pursuit of their uncommon interests. The comedy escalates when a young nun encounters the unlikely duo and joins them in a madcap journey through a wild landscape of wit and imagination. A lilting allegory etched against the backdrop of modern Tel Aviv, The Flying Camel is a delightful celebration of the differences that distinguish us and the enduring friendships that emerge when we accept them.
   
• Folk Music of Libya (color, 10 min, 16mm). This good research film provides old footage of Libyan folkloric dance troupe (faded).
   
• For Those who Sail to Heaven (VHS) -- At the climax of the annual Opet festival in ancient Luxor, the barques of ancient Theban gods were pulled from Karnak to Luxor and then sailed back on the "waters of inundation." Today, the descendants of Luxor's patron saint, Sheikh Sidi Abu'l Hajjaj, continue this ancient ritual. In this movie, the families which pull the sheikh's boat describe the many Sufi rites captured in the film, including "zikr," the whirling to flutes and drums to achieve the ecstatic state called "malbus," and "mirmah," equestrian games which rekindle the spirit of battles fought long ago. In their eyes, these rites constitute an ancient legacy which they are bound to preserve.
   
• Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land (1999, color, 66 min, Arabic and Hebrew with English Subtitles, VHS). Directed by Michel Khleifi. Exploring the lives and loves of eight mixed marriages from different generations and backgrounds, director Michel Khleifi uncovers the mutual intolerance of the Middle East's three monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Among the defiant couples is a young Palestinian musician living with his Israeli musicologist girlfriend, a fiery Palestinian woman married to a Kurdish Jew, and a Jewish woman who converted to Islam to be with her husband in Gaza. A daring and spirited expose, Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land celebrates people who, in a region scarred by conflict and catastrophe, chose love instead of hate.
   
• Forces of Change: Artists in the Arab World (1994, 24 min, English). Filmed on location in over ten countries, this documentary introduces the viewer to the contemporary art movements of the Arab world through interviews with twenty artists who discuss their work.
   
• Forget Baghdad (Iraq/Israel, 2002, color, 112 min, English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Samir.  Forget Baghdad offers a rare glimpse into a community which is little-known but extremely important in light of the current state of affairs in the Middle East. Those known as “Sephardis,” “Mizrahim” or “Arab Jews” – that is, people of Jewish religion and Arab culture – have long found themselves caught between warring worldviews. Uprooted virtually overnight at the founding of the modern Israeli state, many Sephardis lost first their homeland and then, with the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, their cultural identity. This documentary offers an opportunity to hear how people negotiate the complex layers of the self.
   
• Four Women of Egypt (Canada/Egypt, 1997, 90 min, VHS) -- Amina Rachid was raised in a non-religious, Westernized, aristocratic household before embracing Socialism and fighting for social justice. Another deeply committed activist, Shahenda Maklad, a Muslim, was a student demonstrator in Egypt’s national movement who lost her husband to a political assassination before pursuing political office herself. Her mentor, Wedad Mitry, a devout Christian, is a militant nationalist leader and author. Their friend, Safynaz Kazem, is a political journalist and strict Muslim. These four women are the subject of this impressive documentary exploration of opposing religious, social, and political views in modern-day Egypt.
   
• Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (Palestine/USA, 2001, color, 56 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Mai Masri. Award-winning Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri traces the delicate friendship that evolves between two Palestinian girls: Mona, a resident of the economically marginalized Beirut refugee camp and Manar, an occupant of Bethlehem’s al-Dheisha camp under Israeli control. The two girls begin and continue their relationship through letters until they are finally given the opportunity to meet at the border during the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon. When the intifada suddenly erupts around them, both girls face heart-breaking changes in their lives. As in Masri’s earlier films, Children of Shatila (1998) and Children of Fire (1990), Frontiers of Dreams and Fears focuses on the difficult plight of Palestinian children while exhibiting an optimism that defies their unbearable circumstances.
   
• The Fundamental Question (75 min, VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Gabbeh (1996, 75 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). One of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, Gabbeh is an epic tale of the forbidden passion that shapes the legend of a magical carpet. A folkloric carpet (Gabbeh), picturing a man and woman riding away on horseback is the prized possession of a nomadic elderly couple. When they sit to wash it on the bank of a creek, a beautiful young woman suddenly emerges from the carpet to join them. Once held hostage by the endless restraints of the family that fashioned the carpet, she reveals the secret of the carpet lies within the mysterious black-clad rider on the white horse. Month after month, season after season, he had followed her family from afar, always present, always waiting, howling to her songs of love - longing for her to run away with him.
   
• Geometry, Symmetry, Order - Islamic Patterns in Persian Tradition (color, 20 min, VHS). Directed by Helen Graeff. This video explores the concept of Islamic decorative art. It illustrates the interplay of mathematics and geometry in Islamic art through a series of visual images depicting the characteristic elements of symmetry and order. These interrelationships are conveyed using a mixture of visual media (slides, film, animation) accompanied by narration with a background of Persian music. There are six main sections: geometric patterns, arabesque design, calligraphy, meaning and use of colors, patterns on monuments and objects and Islamic art in Persian tradition. This video can be used in a variety of classes such as math, art, design, religion, and history.
   
• The Girl in the Sneakers (1998, 88 minutes, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Rassul Sadr Ameli. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, strict laws govern public interaction between the sexes. Boys and girls who are not related can be picked up by the police for doing nothing more than simply enjoying a walk together in the park. 15-year-old Tadaie and her friend Aideen undergo such a humiliation. Tadaie’s furious parents forbid her to ever see the boy, but the spirited Tadaie refuses to give in. She decides to leave home and thus begins a fascinating odyssey through the Tehran streets that are not without danger to this sheltered, upper-middle-class girl. The movie tells a beautiful story of youthful rebellion and its consequences. Made without any moral judgment, it is a lovely snapshot of first love and its subsequent disappointment.
   
• Good Kurds, Bad Kurds (2001, color, 80 min, English, VHS & DVD). Directed by Kevin McKiernan. Filmmaker and acclaimed freelance journalist Kevin McKiernan went to northern Iraq to cover the uprising against Saddam Hussein. Just a few miles away, no one was covering the hidden war in Turkey. McKiernan determined he would report the story independently. Good Kurds, Bad Kurds brings sharp clarity to a complicated history, while providing disturbing insight into immigration practices and US foreign policy.
   
• Grass - A Nation's Battle for Life (1924, black and white, 70 min, VHS). In 1924, film makers Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack filmed the migration of the Bakhtiari tribe of Iran (then Persia). Twice a year, more than 50,000 people and half a million animals surmounted seemingly impossible obstacles to take their herds to pasture. These obstacles include the raging and icy waters of the half-mile-wide Karun River and the side of the sheer, snow-covered rock face of the 15,000 foot Zardeh Kuh mountain. This is a restored and full-length version of the legendary silent film, complete with a new Iranian score. The original subtitles remain. Excellent historical footage.
   
• The Ground Truth (2006, USA, 78 min, English, DVD) Director and produced by Patricia Foulkrod, The Ground Truth is a searing documentary featuring the  patriotic young Americans - ordinary men and women -  who heeded the call for military service in Iraq. Hailed as "powerful" and "quietly unflinching," The Ground Truth stunned filmgoers at the 2006 Sundance and Nantucket Film Festivals. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home - with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all - the truth.
   
• The Hajj (1992, 29 min, English, VHS). Experimental ethnography of Turkish and Kurdish village women's lives - the empowerment of everyday life. This explores the meanings of domestic labor and the social power derived from marginalized activities at home.
   
• Halfaouine, Boy of the Terraces (Tunisia/France, 1990, color, 98 min, VHS). This is a coming of age story of a Tunisian boy by Tunisian film-maker Ferid Boughedir. The film is also a portrait of Halfaouine, the neighborhood during the period of the director's childhood.
   
• Hamoun (Iran, 1990, color, 117 min, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Dariush Mehrjui. Hamoun is a psychological comedy/drama about a bumbling Iranian intellectual, Hamid Hamoun. Trying and failing to complete a philosophical tract on love, Hamoun cannot seem to convince his wife Mashid, who is a successful artist, to love him either. Hamoun’s refusal to accept reality, or grant Mashid a divorce, is both character study and metaphor for a condition of modern urban life in Iran. In 1997, a survey of Iranian film critics voted Hamoun as the best Iranian film ever made, an honor previously held by Mehrjui’s The Cow.
   
• Hamsin (1983, 90 min, VHS). Directed by Daniel Wachsmann. Study of a Jewish landowner and his Arab worker as they work to build a dream ranch in Galilee. Tension builds when it is learned that Arab lands in the area are to be confiscated. An effort at reconciliation is made.
   
• Head-On (2004, Turkey, DVD, 118 min). One of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, Head-On follows two young Turkish-Germans who are forced into a marriage of convenience which ultimately blossoms into a bond of mutual admiration. Erotically charged, darkly funny, Head-On is a journey you won't forget.
   
• Heart to Heart (2003, 43 min, English and Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Conversations with Arab-Americans living in Philadelphia following the events of September 11, 2001. Directed by Fatema Chebchoub, a Moroccan living and studying in Philadelphia, this film addresses issues of democracy, identity, patriotism, and the reality of being an Arab-American in a post-9/11 American environment. Spanning a number of generations, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and social positions, the film gives voice to the complex and varied experiences of this diverse community who have come to make America and Philadelphia their home. Good for high school classroom use.
   
• Hemlock (2000, VHS) Directed by Behrooz Afkhami. Mahmoud Bassirat, a high-level manager in a factory, is informed by the general manager that unknown characters have offered him bribes to help them buy the factory. The general manager is subsequently hospitalized following a mysterious accident, and Mahmoud temporarily replaces him. During hospital visits to his general manager, Mahmoud becomes involved in an emotional affair.
   
• The Hero's Way (VHS, 2 parts) -- No description available.
   
• Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire (2004, 64 min w/ 121 min additional footage, English, DVD). Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush Administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force. At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11. Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers.
   
• Holy Terror, Holy War (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Hyenas Under the Sun (color, 100 min, VHS). This Tunisian film depicts the disruption of a traditional fishing town by the infiltration of a modern European tourist village.
   
• I Exist (USA, 2003, color, 56 mins, English, VHS). Directed by Peter Barbosa & Garrett Lenoir. A timely documentary about the lives of lesbian and gay Middle Easterners in the United States. Award winning directors Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenior deliver a piercing tour de force of the joys and pains of growing up gay and Middle Eastern. Touching and groundbreaking interviews shed light on the experiences of this community, once voiceless from the fear of shame and ostracism.
   
• I Named Her Angel (Turkey, 30 min, DVD) Directed by Nefin Dinc. This documentary film tells the story of a 12 year-old Turkish girl, Elif, learning the basics of her religion, Mevlevism. Mevlevis are also known as Whirling Dervishes in the Western World, and they are a part of a heterodox tradition of Islam. Elif attends the meetings at the religious den, listens to the spiritual leader about the matters of life, death, being human, Mevlana, Allah, etc., reads the books about her religion and also learns how to pray by whirling. This film follows Elif through the course of a year, witnessing her learning how to do the sema (whirling), how to wear the tennure (white robes that Mevlevi's wear during the religious ceremonies), about the position of women in this religion, performing at the centuries old Galata Mevlevi Temple, learning the teachings of Mevlana, the founder of Mevlevism. Mevlana is also known as Rumi and his poems are vastly popular in the Western World. The film attempts to show a different view of Islam through the eyes of a 12 year-old Turkish girl.
   
• If You Make it Possible (USA, 1996, color, 75 min, English and Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Lynn Feinerman. If You Make it Possible offers four uniquely personal, in-depth portraits of Israelis and Palestinians who have devoted their lives to the work of achieving non-violence and coexistence in the Middle East. The peace-makers featured are Nafez Assaily, co-founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence and Director of the Library-on-Wheels project; Rabbi Menachem Fruman, who founded the Gush Emunim Religious Settler Movement; Father Bruno Hussar, founder of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salaam, a multi-faith, multi-race village, and Nabila Espanioly and Hannah Saffran, two women who have built a strong friendship together through their women's advocacy work in spite of the fact that Nabila is Palestinian and Hannah is Israeli.
   
• Images of Saudi Arabia (DVD) -- No description available.
   
• Imperial Ottoman Fermans (VHS) - No description available.
   
• In My Own Skin (USA, 2001, color, 16 min, English, VHS). Directed by Jennifer Jajeh & Nikki Byrd. In My Own Skin sheds light on the complexities of the Arab American experience through candid, in-depth interviews with five young Arab women living in New York in the months following the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Taking us beyond common stereotypes and misconceptions, In My Own Skin gives us a glimpse of the conflicts, joys and pressures of being a member of two very different communities. Great for classroom use!
   
• In This World (2004, DVD, 88 min). In This World follows the hazardous journey of two Afghan boys as they travel from Pakistan through Iran, Turkey, Italy, France and the UK in search of refuge in London. A moving and dramatic story that reveals the desperate measures people take to escape persecution and the life-threatening conditions they find themselves in along the way.
   
• Inch’allah Dimanche (France, 2002, color, 98 min, French and Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Yamina Benguigui. In the aftermath of World War II, France attempted to replenish its weakend work force by recruiting men from North Africa. In the mid-1970, the French government relaxed its immigration policy to allow the families of Algerian men to join them. Zouina is torn from her Algerian home with her three children and mother-in-law to rejoin her husband in France. She feel imprisoned between a distant husband, a hostile mother-in-law, and a neighbor afraid of Zouina’s otherness. Zouina, though, begins to discover the contours of her new environment through her friendship with a cosmetics factory worker and her Sunday afternoon excursions with her children. Winner of the Firpresci Award at the Toronto Film Festival Inch’allah Dimanche is a deeply moving exploration of the difficulties of immigration, change and adaptation.
   
• Inner Life (1978, color, 30 min, VHS, Study Guide). This film examines Islamic mysticism and Sufism. (Traditional World of Islam Series)
   
• The Inner Tour (2002, 98min, English, Arabic & Hebrew with English Subtitles). Controversially divisive in the Israeli press for its sympathetic portrayal of Palestinian citizens, The Inner Tour (Official selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2002) is a fascinating and humanistic portrait of ordinary people caught up in one of the most emotionally painful and seemingly intractable national conflicts of our time. Just months before the second Intifada began in 2000, Israeli director Ra'anan Alexandrowicz filmed a group of West Bank Palestinians on a three-day bus tour to Israel, where many of the passengers once lived. Their weekend trip becomes an extremely charged journey of deep emotional distances and contradicting realities as the travelers interact with ordinary Israelis and visit places that they feel simultaneously rooted to and alienated from. Their contemplative observations of and encounters with the country they are visiting lie at the heart of this piercingly resonant documentary.
   
• The Intifada (VHS) - PBS footage.
   
• Introduction to the Arab World (color, 48 min, VHS, Study Guide). This film introduces the people and places of the Arab world and addresses the most important concerns confronting the Arab world today - in a format designed for those with little or no prior knowledge of the region. This production is divided into three 15-minute sections, which may be viewed consecutively or interspersed with discussions or exercises. The "Overview" contrasts factors that unite all Arabs with those unique to each region in the Arab world. "Islam" presents the historical background and basic tenets of the social, cultural, political, and economic concerns of the Arab people today. A supplementary guidebook accompanies the videotape and includes the video script, notes to the script, a timeline, maps, classroom exercises, informational hand-outs on Arabic civilization, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography of suggested introductory readings.
   
• Iran: Past, Present, and Future (1992, 32 min, VHS). This video provides a brief overview of Iran.
   
• Iranian Women (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Iran's 2500th Anniversary (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006, USA, 75 min, English, DVD)
  Director Robert Greenwald (Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Price; Outfoxed; and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. The film uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so. “A horrifying catalog of greed, corruption and incompetence,” writes the New York Times and the Huffington Post declares: “[Greenwald] has delivered a film that connects on both an emotional and an intellectual level. And, most importantly, it does so by letting the facts – and the victims of the war’s privatization – speak for themselves.”
   
• Iraq in Fragments (Iraq&US, 2006, 94 minutes, Arabic and Kurdish with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by James Longley. An opus in three parts, Iraq in Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.
   
• Iraqi Women (1994, color, 54 min, English, VHS). Iraqi Women-Voices from Exile provides a fascinating and rare look at the recent history of Iraq through the eyes and experiences of Iraqi women living in exile in Britain. The Arab world usually speaks to the outside with a male voice and Arab women's voices are rarely heard. This documentary features moving interviews with women about life in Iraq before Saddam Hussein came to power, in the years of repression under his regime and through the Gulf War in 1991. As well as providing a forum for Iraqis to tell their own stories to a western audience, Iraqi Women-Voices from Exile also contributes to a process of Iraqi self-criticism.
   
• Iron Island (Iran, 2005, 90 minutes, Farsi with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. A huge, abandoned oil tanker becomes its own world as squatters make their lives upon it. Presiding over this haphazard society is Captain Nemat (Ali Nassirian), a leader who's part visionary, part supply sergeant, part snake oil salesman. As he bounds up and down the tanker's halls and stairways, he charmingly persuades the families living in rusted rooms to obey his rules while he hustles the goods they all need to survive. But this microcosm is threatened from within (the ship is slowly sinking) and without (the owners want to sell it for scrap metal), forcing Nemat to seek a radical solution. Meanwhile, Nemat's protege Ahmad (Hossein Farzi-Zadeh, The Beautiful City) has fallen in love with a girl who's already promised to marry another man. While Iron Island can be read as an allegory about life in the Muslim world, life on board the tanker feels organic and follows its own internal logic, making the movie vivid and vital. The movie's political conundrums feel implacably real and have no easy or absolute solution. But Nassirian is the movie's core; he holds Iron Island together with the same unquenchable drive that Nemat uses to hold together his ship-bound kingdom. Altogether, a rich and compelling film.
   
• Isfahan of Shah Abbas (1976, color, 28 min, VHS). Narrated by Oleg Grabar, this video views buildings and monuments in Ishfahan, Iran during the Safavid period.
   
• Isaf Khamsa wa Khamseen (Ambulance 55) (Egypt, color, Arabic, no subtitles, VCD & DVD). The adventures of 2 paramedics and an E.R. doctor. Starring Ahmad Helny, Mohamed Saad, Ghada Adel.
  
  
• Islam, Asia, and Modernity (2005, DVD) A three-day conference to explore the changing politics, practices, and representations of Islam in Asia; how these changes are studied, documented, taught, and represented in the academy and the media; and how these practices affect politics, society, and culture in Muslim Asia.
  
  Volume 1 - Islam Asia, and Modernity
  "Introduction" by Anand Yang, "Whither the Umma? Community, Identity, and Empire: The Muslims of Late Imperial Russia" by Azade-Ayse Rorlich, "Sir Sayyid's Enigma of Arrival: Empire and the Realm of the Secular" by David Lelyveld, "Ulama, Women's Rights, Muslim Laws and the Islamic State in Malaysia" by Norani Othman, "Discussant: Clark Lombardi; Chair: Kent Guy
  
  Volume 2 -Gender Sexuality, and the Body in Asian Muslim Societies
  "Purity and the Muslim body Politic: Women's Mosques, Gate-Keeping and Gender Equality in Central China's Hui Muslim Communities" by Maria Jaschok, "Majlis: A Discourse Analysis of a Shiite Ritual in Pakistan" by Huma Haq, "Gender, Bodies, and Deference: Reproducing Hierarchy in Central Asia" by Marianne Kamp, Discussant: Chandan Reddy, Chair: K. Siviramakrishnan
  
  Volume 3 -Islamic Arts and National Culture
  "Reforming Kyrgyz Islam: Nomadic Customs vs. Islamic Shari'a" by Elmira Kochumkulkizi, "National and Regional Arts: Translating Islam into Local Cultures in Indonesia" by Endo Suanda, Discusant: Francisco, Chair: Dan Waugh
  
  Volume 4 -The Crisis of Masculine Identities in Post Soviet and Post 9-11 Muslim Asia
  "Muslim Masculinity in post-Soviet Space after 9-11" by Jakob Rigi; "Modern States, Governance and Crisis of Muslim Masculinity in Southwestern and Central Asia" by Nazif Shahrani; "Masculinization/Arabization vs. Feminization/De-Arabization" by Ulil Abshar Abdalla; Discussant: Carlo Bonura; Chair: Tani Barlow
  
  Volume 5 -Education and Islamic Legal Subjects in Asia
  "Public Education and the Reproduction of Religious Intolerance: The Case of Bangladesh" by Imtiaz Ahmed; " Islamic Subjects in school: the end of faith-based initiative?" by Gardner Bovingdon; Discussant: Kristen Stilt; Chair: Steve Hanson
  
  Volume 6 -Asian Islam and the Politics of Knowledge
  "How does the March 2005 Revolution in Kyrgyzstan Transform the Discussion of Islam for the Historians of Central Asia?" by Ali F. Igmen; "Islam and the Politics of Secularism in India" by Partha Chatterjee; "Moderate and Extreme Islam in Southeast Asia: Origins and Contemporary Relevance" by Sumit Mandal; Discussant: Laurie Sears; Chair: Cabeiri Robinson; Closing Comments: Ziauddin Sardar Anand Yang
   
• Islam 600-1200 (color, 26 min, VHS). This film is part of a television series on the history of the world, based on the Times Atlas of World History. This film documents the spread of Islam from Mecca to North Africa and Spain, Central Asia, Asia, and Africa. It has very good map sequences on the spread of Islam. It discusses the beginning of Islam in Mecca, the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates, the Sunni--Shia split, the advance of the Seljuks, the founding of Baghdad and the Beit al Hikma (the house of wisdom). Be aware that there are too many film clips of the desert and angry Muslims (Iranians and Afghans), the background series on the history of the world, based on the Times Atlas of World History. This film documents the spread of Islam from Mecca to North Africa and Spain, Central Asia, Asia, and Africa. It has very good map sequences on the spread of Islam. It discusses the beginning of Islam in Mecca, the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates, the Sunni--Shia split, the advance of the Seljuks, the founding of Baghdad and the Beit al Hikma (the house of wisdom). Be aware that there are too many film clips of the desert and angry Muslims (Iranians and Afghans), the background music is often very western and inappropriate, and the numbers of Muslims should be updated. Nonetheless, it is a useful film for the classroom.
   
• Islam in America (color, 52 min, VHS). The five are sections filmed in various areas of the U.S. - Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles, Houston, Quincy and Dorchester, MA and Toledo, Ohio, and examine the five pillars of Islam. This unique video introduces the viewer to Islam not as a strange foreign religion but as the spiritual and institutional place for a wide variety of Americans. In the various cities of America we see glimpse of mosques and Islamic centers and their congregations. In one significant sequence, the significance of the Haji for Malcolm X is portrayed. There is perhaps too much emphasis on Islam and prisoners and ex-prisoners - but this is a good point of discussion with students.
   
• Islam: A Pictorial Essay (color, 90 min, VHS). This program on Islam is divides into four parts: doctrine; history and culture; life of the Prophet and the Faith; and arts and sciences.
   
• Islam: Empire of Faith (2000, color, 163 min, English, DVD). Directed by Robert Gardner. Between the fall of Rome and the European voyages of discovery, few events were more significant than the rise of Islam. Within a few centuries, the Islamic empires blossomed, projecting their power from Africa to the East Indies, and from Spain to India. Inspired by the words of the Prophet Muhammed, and led by caliphs and sultans, this political and religious expansion remains unequalled in speed, geographic size and endurance. This DVD tells the spectacular story of the great sweep of Islamic power and faith during the first 1000 years - from the birth of the Prophet Muhammed to the peak of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. Historical reenactments and a remarkable exposition of Islamic art, artifacts, and architecture are combined with interviews of scholars from around the world to recount the rise and importance of early Islamic civilization. Increasingly, scholars and historians are recognizing the profound impact that Islamic civilization has had on Western culture and the course of world history.
   
• Islamic Science and Technology (1984, color, 30 min, VHS). This video reviews the many contributions of Islamic science in the fields of astronomy, physics, medicine, and engineering.
   
• Issues in Development: the Case of Egypt (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Jerusalem Under Siege (1991, color, 15 min, VHS). This video shows in graphic detail the extent of the Israeli settlements besieging East Jerusalem and inside the Old City. Palestinian residents of the city, including the Palestinian leader, Feisal Husseini, explain the extent of the Israeli siege on their city. The documentary points out the importance of Jerusalem to Palestinians and its strategic location within the Occupied Territories.
   
• Jerusalem, Gates to the City (color, 31 min, VHS). Directed by Dani Wachsmann and Francois Abou Salem. -- Jerusalem is celebrated as a city of gates, ancient arches made of stone. But there are other gateways into the city; you can enter Jerusalem through the stories, creations, and daily routines. Amid the city's ancient monuments and shrines, there are people from many different religions, national and ethnic traditions, all trying to live ordinary lives under extraordinary conditions.
   
• Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone (1995, 55 min, English and Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Produced by the Palestinian Housing Rights Movement, Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone is a tribute to the thousands of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem without access to life's most basic amenities. Filmmaker Marty Rosenbluth details the devastating effects of Israel's urban planning policies that, according to many, aim to uproot the Palestinian presence in the Holy City.
   
• Jews of Iran (Iran, 52 min, Farsi and English with English subtitles, DVD) Directed by Ramin Farahni. For over 2700 years, Jews have lived in Iran. Although the 1979 revolution resulted in the majority of the Iranian Jews to leave the country, there are still 20,000 Jews living in Iran today. This film takes you on a rare journey through Iran's Jewish community from Tehran to Isfahan, and finally to Shiraz, where the infamous case against Jews accused of spying for Israel took place. Director Ramin Farahani illuminates the discrimination faced by Iranian Jews, while simultaneously revealing the rich culture and ancient history of their community, their strong relationship to their country, and their hopes for the future.
   
• Job (Ayyoub) (color, 110 min, Arabic, VHS). A wealthy Egyptian builder is struck by a debilitating disease just as he is about to start work on a huge project. His son assumes control of the company and starts relations with an adversary whom the father distrusts. His socially conscious wife becomes over-protective and shrewish. His daughter is the most understanding of his family as is a close friend from his University days, a doctor in public hospitals. As a wealthy man who has kept hidden some tawdry secrets of his rise to wealth Omar Shariff gives a fine, low-keyed performance. The illness he suffers makes him more reflective about his life and successes. Slowly, as he recovers, he decides to publish his diary as proof to himself of his transformation -- as a means of cleansing himself regardless of how it affects those around him. With Omar Sharif.
   
• Journey to Iran: a Woman's Work (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Journey to the Occupied Land (1992, VHS) Producer-corresponent Michael Ambrosino examines the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza through a personal journey that explores the bitter and complex issues of land ownership, the scope and future of the Israeli settlements, the realities of Israeli military justice, and daily life under Israeli occupation.
   
• Journey to the Sun (1999, 104 min, Kurdish and Turkish with English subtitles, DVD). When Mehmet, a cheerful young man from western Turkey, meets Berzan, a Kurdish rebel, the two form an unlikely friendship. Their bond not only survives the dark political realities of contemporary Turkey, it is strengthened by them. The friendship inspires Mehmet to embark on a sweeping, spiritual journey across Turkey to his friend's Kurdish homeland. Journey to the Sun won the Blue Angel Prize for Best European Film and the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was named Best Film and Ustaoglu was named Best Director at the Istanbul Film Festival, where the film also won the Audience Award and the International Critics' Award.
   
• Kadosh (1999, 117 min, DVD). Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai leaped to international prominence with this handsomely photographed, beautifully acted morality tale through which the power struggle between the lives of secular and religious Jews the world over is dramatically brought to light. Set in the Mea Sherim quarter of Jerusalem, an enclave of the ultra Orthodox, Kadosh explores a hermetic world almost never seen on the screen. Here for ten years the pious Rivka (Yael Abecassis) has devoted herself to her husband Meir (Yoram Hattab), but their marriage remains childless. Presumed barren, she is rejected by her community, which prizes children above all else. The story that follows relates the harrowing fate of Rivka, and also her beloved sister Malka (Meital Barda) - in love with a young man who has fled the community to lead a secular life. A huge boxoffice hit in Europe, acclaimed at Festivals in Cannes, Toronto, New Delhi and Tokyo, Kadosh is both a powerful drama and an impassioned feminist polemic. As religious fundamentalism achieves new political significance in many countries around the world, the questions at the heart of Gitai's compelling drama resonate far beyond the borders of Israel.
   
• Kandahar (Iran, 85 min, Persian/English with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. "Best Picture of the Year!" - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Kandahar is an epic tale of hope and courage, inspired by the true story of a woman's attempt to enter Afghanistan. Nafas, an Afghan-born Canadian journalist, returns to her homeland in a desperate attempt to reach her sister. Overcome with grief after being injured by a landmine and her despair over the Taliban's systemic oppression of women, she has vowed that she will commit suicide at the time of the next solar eclipse, only three days away. Clothed in the traditional head-to-toe burka, and posing as a subservient wife, Nafas' odyssey takes her across a dramatic desert landscape, where she encounters bandits, corpse-robbers, marooned exiles, overwhelmed Red Cross workers, hordes of landmine victims, and finally a wedding procession that brings her within eyeshot of Kandahar.
   
• Karagoz (color, 23 min, VHS). This video reviews the history of Turkish shadow puppets and showcases samples of performance. Produced by Istanbul University.
   
• Kedma (2002, 100 min, DVD). An Official Selection at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Kedma is renowned Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai's powerful drama about a group of European Jewish refugees who arrive at Palestine in the critical year of 1948. Carried on the deck of the freighter Kedma, they come ashore to find not the Promised Land of milk and honey but a war-torn desert in the bloody throes of transformation into the state of Israel. Rescued from a British army ambush at beachside by Palmach Jewish guerillas, the Kedma's ragged refugees are remade into soldiers expected to offer their lives to defend a nation that does not yet exist in a land they've never known. Kedma is both a journey to survival and a chronicle of rebirth. As Rosa and fellow Europeans engage Arab resistance and elude British pursuit, they transform from exiles to insurgents and from Jews to Israelis. Directed by Gitai in a near documentary realist style, Kedma is an intimate epic of "overwhelming passion" that "tells you all you need to know about why this war still rages on with no end in sight" (Time Out, New York).
   
• Keepers of the Faith: The Jews of Jerba (VHS). This video discusses Jewish culture on the Tunisian island of Jerba.
   
• The Key (1986, color, 76 min, Farsi with English subtitles, VHS). Directed by Ebrahim Forouzesh. A charmingly suspenseful tale about a four-year-old and his toddler brother left at home alone. When the smell of burnt food attracts a neighbor, it's up to Amir Mohammed to find the extra set of keys to let her in.
   
• The Khyber (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Kippur (2000, 110 min, DVD). Yom Kippur, October 6th, 1973, war breaks out. Weinraub and Russo "fly" by car to the Golan Heights to try to find their military reserve unit. Unsuccessful, they decide to latch on to an Air Force first aid team. They are dispatched immediately. The helicopter crew fly back and forth across the Golan carrying out the dead and wounded. Their excitement and fervor quickly turn to shock and exhaustion. At their base and during missions, they develop a closeness and intimacy. On October 11th, Weinraub's 23rd birthday, they are sent to Syria on a mission. Their helicopter gets hit and crashes, the crew is sent to the hospital. "Kippur" is a profound war movie, based on the director Amos Gitai's own Yom Kippur War experiences, that presents a personal cinematic documentation about one of the toughest times in Israel's history.
   
• Knowledge of the World (1978, color, 30 min, VHS, Study Guide). This video focuses on early Muslim scholarship and education. Tradition World of Islam Series.
   
• The Land (1969, 30 min, Arabic with English subtitles, VHS). Chahine's classic film, adapted from Abdel Rahman al-Sharqawi's well-known novel of the same name, was eight years in the making. Chronicling a small peasant village's struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner, The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited. This contemplative, epic film about feudalism in rural regions was named the best Egyptian film ever made in a recent poll of Egyptian film critics.
   
• The Last Screening (VHS) -- No description available.
   
• Late Marriage (Israel, 2001, color, 100 min, Georgian/Hebrew with English Subtitles, DVD). Directed by Dover Kosashvili. In the tradition of such recent comedic hits as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Monsoon Wedding, comes this sexy, funny and revealing satire. Unmarried at 31, Zaza is a blot on his family. Trotting him out before one potential bride after another, he never manages to tie the knot. Curious, his family investigates and soon discovers the reason for Zaza's reluctance...his secret relationship with divorcee Judith. Upset, the entire family decides to intervene, culminating in a hair-raising showdown in which Zaza's relatives burst into Judith's home and confront Zaza in front of Judith and her six-year old daughter Madonna.
   
• Late Summer Blues (1987, color, 101 min, VHS). In 1987 this film received unanimous acclaim in the Jerusalem Film Festival. It is set in 1970 during the War of Attrition at the Suez Canal. It chronicles the events in the lives of seven Israeli students during the summer following high-school graduation - a summer clouded by their impending induction into the army. The film juxtaposes the tragedy of war with the innocence and idealism of youth.
   
• The Leader and the Nation (VHS) -- Leaders of Saudi Arabia, as presented by the Ministry of Information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, department of Information Affairs.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: Hezbollah (Lebanon, 2003, color, 180 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. Hezbollah (The Party of God) emerged in 1982 as a guerilla resistance army fighting against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Though primarily Shiite, the party has drawn support from a broad range of organizations both religious and political; its primary appeal was to the disenfranchised Shiite youth in Lebanon. Hezbollah has relied on the Iranian government for military and monetary aid and was added to the US State Department’s list of international terrorist groups in 1997. The party has since gained political legitimacy in Lebanon, holds parliamentary seats, while its civilian branch runs schools, orphanages and a television station. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: The Amal Movement (Lebanon, 2003, color, 180 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. The Amal [Hope] Movement is the popular name for the Shiite political party otherwise know as “ The Movement of the Disinherited.” Founded in 1973 by Shiite cleric Mousa El-Sadr, the party draws its initial political strength through its close ties with Iran. Amal evolved into a militia during the Lebanese Civil War, achieving national credibility during the reconciliation conferences in Geneva and Lausanne. The Amal Movement now holds a significant number of parliamentary seats, due largely to the number of people it represents and its successful resistance to the Israeli occupation of the south. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: The Kataeb Party (Lebanon, 2003, color, 200 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. The Kataeb Party (also know as The Phalange Party) was founded by Sheikh Pierre Gemayel in 1936. It quickly emerged as a nationalist youth movement and a champion of the Christian cause in Lebanon. Throughout the 1960s the party was considered one of the largest political organizations within Lebanon. In the 1970s, it evolved into a private militia under the leadership of Bashir Gemayel, the founder’s son. Bashir was elected president in 1982, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, but was assassinated eight days before he was to assume power. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: The Lebanese Forces (Lebanon, 2003, color, 180 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. In 1976, under the leadership of Bashir Gemayel, several Christian militias united under the banner of The Lebanese Forces. Their goal was to combat the Syrian presence in Lebanon and to counterbalance the perceived threat of armed Palestinian forces within the borders. Gemayal maintained close ties with Israel, visiting the nation on several occasions. It is also widely believed that he accepted military supplies and training from Israel. The Lebanese Forces received their official party license in the 1990s, but it was later revoked and the party eventually dissolved. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: The Progressive Socialist Party (Lebanon, 2003, color, 180 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. The Progressive Socialist Party was founded in 1949 by the respected Druze leader Kamal Joumblat. Due to its secular social justice platform, the party drew together disparate factions of the Lebanese populous and was able to claim 18,000 adherents in 1953. After the assassination of Joumblat in 1977, his son Walid took control of the party and steered it towards a more pro-Druze agenda. The Progressive Socialist Party continues to be the favored political party of the Druze and now has deputies in the Lebanese parliament. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• Lebanese Political Parties: The Syrian Social National Party (Lebanon, 2003, color, 180 min, Arabic with English subtitles, DVD). Directed by Farid Assaf. The Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) was established under clandestine circumstances by Antoine Saadeh in the early 1930s. Its primary objective was to unify the people of greater Syria. Throughout the 1930s, the SSNP attracted numerous followers by expanding into Syria, Jordan and Palestine. The party gained popularity for its resistance to the Israeli invasions of South Lebanon. After a brief division in the 1980s, the party was reunited over the following decades and now has deputies in the Lebanese parliament. This is part of a series documenting six of Lebanon’s most influential and significant political parties, providing a comprehensive historical context for the parties, their founders, and members.
   
• The Legend of a Sigh (Original title: Afsane-ye Ah. Iran, 1991, color, 105 min, Farsi with English Subtitles, VHS). Directed by Tahmineh Milani. This strikingly feminist film draws on the literature of Azerb