Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Out of around 1000 Hollywood films that have Arab and Muslim characters (from the year 1896 to 2000) 12 were positive depictions, 52 were even handed and the other 900 plus were negative.

This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring the acclaimed author of "Reel Bad Arabs", Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs and Muslims - from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists" - along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypical images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Dr Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab and Islamic culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture.

The following is also interesting. Taken from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the following montage entitled 'Planet of the Arabs', which was inspired by Dr Shaheen's book, collects together some of the worst spectacles of Hollywood's relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims

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