Ten Arab Filmmakers (political Dissent And Social Critique)

Edited by Gugler Josef; Contributions by Salamandra Christa; Contributions by Smolin Jonathan; Contributions by Mostafa Dalia Said; Contributions by Kennedy Tim; Contributions by Abu-Remaileh Refqa; Contributions by Shafik Viola; Contributions by Gee
Description

Ten Arab Filmmakers provides an up-to-date overview of the best of Arab cinema, offering studies of leading directors and in-depth analyses of their most important films. The filmmakers profiled here represent principal national cinemas of the Arab world—Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Syria. Although they have produced many of the region''s most-renowned films and gained recognition at major international festivals, with few exceptions these filmmakers have received little critical attention. All ten share a concern with giving image and voice to people struggling against authoritarian regimes, patriarchal traditions, or religious fundamentalism—theirs is a cinéma engagé.

The featured directors are Daoud Abd El-Sayed, Merzak Allouache, Nabil Ayouch, Youssef Chahine, Mohamed Chouikh, Michel Khleifi, Nabil Maleh, Yousry Nasrallah, Jocelyne Saab, and Elia Suleiman.

Description

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Table of contents

Introduction: Auteur Directors, Political Dissent, and Social Critique Josef Gugler
1. Nabil Maleh: Syria''s Leopard (Syria) Christa Salamandra
2. Jocelyne Saab: A Lifetime Journey in Search of Freedom and Beauty (Lebanon) Dalia Said Mostafa
3. Michel Khleifi: Filmmaker of Memory (Palestine) Tim Kennedy
4. Elia Suleiman: Narrating Negative Space (Palestine) Refqa Abu-Remaileh
5. Youssef Chahine: Devouring Mimicries or Juggling with Self and Other (Egypt) Viola Shafik
6. Daoud Abd El-Sayed: Parody and Borderline Existence (Egypt) Viola Shafik
7. Yousry Nasrallah: The Pursuit of Autonomy in the Arab and European Film Markets (Egypt) Benjamin Geer
8. Mohamed Chouikh: From Anti-colonial Commemoration to a Cinema of Contestation (Algeria) Guy Austin
9. Merzak Allouache: (Self-)Censorship, Social Critique and the Limits of Political Engagement in Contemporary Algerian Cinema (Algeria) Will Higbee
10. Nabil Ayouch: Transgression, Identity, and Difference (Morocco) Jonathan Smolin

Film Index
Name Index

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Ten Arab Filmmakers contributes in a positive, meaningful way to the general advancement of MENA studies in American institutions of higher education, encouraging students and the general public to learn about the Arab world from diverse perspectives.

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Gugler has done an admirable job taking the reader on a complex but passionate journey through the work of ten Arab fi lmmakers.

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Illustrated with arresting stills and superbly edited, this volume is sharp, incisive, and thought provoking. . . . Essential.

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Ten Arab Filmmakers represents a timely and important resource for educators, scholars, and students.

Biographical note

Josef Gugler is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent (IUP, 2003) and editor of Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence.

Endorsement

This volume offers perceptive essays on ten filmmakers from the Arab world, covering a wide span of countries and representing older as well as younger generations. Free of academic jargon and notable for their general accessibility, the essays, by authors from a variety of disciplines, provide biographies of the directors, characterize their dominant interests, themes, and aesthetic concerns, and closely examine individual films. The collection greatly enriches our understandi