Next Film/Video | Documentaries | Series & Festivals

From the Archive: Media Criticism and the Middle East

A man wearing a kaffiyeh over his head and face standing in front of trees.

Two unconventional documentaries from the Film/Video Studio archive that critique modes of representation of the Arab world.

The Film/Video Studio archive catalogues the diverse projects that have been supported since 1991. This program highlights the studio’s history of supporting artists and filmmakers dedicated to political advocacy and media activism. In My Beard Forever (1999), Afif Arabi reveals the impact of stereotypes in news coverage of the Middle East on an anonymous Arab American man. Jayce Salloum and Walid Raad’s Talaeen a Junuub (Up to the South, 1993) highlights the myriad forms of South Lebanese resistance against Israeli occupation in the early 1990s, and the resulting ways such resistance is misrepresented by Western institutions. Decades later, both works continue to resonate with the ongoing politicized violence in the region and Islamophobia in mass media. (program approx. 77 mins., DCP)

See the entire Picture Lock lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Talaeen a Junuub, courtesy of the artist.

Program lineup

  • My Beard Forever (Afif Arabi, 1999, 17 mins., DCP) 
    Supported by a 1999 Film/Video Studio residency. 
  • Talaeen A Junuub (Up to The South, Jayce Salloum and Walid Raad, 1993, 60 mins., DCP, in English, Arabic, and French with English subtitles)
    Supported by a 1993 Film/Video Studio residency.

Program Support

Picture Lock 2025 was co-organized by Film/Video Studio Director Jennifer Lange and Film/Video Studio Graduate Research Associate Allie Mickle.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Nationwide Foundation
Lois S. and H. Roy Chope Fund of The Columbus Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Axium Packaging

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang
Louise Lambert Braver
 

Love this artist? We also recommend these.

Close

Next Film/Video

From the Archive: Media Criticism and the Middle East