Tarek Fahmy: Cultural Critic

Lets go back to Jack Shaheen’s ‘Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People’ for a moment. Like I previously mentioned, Mr. Shaheen suggested that if an Arabic fund, individual, or corporation establishes a lobby in Hollywood by purchasing a production company that, over time, would change the Arab’s image in Hollywood. Further, since “Washington and Hollywood Spring From the same DNA” tht lobby could seep into the general culture and politics of the WEST.

I started to research potential companies/countries that would do this based on their current activities and ideologies.

The UAE became the prime candidate because of it’s ‘progressive’ image, cash rich economy, and it’s massive development projects.

I was going to pick any compnay or fund that seemed suitable and create then branding for that production company that they were buying.

While doing research on the matter I found out in the news that Dubai International Capital (DIC), a private equity company owned by the ruler of Dubai, said it has made a “substantial investment” in Sony. The exact numbers are not disclosed.

This is perfect since Sony owns Colombia pictures and my ‘fictitious’ Arabic company
has become a reality.

I am still thinking of developing the branding for the ‘new’ Colombia pictures that is now partially owned by the DIC.

So far this is where I stand in my research process.

Any and all comments would be greatly appreciated!

Tarek

Article Title: Dubai takes ’significant’ stake in Sony
LINK

State-owned Dubai International Capital makes investment in Japanese conglomerate.
“Hollywood and Washington spring from the same DNA.” Movie mogul Jack Valenti

After reading “Reel Bad Arabs”, Jack Shaheen, and watching the one hour documentary, I was thinking that it would be a kewl thesis topic to invent a fictitious Arab owned company that buys a Hollywood production studio and establishes a much needed Arabic lobby in Hollywood. Over time, that Arabic Hollywood voice would start to seep into western culture and politics in general, slowly changing the misleading ‘orientalist’ view of Arabs and painting a more humanistic picture of the peoples.

(DIC), a state owned Dubai International Capital just bought a ’significant’ share of Sony. As you may or may not know, Sony bought the Hollywood giant Colombia Pictures in 1989. In effect, DIC bought a stake in Colombia pictures as well. Will this be the start of eradicating the vilification of Arabs in Hollywood and culture in general or is it purely a financial endeavor on DIC’’s part?

Quotes from the documentary

“Washington and Hollywood Spring From the same DNA”,
jack Velenti, was a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America‭. ‬

“Civilizations need not crash, but rather blend” Khaleel Ghibran

So I looked at Mr. Shaheen’s book and documentary a bit deeper. One of his solutions for this vilification of Arabs in Hollywood is to pull off what the Japanese owned SONY did in 1989, when they bought the Hollywood giant production Company named Columbia Pictures. They, in a sense, effectively purchased a powerful Hollywood lobby that also springs from the same DNA as politics. Hollywood and politics have a symbiotic relationship where one affects the other and vice versa. When you look at Japanese movies made after this purchase, Japanese men were no longer portraied in a negative light.

Shaheen further suggests that if a rich Arabic corporation/individual buys a production company in Hollywood, effectively establishing a lobby there, the image of the Arab will be portrayed in a less negative light as well.

Lets take Professor Shaheen’s idea a step further and establish the identity of this production company. This Arabic owned, progressive, and off-course ultra secular and intelligent corporation.

I started looking at Arabic typography and modern typographers in my next phase. I want this company to have a modern middle eastern logo and it’s english equivalent. I also want to use eastern imagery in some of the work.

I found a designer, who designs modern Arabic font faces as well. His name is Tarek Atrissi‬. His firm worked on the identity for the recently release BBC Arabic. His studio designed a specific font for the channel that was intended to be modern. He also designed the font for the Arabic version of Amnesty International website. I took snaps of the fonts and will show them to class.

I want to design the look and feel of the production company using Middle Eastern sensibility combined with a modern NYC approach.

I started doing research on potential countries and/or individuals that might want to invest in Hollywood. All arrows pointed to the UAE, United Arab Emirates, since they have been developing their infrastructure on a heavy scale and they also have been projecting a progressive Arabic ideaology in their marketing campaigns.

Further research led me to a one hour documentary about jack Shaheen’s book. I found it on YOUTUBE. The documentary dissects the book using actual Hollywood footage of the films in question with shots of Jack Shaheen, the author, explaining his points and opinions.

It’s very well produced might i add.

• PART #1

• PART #2

PART #3

PART #4

PART #5

I continued to do research on racial Profiling, racism, and Islamaphobia. At the same time I was thinking how am I to translate this visually, as a Pratt Grad Comm D thesis project. I not only have to write at least 50 pages, I have to also present a visual project to accompany the text.

Not sure how i exactly found it, but I ran across a book titled: “Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People“. The book is written by jack Shaheen. (ISBN 1-56656-388-7)

I found the first mention of it here: @ artthreat,net

In a nutshell, the book declares that Arabs and Muslims are the single most maligned and attacked group in the history of film. The author looked at over 1000 films that contained Arabs, 50 of which were neutral 6 depicted Arabs in a positive light, and the rest were negative stereotypical Orientalist depictions.