Curated by Tarek Elhaik, Department of Anthropology
This project has been partially funded by a grant from the AL-FALAH program of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley.
This spring the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley presents a series of lectures and screenings around the theme of Islam and Muslim identities. The film series gathers an exciting selection of works that gives a broad sampling of women filmmaking in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Muslim diaspora. Featuring the recent productions of internationally acclaimed directors Moufida Tlati and Yamina Benguigui and introducing documentaries and short pieces by emerging directors, this four-part film series, which continues in our next issue, foregrounds provocative narratives and representations of such "polemical questions" as gender dynamics, women's participation in the workforce, the experience of migration, and sexuality. The series not only looks at processes of cultural and political negotiation, but zooms in on the everyday interplay of identity, history, and power at various sites of the Islamic world.
-Tarek Elhaik
