User:MaryamAl-Suwaidi/sandbox

Arab Cinema Overview
Arab cinema refers to the film industry in the Arab world. There is no single description of Arab cinema since it includes films from various countries and cultures of the Arab world and therefore does not have one form, structure, or style. Arab Cinema is a constantly changing and evolving industry. It mostly includes films made in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. While each country in the region has its own unique characteristics and identifiable brand of cinema. Elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, film production was scarce until the late 1960s and early 1970s when filmmakers began to received funding and financial assistance from state organizations. A sustained film industry was able to emerged in Egypt where other parts of the Arab world had only been able to sporadically produced feature length films due to limited financing.

Arab cinema has explored many topics from politics, colonialism, tradition, modernity and social taboos. It also attempted to escape from its earlier tendency to mimic and rely on Western film devices. In fact, the colonization did not only influence the Arab films, but it also had an impact on the Arab movies theartres. Apart from the history of the Arab cinema, recently the woman portrayal became an important aspect in the production of the Arab cinema. Arab woman shaped a great portion of the film industry in the Arab world by employing their cinematic talents in improving the production of the Arab films.

However, the production of the Arab cinema has declined in the last decades and many of the filmmakers around the Middle East has gathered to held a meeting and discuss the current state of the Arab cinema.

Number of Films Produced in the Arab Cinema
The Arab cinema did not flourish before the national independence of each of them, and even after, the films production of the Arab cinema was restricted to short-length films. However, there were exceptions for some of them. For example, Egypt scored the highest number in producing films for cinema amongst Arabs and produced more than 2,500 feature films. During the 1950s and 1960s Lebanon produced 180 feature films. Two full-length Kuwaiti films were produced at the end of 1970s, and a full-length Bahraini film was produced in the 1989. Syria produced around 150 films, Tunisia approximately 130, 100 films produced from each of Algeria and Iraq, Morocco almost 70, and Jordan’s productions were less than 12.

Impact of Conflicts on Egyptian Cinema and the Palestanian Cinema
The history of the Arab cinema primarily revolved around was impacted by political challenges such as the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the defeat of Israel in 1967 and the Palestinian resistance. However, during the Egyptian revolution of 1952 the feudalism system was substituted with a nationalism ideology led by the Rais. This new government have impacted the film industry in which many of the film produced were ‘social realism’ films depicting the real life of Egypt. Many of the films produced by Salah Abou Seif in 1952 were neorealism such as Master Hassan which portrayed the difficulties of the different classes in Cairo. Moreover, this system is said to be derived from the Italian neorealism, however, it wasn’t very successful as only a few films were produced. After the defeat of the 1967, where Israel defeated the Arab nation, An Association of New Cinema was introduced and in 1968, the representatives of this association wrote a manifesto which call for “the emergence of a new cinema with deep roots in contemporary Egypt” where “It is necessary to establish a real dialogue within the Egyptian culture in order to create new forms”. However, the Palestinian resistance has inspired many of the Arab filmmakers since the 1948 to produce films about their struggle. In fact, in 1972, an Association of Palestinian was developed to bring all the Arab filmmakers together who their work was about the Palestinian resistance.

Movie Theaters in Arab World
The influence of films and cinemas on Arabs was due to the effect of the West on the Arab World, therefore, natives were not the owners for the movie theaters that are located in their own lands. The first cinema in Egypt was built by the French company Pathé in 1906 in Cairo, aside from the cinématographe that is owned by the Lumière Brothers in Alexandria and Cairo. In 1908 a cinema was opened in Jerusalem that is called Oracle by the Egyptian Jews. Where in Tunisia they had the Omnia Pathé which did not launch before 1907. In 1908, in some of Algerian cities, the cinemas were built in places depending on the population of Europeans who live in Algeria, like Oran for example. Less than 20 years later, most of the Arab countries had more than a theatre for films screening. In Saudi Arabia and North Yemen cinemas were not accepted or prohibited because of religious objections. However, in 1960s to 1970s this issue was, in general, solved and accepted by King Faisal. However, in allienment with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammed Bin Salman's vision of 2030, which calls to expand the artistic, cultural, and entertaining fields in the country, there opened the first Cinema in Jeddah in April 18th 2018.

Full-length Arab Films
Full-length feature films produced natively in the Arab world after the 1920s. Like the Syrian film Al-Muttaham Albari’ (The Innocent Accused) which was presented in 1928, Mughamarat Ilyas Mabruk (The Adventures of Ilyas Mabruk) in Lebanon 1929, the Egyptian film Laylain 1927. At this time, the process of inserting the sound into movies used to be done in Paris, and Egypt were able to produce two sound film, one is entitled Awlad Al-Bhawat (Sons of Aristocrats) and the other is Unshudat Al-Fu’ad (The Song of the Heart). Although these films are produced in the Arab World, they mostly are directed, produced, or had any artistic sides from foreigners or immigrants.

The Modern Arab Cinema
Many of the Arab filmmakers are concerned about the current estate and production of the Arab cinema. Arab filmmakers from eleven different countries across the Middle East have decided to held a meeting to further address this issue and discuss the future of the Arab cinema as they are aware of that the Arab cinema is recently holding back. In fact, during the meeting, many of the directors, including the Omani, Kuwaiti, Emirati and Saudi were speechless and believed there wasn’t film industry in their country to talk about. However, according to the Iraqi director he also added that the film industry in his country was suffering since then 1990. As for the Palestinian filmmaker, Elia Suleiman and his opinion in all of this is that there are no interesting Arab films to watch anymore. Moreover, even Egypt, who was once the ‘the Hollywood of the Arab world’ is falling apart and is unable to compete with the Hollywood cinema and the American imported films. As, “the number of domestic productions has dramatically shriveled – from over sixty films a year in the 1960s to a little over a dozen a year today – and even those are being pushed out of theaters by the American imports”. One of the solutions which the Egyptian filmmaker and the director of El Medina, Yousry Nasrallah, came up with is to establish a theatre for screening only Arab film and he also ensures that there are people who are willing to invest in his project. One of the potential reasons for the decline in the production of the Arab cinema is due to the political conflicts. For example, the Palestinian cinema was introduced in 1976 and has always dealt with politics. Many of the films produced were documentaries about wars and refugee camps. Moreover, filmmakers across the Middle East such as Rashid Masharawi, Ali Nassar and many others began to also develop films on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict.

According to Nana Asfour, the fall of the Arab cinema is partially due to the great restrictions and censorship the Arabs put on directors who produce challenging films such as Ziad Doueiri and Randa Chahal Sabbag and who travel to the West to screen their films. She concludes by saying that “If enough Arab filmmakers follow their [directors] lead and if enough Arabs learn to appreciate and nurture their domestic talent, Arab cinema could very well find itself a worthy companion to the acclaimed film industry of neighboring Iran”

Role of Women in Arab Cinema
Women succeeded in covering 6 percent of the total number of feature filmmakers in the Maghreb during the 1990s, and less in percentages in the Middle East. The first 35mm feature film that is directed by an Algerian woman is called Rachida,by director Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, and it was released in 2002 to be screened in cinemas. In the 2000s number of women in film medium increased and was likeable in Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. Arab women directors were more considerable to women’s lives in the Arab World. Arab women also pioneered in screenwriting, where some as the Algerian novelist and the prize-winning Assia Djebar and Hafsa Zinaï-Koudil made their own feature films. One was released in 1978 and the other in 1993. Women from the Middle East who were interested in filmmaking, were cared of since they, who were born during the 1960s and 1970s, were sent to study about this medium in the United States, such as Najwa Najjar from Palestine and Dahna Abourahme from Lebanon, and others who studied Paris, Canada, and New York. Therefore, the European style in their feature films is quietly noticeable, apart from the effect of colonisation. Arab filmmaker women also had an important role in providing sense of civil war traumas that happened during the war. Also, providing some of social issues in films; the social issues were specifically related to women, like the sexual abuse issues for example. Director Yamina Bachir-Chouikh was so considerate to reveal these kinds of stories, which some, preferred to keep buried because they did not want to face this unpleasant reality.

Article evaluation Notes
The article which I will be evaluating in Wikipedia and that is related to our course is called 'Film Studies.'

After reading the article and in terms of its content, I feel that the article is relevant to the subject of film studies in which it begins with an a overview and an introduction of what the discipline of film studies is. In fact, all of the subheadings are connected directly to the discipline of film studies and is organized chronologically throughout the article. For example, the first subheading discusses the emergence and the history of film studies and how it is separated from the field of film production. As for the other following subheadings, it mainly discusses the progression of the field in the contemporary generation and how it is taught is the United States and different parts of the world. It also included information on the well-known film critiques and film producers in the film industry. However, I feel that the article might is a bit outdated since many of the sources provided to backup the article are published nine years ago in 2010. Moreover, I also believe the that the subheading 'World Film Studies' need a lot of elaboration because it briefly discusses how film studies developed in France and so I it should give examples from different parts of the world as well. Furthermore, in terms of the tone, I feel that article is neutral because it takes about the discipline of film studies in general and does not contain a lot of biased viewpoints on the topic which makes enhances its credibility. There are many sources in the article and a number of these sources are from other Wikipedia links, whereas the other half are from external links. For example, when the article talked about the fact that many of the universities offer courses related to the analysis of film and as an evidence the Wikipedia article offered an external link of one of the universities to show some of these courses. This shows how reliable is the article in terms of providing credible sources which support the claims the article is presenting. Apart from the content and the tone of the article which is found reliable, the 'Talk' page related to the article had mixed views around the credibility of the article where one student who is part of a WikiProject thought that the article is terrible and should be rewritten and another editor argued that the article is biased and only represent the American view of the article where it should talk about the film industry in different parts of the world. Whereas others found the article very engaging and interesting as it gave an understandable overview of the discipline of film studies.

I also added a question in the TalkPage of the Wikipedia article of 'film studies.' (Optional Activity)

Adding Citation
The discipline of film studies takes a critical approach of analyzing films and is less integrated with the production of films. Its also important to acknowledge that the discipline of film doesn't necessarily require a an instructor since it's all about the film itself. This field is considered as part of the media studies and often revolves around the understanding of the film's context, narrative and history. Many universities offer their students a course in the field of film analysis to critically engage with the production of films which also allows the students to take part in research and through providing seminars of specialized topics to enhance their critical abilities.

I also did the first part of the exercise which is adding a citation to an existing article and so I added a statement under the 'modern film studies' subheading of the article 'film studies.'

Article Selection

 * 1) "Arab cinema" I think this article needs a lot of improvements especially in the 'overview' section where it lacks reliable information on how the Arab cinema has formed and developed to reach its present day success. In fact, the article mentions that "Three quarters of all Arab movies are produced in Egypt." and provides no citation to the statement. However, I do disagree with the statement and I believe the Arab cinema has changed during the last decades in which there has been many Arab films dominating the Arab cinema apart from the Egyptians films and I would like to elaborate on this statement. The article also mentions the Arab festivals and talks about Qatar's cinema festival in a brief manner and I would like to elaborate on this fact since Qatar's Film Festival has progressed compared to the last few years. I would like to also talk about the role of the Arab cinema in the modern world and to investigate more on whether the Arab cinema has influenced and expanded to the West part of the world.
 * 2) "Film Studies" I have chosen this topic to improve on as I believe this article needs a lot of improvements especially under the section of 'World film studies' where it lacks many reliable information in relation to how this field is practiced in the world and only provide few examples of countries. In fact, the statement which says "Film studies throughout the world exist in over 20 countries." has no citation and we don't know what countries the article is referring to. I would like to also add how this field is practiced in the Middle East to a provide a wider perspective to the topic apart from what the article mainly focuses on which is in America.
 * 3) "Cinema of Egypt" I find this article is interesting because the growth and the establishment of the Middle East cinema have relied heavily on the Egyptian films and so they have a major role in contributing to the history of the Middle East cinema. However, this article talks mainly about the history of the Egyptian cinema and doesn't focus much on the current state of the Egyptian cinema and I wonder and would like to investigate more on whether the Egyptian cinema is still dominant or have fallen back.