Film premiere highlights Arabs, Jews and News

By: Kirsten Khire

September 16, 2009

On Sept. 21, two Michigan State University faculty members will premiere their new documentary film entitled Arabs, Jews, & the News.

The film, more than two years in the making, covers the Metro Detroit reaction to news coverage about the 2006 war in Lebanon. Dearborn has the largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East; roughly a third of the 98,000 residents identify themselves as Arab.

The free film premiere will begin at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21 in Room 147 Communication Arts & Sciences Building on the MSU campus.

Geri Alumit Zeldes, assistant professor in the MSU School of Journalism, is producer of the film. Zeldes says the film aims to show the evolving relationships between Arab Americans, journalists and Jewish Americans in Dearborn.

Zeldes said engaging as a journalist with members of the Arab and Jewish communities was rewarding. What was also rewarding was that the documentary provided an opportunity to use qualitative methods. "Creating a documentary is akin to conducting a scholarly research project that uses qualitative, textual analysis," Zeldes said.  "The thematic analysis of interviews is the same; the end products are different."
 
The 30-minute film features interviews with MSU academics, students, and reporters from The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Arab American News, The Jewish News, and other publications.  Several of the reporters and an MSU scholar who were interviewed for the film will speak after the premiere, Zeldes says. including Ismael Ahmed, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, Don Cohen, reporter of The Jewish News in Detroit, Gregg Krupa, reporter of The Detroit News, Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, and Kenneth Waltzer, director of Jewish Studies and professor in James Madison College. Waltzer will moderate the event.

Bob Albers, senior specialist in the MSU Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, directed the film.

“We intend this film to shed some light on a complex situation in contemporary life," Albers said. "Making any documentary is a very long and difficult process, full of twists and turns, but ultimately the process leads to insight. We are looking forward to sharing this work with the public.”

Zeldes and Albers received an MSU intramural research grant to produce the film in 2007. The grant provided for a Web site, materials, and the help of 22 MSU students, who served as editors, videographers, transcribers, and researchers.

As a result, more than 30 hours of footage became the final 30-minute documentary. The faculty are now working to seek wider distribution of the documentary.

For more information about the documentary, go to the web site at arabsjewsnews.org.