Middle Eastern Studies

In this two-part tour through the streets of Lebanon, a colorful Palestinian cab driver offers offhand insight into the region’s fraught political and social climate through boisterous serenades and excitable outbursts.

Pulling from real events and court documents in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, Also Known As Jihadi follows a young man's journey to radicalism not through his actions, but through his surroundings. 

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's The Wild Pear Tree follows in the great tradition of family dramas like Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and weaves an evocative tale of creative struggle and familial responsibility with inspired performances, sumptuous imagery and surprising bursts of humor. 

Reality for the kids who live in Sderot, an Israeli town that neighbors the Gaza strip, is a constant reminder that they are in the midst of a deadly conflict. Kids of the Rocket Siren melds verite, interviews and archival to document the kids who have grown up with rocket shelters, sirens and deadly blasts.

A groundbreaking documentary trilogy directed by Iran's most prominent documentary filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei, Youth Behind Bars: The Iran Trilogy, with incredible humanity, captures the lives, dreams and hopes of Iran's imprisoned youth.

A stark testimonial of the previously unseen and unheard, award-winning Starless Dreams plunges us into the lives of young teenage girls sharing temporary quarters at a rehabilitation and correction center on the outskirts of Tehran. An unforgettable cinematic portrayal of restored innocence and humanity Starless Dreams is the last installment of the groundbreaking documentary trilogy Youth Behind Bars: The Iran Trilogy.

Following his harrowing documentary, It's Always Late for Freedom, director Mehrdad Oskouei continues his exploration of a male juvenile detention facility near Tehran. Last Days of Winter follows these young men in the days leading up to the Iranian New Year, as they take stock of their lives.

Acclaimed filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei provides a rare glimpse into an all-male juvenile detention facility in Iran. It's Always Late for Freedom is the first film of Oskouei's trilogy documenting troubled youth in Iran, preceding The Last Days of Winter (2011) and Starless Dreams (2016).

A gripping and timely snapshot that provides a glimpse into the plight of Syrian refugees, 50 Feet from Syria uncovers the humanitarian efforts of a Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon who travels to the Turkish border to volunteer to operate on victims of the civil war.

Arriving at the heart of an emerging revolution after living abroad for ten years, a young female filmmaker redefines her place in Yemeni society, as well as her relationships with her father and grandfather. In a unique examination of the uprisings in Yemen, The Mulberry House shifts the focus from events on the streets to the impact of the revolution on the lives of one family. An incredibly moving and intimate story by the director of Academy Award nominated Karama Has No Walls.

A gripping and moving story that illustrates the impact cosmopolitan recognition has on an isolated population, From Iran: A Separation details the reception of the speech Asghar Farhadi (About Elly) gave when his film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals (two married couples and a brother and sister, along with three young kids) decide to reunite for a weekend outing by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on to the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter’s kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad.

Mixing personal stories, political history, revolutionary propaganda and film theory, artist Eric Baudelaire illuminates the idealism and radicalism of left-wing extremist movements of the 1970s by interweaving the stories of two of its protagonists: May Shigenobu, daughter of the founder of the Japanese Red Army, and Masao Adachi, the revered Japanese director who gave up cinema to take up arms.

Filmed in an unofficial Palestinian Bedouin camp that was established in 1948 on a stretch of beach in South Lebanon, Terrace of the Sea uses a collection of family photographs taken over three generations as a prism through which to reflect on memory, loss and history.

"The Arab governments pushed us out of our homes… I was twelve years old… I’ve been here for 60 years." A beautiful, poignant, documentary, Still Life examines the effect a collection of personal photos showing life in Palestine before the 1948 displacement have on an elderly Palestinian fisherman living in exile in Lebanon.

A provocative look at the complexities of Arab identity in post 9/11 America, American Arab interweaves filmmaker Usama Alshaibi's own story, and that of his family, as well as other Arab Americans to thoughtfully explore the values, passions, hopes and perceptions of his community, from inside and out.

2014 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, Karama Has No Walls is a gripping, eye-witness account of a tragic day that changed the course of the revolution in Yemen; when pro-government snipers opened fired on a peaceful gathering of protesters, sparking national outrage and ultimately leading to the end of 33 years of autocratic rule.