Book Description

Stories of exotic desert landscapes, cutting-edge production facilities, and lavish festivals often dominate narratives about film and digital media on the Arabian Peninsula. However, there is a much longer and more complicated history that reflects long-standing interconnections between the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Just as these waters are fluid spaces, so too is film and digital media between cultures in East Africa, Europe, North Africa, South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Southeast Asia. Reorienting the Middle East examines past and contemporary aspects of film and deigital media in the Gulf that might not otherwise be legible in dominant frameworks. Contributors consider oil companies that brought film exhibition to this area in the 1930s, the first Indian film produced on the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1970s, blackness in Iranian films, the role of Western funding in reshaping stories, Dubai's emergence in global film production, uses of online platforms for performance art, the development of film festivals and cinemas, and short films made by citizens and migrants that turn a lens on racism, sexism, national identity, and other social issues rarely discussed publicly. Reorienting the Middle East offers new methods to analyze the oft-neglected littoral spaces between nation-states and regions and to understand the role of film and digital media in shaping questions between area studies and film/media studies. Readers will find new pathways to rethink the limitations of dominant categories and frameworks in both fields.