Turner Classic Movies is preparing to launch Race &
Hollywood: Arab Images on Film, a month-long movie event that focuses on the
diverse portrayals of Arabs in cinema. Tuesday and Thursday nights in July, TCM
host Robert Osborne will be joined by internationally acclaimed professor,
author and Middle East media consultant Dr. Jack G. Shaheen to introduce a wide
range of films and provide extensive insight into Hollywood’s ever-changing
attitude toward Arab people.

TCM’s Race & Hollywood: Arab Images on Film is the sixth
installment of TCM’s far-reaching and culturally significant Race &
Hollywood project, an ongoing exploration of cinematic portrayals of different
racial and cultural groups. Each Tuesday and Thursday evening in July will
focus on a different topic, including early films, epic stories, depictions of
Arab sheiks and Arab women, Arabs portrayed as villains or the subject of
ridicule and movies that provide an even-handed look at Arab culture. The
series will close on Thursday, July 28, with a night of films made outside
Hollywood.

Among the notable works featured in the Arab Images on Film
collection are 14 TCM premieres, including the award-winning Gulf War action
drama Three Kings (1999), starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube;
the romantic comedy-adventure Jewel of the Nile (1985), starring Kathleen
Turner and Michael Douglas; the Libya-set dramas Lion of the Desert (1981),
starring Anthony Quinn; The Black Tent (1956), with Donald Sinden; the
adventure films Tarzan the Fearless (1933), with Buster Crabbe; and the silent
classic The Sheik (1921), starring Rudolph Valentino. The July lineup will also
include David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945),
Kismet (1944), The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and several animated shorts featuring
Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Popeye and other famous characters.

“TCM is committed not only to preserving and
celebrating classic films but also to digging deeper into the events and
attitudes that have shaped how Hollywood depicts the world around us,”
Osborne said. “With Race & Hollywood: Arab Images on Film, we’re
setting out to track the history of Hollywood’s relationship with Arabs in
cinema and how it has evolved to where it is today. We hope this series
provides a thought-provoking look at a very timely and important topic.”

In his book “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a
People,” Dr. Shaheen writes, “When colleagues ask whether today’s
reel Arabs are more stereotypical than yesteryear’s, I can’t say the celluloid
Arab has changed. He is what he has always been — the cultural ‘other.’ Arabs
have too often been viewed as backward, barbaric and dangerously different through
Hollywood’s distorted lens. Unfortunately, these stereotypes are now deeply
ingrained in American cinema.”

As Shaheen points out, not all cinematic portrayals of Arabs
are negative. “While it is true that some filmmakers have vilified the
Arabs, others have not,” he writes. “Some contested harmful
stereotypes, displaying positive images — that is, casting an Arab as a regular
person…to paraphrase an Arab proverb, Eed wahdehm a fiha tza’if, one hand
alone cannot clap. Believe me, by working together, we will shatter the
stereotype.”

Dr. Shaheen is the world’s foremost authority on images of Arabs and
Muslims in American popular culture. He is the author of several award-winning
books, including “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”
and, most recently, “Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after
9/11,” which was named Book of the Year by ForeWord magazine. Shaheen is a
Distinguished Visiting Scholar with New York University and a former news
consultant on Middle Eastern affairs for CBS News. He regularly appears on
national programs such as Nightline, Good Morning America, 48 Hours and The
Today Show. Shaheen regularly serves as a consultant with television and motion
picture companies, including Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Hanna-Barbera and Showtime.
He also consulted on the George Clooney films Three Kings (1999) and Syriana
(2005).