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Poster for Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
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Released
2006 · FILM

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
50 min
Documentary

Synopsis

This documentary examines a controversial aspect of cinematic history that has largely gone unchallenged from the early days of silent film to today's major Hollywood productions. The film investigates a recurring pattern of demeaning portrayals of Arabs—including Bedouin bandits, submissive maidens, sinister sheikhs, and armed "terrorists"—while providing critical insights into the origins of these stereotypes, their evolution at pivotal moments in U.S. history, and their significance in the present day.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 8

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Sut JhallyScored by Simon Shaheen

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