Annual Report from the SCMS Middle East Caucus Group to the Board of Directors
Caucus Group Name: Middle East Caucus Group
Report Submitted by: Samirah Alkassim (Co-chair MEC)
Program & Communications Manager
Palestine Center and Jerusalem Fund for Education & Community
Development
Date Submitted:
September 19, 2014
I. Summary of Past Activities (since last report)
A. Elections for new Middle East Caucus Co-chair (to replace Nezar Andary) were held early,
in the fall of 2013 with the result of Sara Saljoughi who assumed this position at the
convening of the March SCMS conference in Seattle where both she and Samirah Alkassim
were introduced at the annual MEC meeting.
B. At such meeting we discussed ideas and possible initiatives for the coming year, including
the following: possible panel topics for the 2015 SCMS conference; greater
representation/visibility in the SCMS conference panels; better networking with other
caucuses in terms of CFP’s, panels, events and ideas pertaining to our common areas of
scholarly interest; questions about possibly changing the MEC name to MENAC (Middle
East and North African Caucus).
Other activities that we have since held include creating a Middle East Caucus facebook
group; reaching out to the Transnational Cinemas Group and trying to link with other
caucuses and SIGS.
II. Summary of Upcoming Activities
A. At the Annual Conference we have proposed and hope to hold one panel (“The Militant Image
in Global Cinema: Histories and Afterlives”), one event (“Wind from the Middle East: A Night of
Music and Film") and one workshop (“BDS and its Relevance to Film/Media Studies”). We intend
to sponsor as many panels as we are allowed (8), and hold the annual caucus meeting.
The summary for the panel, “The Militant Image in Global Cinema: Histories and Afterlives” is as
follows:
In the January 2001 special issue of "Third Text," the editors ask how the militant image is to be
understood in the contemporary moment. They juxtapose the concept of the militant image - drawn
primarily from its formulation in Third Cinema and the Tricontinental movement - with the term
"cine-geography." Cine-geography includes modes of circulation and types of discursive platforms.
Working on the train of such cine-geography, the papers on this panel elaborate a concept of the
militant image in relation to Middle Eastern and North African cinema and explore how
contemporary moving image media engage the rich history of counter-cinema from the 1960s and
70s. Beginning with Saljoughi's examination of the motif of militancy and the 1979 revolution in
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contemporary Iranian essay-films, the panel expands across Middle Eastern moving image media.
Westmoreland looks at Lebanese resistance films from the early 2000s and their engagement with
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while Alkassim examines militancy in the relationship of disparate
media forms such as television, Youtube, and art cinema. Finally, Cable examines the reception of
Palestine and Palestinian-American film and media in the context of political activism in the United
States during the 1980s and 90s. All four papers investigate forms that constitute what Kodwo
Eshun and Ros Gray dub "the afterlives" of the militant image as a "fourth-, fifth- and sixth
generation traveling image." The panel contributors seek to investigate how the concept of the
miltant image engages a postcolonial critique of film and media, while revitalizing the notion of
"Third Cinema," which Fernando Solanis and Octavio Getino theorized as cinema that can emerge
from any geopolitical site. Through these investigations, the panel hopes to broaden the existing
conversation on cinema and media from the Middle East by asserting its relationship to a global
tradition of counter-cinema. Finally, by positing the contemporary militant image as renewal of the
counter-cinema tradition of the 1960s, the panel contributors seek to situate Middle Eastern film
and media within a broader discussion of the urgency of political film.
The summary for the event “Wind from the Middle East: A Night of Music and Film” is as follows:
This event features a brief musical performance by local Montreal musician Stefan Christoff. Christoff
performs on piano in duet with Sam Shalabi, an Egyptian-based musician, playing the oud. The duo
released an album in 2012 and their project Flying Street (‫ ) الّيطار ال شارع‬is forthcoming. The
performance will be followed by a lecture by Professor Negar Mottahedeh, author, most recently of
DISPLACED ALLEGORIES: POST-REVOLUTIONARY IRANIAN CINEMA. Mottahedeh will
give a talk titled "Wind: Iranian national cinema’s international genealogy in Bahram Beyzaie’s rural
film cycle" on the rare pre-revolutionary Iranian film, BALLAD OF TARA. The talk will be followed
by a Q&A.
This event will allow the members of the Middle East Caucus to attend a talk by one of the key figures
in Middle East cinema and media studies. Furthermore, because Mottahedeh works at the cross
section of film, new media, and women's studies, we hope that the Q&A after her talk will encourage
reflection on how the caucus can support interdisciplinary work within our field. The musical
performance will highlight the conference location and allow Caucus members to connect with the
lively local music and film scenes, which contain many practitioners with a focus on the Middle East
(such as Christoff and Shalabi themselves). Finally, it is also a networking opportunity for Caucus
members both within the Caucus itself and across the general membership of SCMS.
The summary for the workshop “BDS and its Relevance to Film/Media Studies” is as follows:
This workshop will serve to unpack ideologically charged perceptions of BDS and Palestine solidarity
work within film and media studies. Presenters will historicize the concomitant emergence of film
studies and academic boycotts, covering issues such as surveillance and censorship, Palestinian
cinematic practice and teaching, the ideological targeting of ‘pro-Palestinian’ professors and curricula,
and the well-funded promotion of government- and lobby group-funded Israeli film programs,
cultural research, and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim public relations campaigns. The workshop’s
compositional diversity–scholars and practitioners–encourages constructive dialogue by drawing from
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scholarly research as well as personal experience, aiming to dispel common myths about academic and
cultural boycott as well as providing space in which to consider BDS’ significance for our discipline.
B. Other activities include working to increase MEC membership from our different networks,
discussing writing/publishing collaborations, curatorial ideas and sharing opportunities.
III. Questions / Issues for SCMS Board of Directors’ consideration
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We are concerned about the caucuses having more power to produce events and we think
that each caucus should be able to hold an event without competition amongst one another.
We think that the chairs should be able to know earlier than November and February
respectively about the panels, workshops and events.
We wonder and ask how we can be more involved in the process of selecting
panels/workshops/events and would like to suggest that volunteer effort be welcomed from
among caucus and SIG chairs.
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