Introduction to the end of an argument = Intifada - Speaking for Oneself, Speaking for Others

This experimental documentary by Lebanese/Canadian artist, Jayce Salloum and New York based Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, deconstructs commonplace (mis)impressions of the Palestinian Intifada, an uprising understood primarily through Western media imagery. Drawing on Hollywood, European, and Israeli feature films, cartoons, documentaries, news coverage and excerpts of ‘live’ footage shot in the West Bank and Gaza strip, the film makes connections between media constructions of the Intifada and stereotypical visual representations of the Middle East, Arab culture, and the Palestinian people. Creating a collage that combines this diverse visual imagery with text, the documentary mimics the dominant media’s forms of representation, subverting its methodology and construction, in an attempt to to expose the racial biases concealed in familiar images. In doing so it goes beyond presenting a mere compendium of Arab stereotypes to demonstrate how repeated phrases and images contribute to the formation of US foreign policy on the Middle East region. In Arabic and English with English subtitles.