 |
Although blockbusters like Spiderman saw wild success post 9-11, films that focused on Muslims got a great deal of attention as well |
The Sunday following September 11th, 2001, the Fox Network was scheduled to air the blockbuster Independence Day, complete with all its destructive, building-smashing, people-blown-to-bits fiery scenes that thrilled audiences in the movie theaters. But scenes of New York City and the White House destroyed seemed rather inappropriate – to say the least – in light of the tragic events that had just transpired.
When the twin towers fell and the Pentagon was hit, life – in all aspects – irrevocably changed for better and for worse. Hollywood and the independent film industry was no exception. From an immediate reshuffling of movie releases to editing out scenes of the World Trade Center to an emerging focus on Afghani and Islamic-themed films, the film industry took a dramatic turn: Instead of the dollar as the bottom line, a bit of taste and interest in the Middle East instead took center stage.
After last September 11th, old rules went out the window, and Hollywood scrambled to address the shift in public sentiment and viewing pleasures. While Tinsletown answered with rectified movies and shifting of films, it was the independent films and documentaries that quietly drove audiences to a greater understanding of Islam and the world at large. While entertainment was still the name of the game, a bit of intellectualism crept in as well. Hollywood’s Two-Step Response
The reaction was immediate. As shock and sadness spread from the East Coast to the West, producers scrambled to adjust the big screen market to the new national mood of somberness and patriotism. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Collateral Damage, about a Los Angeles firefighter who goes to Columbia to avenge his family’s death, was immediately moved back to October. (Its tagline, “The War Comes Home,” was directly eliminated)
Many other movies also shifted their release dates, including Tim Allen’s nuclear-bomb-on-a-plane travesty, Big Trouble, and Gene Hackman’s tricking-airport-security-movie Heist. One project, Jackie Chan’s Nosebleed about a WTC window washer who foils a plan to blow up the twin towers, was entirely (and thankfully) scrapped. And numerous films went back to the drawing board to adjust scenes of New York, including:
- Spiderman, whose trailers showed a breathtaking scene of a helicopter caught in Spidey’s ingenious sticky net between the twin towers.
- Zoolander and Serendipity, in which shots of the WTC were erased to reveal a new Manhattan downtown.
- Men in Black II, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jone’s much-anticipated sequel had to rewrite its climax, as the original featured the WTC.
- The Time Machine, which had scenes of meteors falling on NYC erased.
All these changes reflected a new – if not short term – change in the way action movies presented its stars. Richard von Busack, a San Francisco journalist, wrote that action movies before 9/11 mainly focused not on smooth characters, but the violent acts themselves.
“In … explosion scenes,” von Busack wrote, “"you got the best applause when the buildings were in D.C. and New York: We know that the terrorists, aliens or meteors were punishing New York arrogance and Washington weaselry. The very size of the destruction meant that no hero -- not even Superman -- could be equal to the effect; the blown-up buildings were the stars of the show."
But in post-9/11 times, Hollywood flicks at least partially reversed this sentiment by toning down the explosions and pushing back the proximity of such movies with the tragedy. In general, comedies, fantasies, romantic and war-patriotic films dominated the movie theaters after 9/11. Yet box office results didn’t always pan out with these changes. Audiences also seemed to flock to other types of action movies dealing with crime or personal troubles, like Training Day and Don’t Say A Word.
Yet at the end of the Year of 9/11, things pretty much remained the same, except for the disappearance of WTC scenes. Many critics said violence would always be a Hollywood mainstay although reality-based violence may diminish a bit.
New York Times movie critic Stephen Holden in an interview with PBS’s NewsHour said what matters now is the context in which violence is portrayed. “Right after [9-11], Training Day, which is a very violent movie, opened and did fabulous business,” he said in January.
“So no one was averse to watching violence on the screen. I do think that we're going to have more heroism in films, that people ... films will be less ... a little less cynical than they were. I think that what this whole series of events has done is bring back a real belief in heroes, because we've seen real heroes. And that's going to impact a lot of mainstream films,” he added.
But throughout the year, what remained the ultimate pink elephant was the place of Muslims and Middle East in big-screen movies. Whereas Middle Eastern terrorists abounded in movies prior to 9/11 (for example, The Siege and True Lies), following the tragedy Islam and Afghani and Middle Eastern culture was all but ignored. The only exception was Robert Redford’s Spy Games, in which some scenes took place in Afghanistan.
In a way this may have been the best route for Islam and Islamic characters, which are often burdened with the worst of stereotypes. Hollywood films appeal to the American (and world) masses, who aren’t usually interested in seeing intelligent, aptly-described Muslims on the silver screen. This left the door wide open for independent, films to pick up the slack.
Islam Gains Footing in Film Festivals
With the war in Afghanistan after 9/11 and escalating violence in the Middle East, the independent cinema turned its scope to that part of the world. (New York, in fact, presented the most favorable home for Islamic and Afghani-related independent films.) In fact it was in most respects the year of Afghani films.
Early in the year the Film Society of the Lincoln Center took the lead with a fascinating retrospective of Abbas Kiarostami, a series on new Iranian cinema that featured the breakout hit, Kandahar (which focused on the lives of Afghani women under the Taliban regime). The film was released nationwide in January.
Kandahar especially struck a chord with New York viewers for its searing attention to the plight of Afghani refugees. In an essay on the troubled situation of Afghanistan, director Moshe Makhmalbaf said all of his work is not nearly enough to show the world what it has done to Afghanistan:
“Even now that I have finished making Kandahar, I have arrived at nowhere in my profession. I don’t believe that the little flame of knowledge kindled by a report or film can illuminate the deep ocean of human ignorance,” Makhmalbaf wrote.
The Lincoln Center also presented another Afghani film festival in March, “Afghanistan: Then and Now,” which drew large audiences eager to gain some fast insight from three films by Christophe de Ponfilly as well as Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati’s wildly popular Jung (War): In the Land of the Mujaheddin.
Jung premiered at the June 2001 Human Rights Watch Film Festival and packed the theaters with each showing. Of all the films at the March forum, Jung best captured the physical and mental breakdown of the country, and the effect of 20 years of war on innocent civilians. And instead of Islam as the bogeyman (as widely portrayed by Western media), the film aptly showed Afghani Muslims practicing their religion freely.
Another New York Afghanistan film festival in April (“A Map of Rediscovery”) at Hunter College screened a selection of documentaries and shorts exploring the country’s fractious existence and personal journeys to the country. One 18-minute short by acclaimed director Veda Zaher Khadem (the first woman permitted by the Taliban regime to film in Kabul) showed the frustration women have for the misrepresentation of the veil by the West.
“Our problem is not the veil,” one Afghani woman angrily told Khadem. “The West focuses too much on the veil. Our problem is that the country is completely destroyed.”
The turning point for Islamic gain in film, perhaps, came in June at the 13th annual Human Rights Watch International film festival in New York City. With Islam awareness, knowledge and sympathy increasing after 9/11, Americans, especially New Yorkers seemed eager to learn more than what they heard on the news. The HRW festival broke grounds with more than a third of its films and documentaries focusing on Islam-related topics.
But more surprising was the enormously compassionate audience reaction for pro-Palestinian and Afghani films. Even Israeli directors presented Palestinian-sympathetic documentaries, including wrenching portrayals of life in the Shatila and Dheisha refugee camps and dispossessed Palestinian villages.
Islam-oriented films sold out night after night. Two films especially drew widespread attention for its uncompromising portrayal of the state of Israel and the treatment of some of its Palestinian citizens. Citizen Bishara focused on the political roller coaster life of Azmi Bishara, an emblematic Palestinian and member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament). His ongoing battle for the rights of Palestinian-Israeli citizens in an unabashedly unforgiving country drew critical acclaim from the audience and film critics alike.
Another film, August, from Israeli director Avi Mograbi ferreted out the most obvious anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian biases imaginable. August chillingly explored the violent tensions in Israel by filming in Tel Aviv and splicing heated man-on-the-street interviews with footage of him in dual roles. The film, which played in the last days of the two-week festival, drew applause and ire alike.
Finally the 25th Asian-American International Film Festival in July proved to be the pinnacle of Islamic influence in independent films with the choice of Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s BagongBuwan (New Moon) as the opening night film. The film explored the impact of Islam on one Muslim family in Mindanao, Philippines, who are fighting for an independent state.
David Maquiling, co-director of the festival, said the choice of New Moon allowed “us to recognize the emergence of Philippine cinema on the world stage. … It’s not pro-Christian or pro-Muslim; it’s pro-peace, about a family trying to survive.” He added that giving the film the significant opening-night position also was a good way to showcase the true meaning of jihad in light of the 9/11 tragedies.
As the 1st “anniversary” of September 11th draws near, it’s more than apparent that Islam and Afghani and Middle Eastern culture has gained footing in the film industry – subtlety by Hollywood from its lack of attention on Islam-themes and avoidance pigeonholing “terrorist” character, and more openly by Independent cinema, particularly in New York.
How this plays out in the coming months is anyone’s guess, though most critics agree that in Hollywood, “business as usual” is again growing. Perhaps the burden of suitably filming Islam-oriented topics will have to remain with those small-budget flicks that travel the festival circuit.
|
