Contemporary Arab Cinema 2016

Welcome to the fifth annual presentation of Contemporary Arab Cinema! At a time when the Arab world is still in the headlines—more often than not for reasons equally horrifying to us as they are to you, this series is more important than ever. It gives regional filmmakers the opportunity to tell their stories while inviting the audience to marvel at artists who manage not just to produce films amid the conflict, but to do so at a high level that earns them recognition at film festivals around the world.

I’m thrilled that we’re mounting an exhibition, “Posters from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema from the Bibi Family Collection,” in conjunction with this series. This rare collection of posters from the 1960s through the ’80s features legends of the silver screen in poses they’d never get away with in today’s conservative atmosphere, depicted by some of the most famous artists of the day. They are from the personal collection of Abed Bibi, whose father, a Lebanese movie distributor with an eye for art, kept a copy of the posters of all the movies he distributed. The exhibition will be on view in the Jane Peck Gallery, on the second floor of the Theater, starting Friday, September 2^nd and staying up throughout the series.

Join us as often as you can during this exciting week for some remarkable films and invigorating conversations. I look forward to meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones.

—Lina Matta, curator

A Lebanese-American based in Dubai, Lina Matta is the senior channel manager of MBC Group’s channel 2, 4, Max, and Variety. She has programmed this series for the JBFC since 2012.