A scene from Salt of This Earth, the closing night film of the inaugural Calgary Arab Film Festival

DETAILS

Calgary Arab Film Festival
Uptown Stage & Screen
Sunday, October 25 - Thursday, October 29

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Stereotypes; they’ve always been with us and undoubtedly always will be. Once they’re stuck, they’re hard to un-stick. Some people tolerate them, some people live by them and a few proactively try to challenge and expose them for the narrow generalizations they actually are.

Yousef Traya is a Calgary-born first-generation Canadian of Lebanese descent, who has travelled extensively in the Middle East. A couple of years ago, he and a few like-minded peers sat down and acknowledged the need for an Arabic cultural showcase in Calgary.

“We basically said, ‘Let’s try to do something from a cultural aspect for the city to see about Arabs, because there’s really nowhere for us to display ourselves in a cultural setting,’” Traya recalls. “We felt that Calgary was ready for something like this from the Arab community.”

A local, internationally focused film festival was conceived. “I felt that film was the best medium for us, because we could present different perspectives, not just from one area but from a bunch of different areas, whether it was Morocco, whether it was from Palestine or from Egypt or from Algeria — there’s different aspects to all those countries,” says Traya, who is now the festival’s artistic director. CAFF’s mandate is “to represent the diversity of the people, regions and perspectives of the Arab world” and “to provide realistic perspectives on Arab people, culture, art, history and politics.”

The inaugural Calgary Arab Film Festival will showcase eight films from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, France and the U.S. One documentary, Reel Bad Arabs, directly attacks and challenges the aforementioned stereotypes that have existed throughout the history of cinema. “We thought it would be a great idea to present a documentary on Arabs in films — it discusses some pretty real issues about how Arabs are presented in the media,” says Traya, who recalls being inundated with degrading caricatures as a child. “The terrorist one is the biggest one. To me, growing up and watching cartoons, the typical one was the guy with the turban and the big pointed, curly shoes. The Ali Baba, the Aladdin character. They were [aimed at] young people, a young audience forming opinions. When we grew up, we realized, ‘Oh my God. There are not many films out there, in mainstream media, that show the positive aspects,’” he acknowledges.

Another documentary, The Heart of Jenin, tells the heart-rending story of a Palestinian father whose child is shot by Israeli soldiers. The father then decides to donate his son’s organs to six children in need of transplants, benefitting innocent children on both sides of the devastating conflict. The six dramatic features presented add up to a compelling portrait of the richness and diversity of Arabic culture, life and history. “A lot of our films feature strong women characters in the main role,” Traya notes.

By will and hard work, CAFF overcame the obstacles facing any newcomer to Calgary’s crowded festival-scape. Support was forthcoming both from the Arab community and the cultural community at large, though nailing down some of the award-winning films proved a little more difficult. Traya and company hope to build on this year’s anticipated success and turn CAFF into an annual tradition.

Traya feels fortunate to have grown up in Canada’s cultural mosaic, playing hockey with kids from all over the globe. He’s proud to share his heritage with his fellow Calgarians.

“It’s part of were I’m from, the Middle East,” he says. “I’m proud of it, but I’m also proud to be a Canadian. I speak the language, I appreciate the history of Arabs and the contributions they’ve made throughout history.”

All the films are in Arabic with English subtitles. Traya stresses that CAFF is about bringing people together and hopes to attract a broad cross-section of Calgarians. “I’d like to see all walks of life, every different kind of Calgarian — the festival-goers, the arts crowd, to everyday people, students, seniors. We just want everybody to see it.”