Arcadia Public Library

As ISIS and other extremists threaten, enslave and kill Christians, is their history in the birthplace of their faith coming to an end?. ‘There is a global war against Christianity’ states Timothy Radcliffe, former master of the order of preachers. According to a Vatican report, 100,000 Christians are martyred every year. Others are harrassed, raped or attacked, and subjected to forced displacement and the destruction of their places of worship.....

Renowned visual artist Shirin Neshat offers an exquisitely crafted view of women rights today in Iran as compared to Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup removed the democratically elected government. The film was adapted from the novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur and weaves together the stories of four individual women during those traumatic days, whose experiences are shaped by their faith and the social structures in...

Filmed during the 2014 siege of Gaza, which left 507 children dead and 3,598 wounded, ’Born in Gaza’ follows a group of young children growing up in a war zone. ’We were eight kids on the beach. We came to play football’ states Hamada, 13. Then the shelling started. Four boys, all aged between nine and eleven, were killed. Motasem, 11, and Hamada were wounded. ’I may need to go abroad for surgery’ states Motasem. ’I have shrapnel in...

A Requiem for Syrian Refugees is a poignant journey of survival, resilience and empowerment. Requiem is a wrenching documentary that features epic landscapes and compelling candid testimonies of Syrian refugees. Shot unembedded less than one hundred miles from ISIS controlled territory, Requiem offers an unprecedented in-depth perspective on the daily lives and feelings of refugees. Requiem was shot with a crew of young refugees who felt the urgency...

A unique, compassionate and surprisingly funny story of a group of friends at a Jerusalem retirement home who decide to help their terminally ill friend. When rumors of their assistance begin to spread, more and more people ask for their help, and the friends are faced with a life and death dilemma.

A Space Exodus quirkily sets up an adapted stretch of Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey in a Middle Eastern political context. The recognisable music scores of the 1968 science fiction film are changed to arabesque chords matching the surreal visuals of Sansour's film. The film follows the artist herself onto a phantasmagoric journey through the universe echoing Stanley Kubrick's thematic concerns for human evolution, progress and technology. However,...

Through a clever mix of stop motion animation and interviews, The Wanted 18 recreates an astonishing true story: the Israeli army's pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared "a threat to the national security of the state of Israel." In response to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, a group of people from the town of Beit Sahour decide to buy 18 cows and produce their own milk as a co-operative....

Follow the rise of the Fatimids—history’s only Shia caliphate—in political and religious opposition to the Baghdad-based Abbasids. Witness the founding of Cairo as the new Fatimid capital, and examine the enlightened leadership of the 4th and 5th Fatimid caliphs, under whom Cairo became the most important city in the Islamic world.

Much media coverage, however, is incomplete at best, failing to take account of either the complexities or the historical background of this pivotal region. For most of us, the real story of the Middle East remains untold. What made this crucial geopolitical area what it is today? What forces and factors underlie what we read in the news, and what drives the current challenges the Middle East both faces and poses? In coming to terms with the present...

Consider the geographical region we call the Greater Middle East, and explore the range of nations and cultures that define it. Preview some of the remarkable historical turning points you’ll witness, encompassing conquests, political alliances, invasions, and the rise of Islam, as well as social, intellectual, and economic flowering of numerous kinds.