Everyday Activist - Things Arab Men Say (MLJFF 2017)

Posted on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 11:00 PM

Things Arab Men Say (MLJFF 2017)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

The next time I go to Edmonton I have to visit Jamal’s Eden Barbershop, the setting for the National Film Board (NFB) documentary, Things Arab Men Say. Jamal and all his clients featured in the film come from different countries in the Arab world including Lebanon, Sudan and Palestine. Many of them are well educated professionals and business people. They discuss various issues in a casual conversational way. Nothing felt scripted.

One of the topics the young post doc brought up irritates me. The Canadian government brings people into the country to educate them all the backs of the Canadian taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for Masters and PhD level candidates, but they can't be bothered to find them a job when they finish to pay back the investment. Some of students don't even get permanent residency, which is ridiculous. Canadians should be more angry about that, because we need well educated people to stay in Canada to help with the tax base, especially when taxes paid for their education!

The conversations weren't all serious. In fact I loved their humor, especially when things got intense. Jamal was quite upset at an expensive decision he had made for him and his family. Someone off camera cracked a joke to ease his distress. I enjoyed learning about the different stereotypes, such as Lebanese people tend to be entrepreneurs. In Indian culture we have the same regional “filing system”. Gujarat is where the entrepreneurs are in India.

Things Arab Men Say screens on Saturday, November 18 at 3:45 pm as part of the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2017 at River Park Church, with a guest speaker following the movie. I'm kind of sad that they couldn't get one of the men from the movie to come. Because it is an NFB production, it will be available on the NFB website for a small fee.