Sunday Movie Series: "Tales from Arab Detroit"

"The most significant documentary made about Arab Americans."

Pat Twair, The Washington Report on the Middle East

Summary: Detroit, home to 200,000 Arab Americans, is the largest Arab

community in North America. This revealing documentary was filmed during

the 1993 Detroit visit of renowned Egyptian storyteller Sheikh Ghanim

Mansour, one of the last people to recite from memory the 1000-year-old

100-hour epic tale of the Bani Hilal tribe. The purpose of his two-week

stay was, in the words of narrator Bushra Karamen, to make us think again

about who we are and where we came from. Older Arab Americans of

Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni and Syrian backgrounds relate the saga of

family migrations and discuss the gulf between generations. Young people,

including a rapper, members of the Warren Street Gang and a girl's

basketball team, demonstrate how cultural constants - family, music,

poetry - have been transformed through exposure to American society.

Director Joan Mandell interweaves the performances of Sheikh Mansour with

scenes at a local high school, hotel ballroom and downtown shopping mall

to form a tapestry of Arab America's myriad experiences.