Short List of recommended UNC films about Islam in the Modern World
A full listing is available in the Middle East and Islamic World Filmography, at the Media Resource Center of the UNC Undergraduate Library.

(listed by Title, Catalogue No., Minutes)
General

Islam (Smithsonian) V1580 60
Islam: Empire of Faith
Living Islam VHS 50 each

1. Foundations
2. The Challenge of the Past
3. Struggling with Modernity
4. Paradise lies at the Feet of the Mother
5. Among the Non-Believers
6. The Last Crusade

There is no god but God (Long Search) V-376 52

Art

Geometry, Symmetry and Order V3473 20. Excellent introduction to the Islamic art of Iran, its traditions, its philosophy, using film, animation and slides. Supported by outstanding musical score. Dir./Prod: Helen V. Graeff for College of Architecture, Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
Islamic Calligraphy V822 23
Legacy of the Mamluks V1624 28
Miniatures in Anatolia Through the Ages V3717 16
Siyah Kalem V1169 14
Suleyman the Magnificent V1581 57
Surnameh of Murad III V1169 22
Turkish Calligraphy V2623 50
Word Power in Islamic Art V4359 12
Art and the Islamic World 1993 33min V-4475. Islam inspired richly tiled mosques and unique calligraphy, but Islamic art is as difficult to define as Christian art. Royally-sponsored fountains, Persian miniature paintings, scientific drawings of plants and water clocks, mosque lamps and carpets, and high ornamented metal vessels reflect diverse religious and secular, spiritual and sensual realities in a world united by belief alone. Dir/Prod: Walter Denny and Carrel Bertram for the Middle East Institute.
DJAMEH MOSQUE c.1977 10min V1632 [Iran]. A lyrical un-narrated camera study of the Djameh [Masjid-I Jami] or Friday Mosque of Isfahan, is a panorama of architecture. The original structure was built in the 11th century by the Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah, with additions of one room with a Mongol mihrab built in the fourteenth century. Safavid faiences are superimposed. Prod: Manoucher Tayyab.

Colonialism

Battle of Algiers V591 123
Lines in the Sand (Gulf War) V3410 12
Voices of Palestine V3478 49
Children of Fire (Intifada) V2716 50
We are God's Soldiers (Hamas) V4455 52

Ideology and Religion

Remaking the World (Egypt) VHS 60

Immigration

Saeed (Iranian in Canada) V3337 20
Saaraba (return to Senegal from France) V2847 86
The Last Rose (return to Oman) VHS 25

Indonesia

Azhari Ali, an Achehnese Student H72 (16mm) 24
Pak Menggung, a Javanese Aristocrat H68 (16mm) 21

Iran

Divorce Iranian Style
Flame of Persia (the shah's biggest party) J-64 (16mm) 55
" (edited version) V1372 24
O Deer Savior (shrine at Mashhad) V807 22
Iran: Adrift in a Sea of Blood V1688 27
Recording the Truth (post-revolution) VHS 25

Islam in America

Bayt-al-Deen Revisited V-2081 33
Lessons of the Heart VHS 55
Arabs in America V1406 28
Muslim Community School V3292 20

Medieval history

MONGOL HORDES: STORM FROM THE EAST Four-part Series 1993 V4466
An epic four-part series, produced by BBC and NHK [Japan], chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the empire of Genghis Khan, the largest land-based empire in history. In documenting the extraordinary achievements of the Mongols, the image of Mongols as "Horsemen of Death" or mere marauding barbarians is transformed. The cinematography of the series is brilliant.
III. TARTAR CRUSADERS 46min [Europe, Middle East, Central Asia] Starting with the journey from Europe of John of Plano arpini to visit the new Great Khan, Part III examines the Mongol invasion of the Middle East from the devastation in Iran, the incursions in Aleppo and Damascus to the interaction with the Crusaders and storming of their castles in the Holy Land. Exec. Prod Robert Marshall. Dir. [NHK]: Takashi Inoue. Prod.[BBC]: Habie Schwartz, [NHK] Tomohide Terai.

Al-Andalus: the heritage of Islamic Spain [Videocassette] (57 min.) 65-V4474

Shi`ism

O Deer Savior (shrine at Mashhad) V807 22
ASHURA AT SKARDU 1996 20min V6052 [Pakistan]
Since the 18th century when the area of Baltisan, Pakistan, converted the Imami Shi’is, rituals have become increasingly Iranian. This tape records four processions from four villages in celebration of the 10th of Muharram, 1416, in the old-style chain-swinging, bloodletting kerbala commemoration now banned in Iran. In the background rise the snowy Karakorum peaks. Dir./Prod: John R. Perry

Sufism and Saints

Bayt-al-Deen Revisited V-2081 33
Durus al-Qalb (Lessons of the Heart) VHS 55
For Those Who Sail to Heaven V2738 48
Inner Life (Traditional World of Islam #6) 16 mm 30
Master Musicians of Jahjouka VHS 62
Saints and Spirits J56 (16mm) 26
La Sama, Danse Mystique des dervishes V3274 20
Turning (Whirling Dervishes) V2607 48
Whirling Dervishes VHS 12

Women

Afghan Women V3454 17
Arab Women: Image and Reality V3468 41
Covered: The Veil in Cairo VHS 26
Divorce Iranian Style
Iraqi Women: Voices From Exile VHS 54
Islam and Feminism (Pakistan & law) V3063 25
The Mountain (on Palestinian elopement) V3260 32
Price of Change (birth control-Egypt) J233 (16mm) 26
Veiled Revolution (Egypt) J-234 (16mm) 26
Wedding Song, Pakistani Henna Art/NYC V2427 40
WOMEN OF ISLAM 1991 139min V4895
Women in Yemen V3282 24
Women under Siege (Palestinian) J-235 (16mm) 26
In My Own Skin: The Complexity of Living as an Arab in America. Jennifer Jajeh is a Palestinian American actress and independent filmmaker. A UCLA graduate, she has worked internationally as an Arts Administrator in places as diverse as Prague and Palestine.” In this short film Jajeh interviews five other Arab-American women – Amneh [Giulia [Egyptian], Maha [Syrian-Filipino], Renda [Palestinian], Rabyaah [Saudi Arabia] – all of whom talk about how they deal with the complexities of being Arab in the U.S. especially in the wake of 9/11. The film is succinct and direct because the young women interviewed are. 16 min. VHS

Feature films

Secret Face (based on The Black Book, by Orhan Pamouk) V3724 115

Ainsi meurent les anges; dir: Moussa Sene Absa: "Mory [is] a troubled Senegalese poet living outside Paris with his French wife and their children. We watch his marriage fall apart under cross-cultural pressures, specifically his father's demand that he take a second wife in Senegal. Homeless in winter, separated from his children, his poems scattered over a Paris street, Mory returns to Senegal, penniless and with uncertain prospects. At the same time, black-and-white sequences reveal the psychological origins of Mory's present malaise."

Faat Kine. dir: Sembène Ousmane. "The deceptively light domestic drama of Faat Kine, a gas station operator born, significantly, the same year as Senegalese independence, 1960."

Ayyub [Job]: A Millionaire Opens His Papers
Bayn Al-Qasrayn [Between Two Mansions]
Naguib Mahfouz: The Passage of the Century
Nawal el Saadawi: Unveiling the Mind
Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine
The Quintuple of Naguib Mahfouz
Tales from Arab Detroit
Terrorism and Kebab
Les Affinites Recouvrees
Marocaine
Melehi
Nest in the Heat
Hyenas Under the Sun, 1977, Ridha Behi