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sabotabbyLast night, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zingerella and I went to see Forbidden Lie$, about literary con artist Norma Khouri, at HotDocs. Toronto people—there's another showing on Friday, so if you get a chance, go! It's one of the best documentaries I've seen in ages (and you know I watch a lot of documentaries) and dovetails neatly with a few of my obsessions: the neo-conservative assault on the Middle East, feminism, and the madness that is the publishing industry.
Khouri wrote a best-selling book, Forbidden Love, about her childhood best friend: Dalia, a Jordanian Muslim woman who was murdered by her father for falling in (chaste) love with a Christian man. Everyone from Random House to Liz Cheney lapped it up, and Khouri became a star. The publishers never bothered to fact-check it or confirm Khouri's story. It had a ring of authenticity, not because it got geographical or cultural details about Amman right (it didn't), but because it played to that most tempting of images, the veiled, oppressed, helpless Muslim woman who must be rescued from savage Arab men by the West. Not by coincidence, it was published just before the invasion of Iraq.
This was all well and good, except that a Jordanian journalist who'd worked tirelessly to end the practice of honour killings found 72 glaring inaccuracies in the book, and informed Random House. They didn't believe her, but an Australian journalist caught on and exposed Khouri as a fraud. And actually, erm, American—she'd grown up in Chicago. As the media controversy died down, director Anna Broinowski stepped in, initially sucked in by Khouri and willing to travel to Jordan to prove that Dalia was a real person.
Beyond being a fascinating story—Khouri is a great character, and her story involves Chicago mobsters, fraud, and some rather hilarious video footage—Forbidden Lie$ is a wonderfully well-made film. It could have been one big pwn, but Broinowski is quite sympathetic to her subject, so it becomes both a psychological study and a riveting game in which the director and the con artist jostle to get the upper hand. And it's a constant lol-fest as you wait to see what Khouri will pull next.
And, of course, it's an important political movie that confronts the Orientalist Western view of the Middle East and specifically of Middle Eastern women. Pure win, really.
Remember, if you're in Toronto tonight and not incapacitated, come out to the IWW fundraiser at Smiling Buddha Bar! There will be beer. And music.
Oh, and sorry to harp on the hip hop thing again, but do we really need headlines that scream: "Hip hop code of silence envelops youths" and articles that blame Lil' Kim for Jane Creba's murder? Cause, yeah. Every other culture celebrates snitching, dontcha know?
zingerella and I went to see Forbidden Lie$, about literary con artist Norma Khouri, at HotDocs. Toronto people—there's another showing on Friday, so if you get a chance, go! It's one of the best documentaries I've seen in ages (and you know I watch a lot of documentaries) and dovetails neatly with a few of my obsessions: the neo-conservative assault on the Middle East, feminism, and the madness that is the publishing industry.Khouri wrote a best-selling book, Forbidden Love, about her childhood best friend: Dalia, a Jordanian Muslim woman who was murdered by her father for falling in (chaste) love with a Christian man. Everyone from Random House to Liz Cheney lapped it up, and Khouri became a star. The publishers never bothered to fact-check it or confirm Khouri's story. It had a ring of authenticity, not because it got geographical or cultural details about Amman right (it didn't), but because it played to that most tempting of images, the veiled, oppressed, helpless Muslim woman who must be rescued from savage Arab men by the West. Not by coincidence, it was published just before the invasion of Iraq.
This was all well and good, except that a Jordanian journalist who'd worked tirelessly to end the practice of honour killings found 72 glaring inaccuracies in the book, and informed Random House. They didn't believe her, but an Australian journalist caught on and exposed Khouri as a fraud. And actually, erm, American—she'd grown up in Chicago. As the media controversy died down, director Anna Broinowski stepped in, initially sucked in by Khouri and willing to travel to Jordan to prove that Dalia was a real person.
Beyond being a fascinating story—Khouri is a great character, and her story involves Chicago mobsters, fraud, and some rather hilarious video footage—Forbidden Lie$ is a wonderfully well-made film. It could have been one big pwn, but Broinowski is quite sympathetic to her subject, so it becomes both a psychological study and a riveting game in which the director and the con artist jostle to get the upper hand. And it's a constant lol-fest as you wait to see what Khouri will pull next.
And, of course, it's an important political movie that confronts the Orientalist Western view of the Middle East and specifically of Middle Eastern women. Pure win, really.
Remember, if you're in Toronto tonight and not incapacitated, come out to the IWW fundraiser at Smiling Buddha Bar! There will be beer. And music.
Oh, and sorry to harp on the hip hop thing again, but do we really need headlines that scream: "Hip hop code of silence envelops youths" and articles that blame Lil' Kim for Jane Creba's murder? Cause, yeah. Every other culture celebrates snitching, dontcha know?
