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Negotiating Dissidence
The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary
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Book Presentation:
The first book to trace the female pioneers of Arab documentary filmmaking
In spite of harsh censorship, conservative morals and a lack of investment, women documentarists in the Arab world have found ways to subtly negotiate dissidence in their films, something that is becoming more apparent since the ‘Arab Revolutions’. In this book, Stefanie Van de Peer traces the very beginnings of Arab women making documentaries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), from the 1970s and 1980s in Egypt and Lebanon, to the 1990s and 2000s in Morocco and Syria.
Supporting a historical overview of the documentary form in the Arab world with a series of in-depth case studies, Van de Peer looks at the work of pioneering figures like Ateyyat El Abnoudy, the ‘mother of Egyptian documentary’, Tunisia’s Selma Baccar and the Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri. Addressing the context of the films’ production, distribution and exhibition, the book also asks why these women held on to the ideals of a type of filmmaking that was unlikely to be accepted by the censor, and looks at precisely how the women documentarists managed to frame expressions of dissent with the tools available to the documentary maker.
Case studies include:
• Egypt's Ateyyat El Abnoudy
• Lebanon's Jocelyne Saab
• Algeria's Assia Djebar
• Tunisia's Selma Baccar
• Palestine's Mai Masri
• Morocco's Izza Génini
• Syria's Hala Alabdallah Yakoub
About the Author:
Stefanie Van de Peer is Reader in Film & Media at Queen Margaret University
Press Reviews:
Disputing the notion that documentary exploits the vulnerable, Van de Peer’s fascinating study of great Arab women documentarists shows how subject, filmmaker, and viewer can collaborate in the creative work of solidarity and understanding. Rich with historical context, the book is also an ideal introduction to Arab cultural history since 1967– Prof Laura U. Marks, Simon Fraser University
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> From the same author:
The Films of Annemarie Jacir (2025)
by Iqra Shagufta Cheema and Stefanie Van de Peer
Subject: Director > Annemarie Jacir
The Films of Jocelyne Saab (2023)
Films, Artworks and Cultural Events for the Arab World
Dir. Mathilde Rouxel and Stefanie Van de Peer
Subject: Director > Jocelyne Saab
Animation in the Middle East (2021)
Practice and Aesthetics from Baghdad to Casablanca
Dir. Stefanie Van de Peer
Subject: Countries > Middle East
> On a related topic:
Resistance, Dissidence, Revolution (2023)
Documentary Film Esthetics in the Middle East and North Africa
by Viola Shafik
Subject: Countries > Middle East
Women's New Cinema in Contemporary Turkey (2025)
As If We Were Free, As If a Beautiful Life Were Possible
Subject: Countries > Middle East
Women in the Cinemas of Iran and Turkey (2021)
As Images and as Image-Makers
Subject: Countries > Middle East
Women and Turkish Cinema (2014)
Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation
by Eylem Atakav
Subject: Countries > Middle East
Documentary Filmmaking in the Middle East and North Africa (2022)
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Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers (2023)
Beyond Representation
Dir. Suzanne Crosta, Sada Niang and Alexie Tcheuyap
Women and Global Documentary (2025)
Practices and Perspectives in the 21st Century
Dir. Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi and Shilyh Warren
Subject: Genre > Documentary
Female Agency and Documentary Strategies (2018)
Subjectivities, Identity and Activism
Dir. Boel Ulfsdotter and Anna Backman Rogers
Subject: Genre > Documentary
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