Eyes wide shut: movies, culture, ethnicity, and communication

The Guardian has an article indicting the American public for refusing to see Arabic movies. It states, “Trying to sell Arabic films in America must be - in the current political climate at least - one of the most thankless and difficult jobs in the cinema world. The bulk of AFD's business comes from educational institutions, and it counts all the universities in the US on its client list. Arabic films have fallen victim not just to the changes affecting cinema-going in the US and elsewhere, but also to the political atmosphere in the wake of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.”  Somehow, I was expecting that more people would be more curious about the Arab world and would want to see Arab movies in an attempt to understand its culture and its point of view. Movies are a form of communication and if nobody is watching Arab or for that matter foreign movies then how is the world going to come together. To understand the world, you have to know more about it, to know more about it, you have to know how its people lives and what they believe. Seeing foreign movies is good (and cheap way) to see the world.