By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Distribution in fragments: the US market for Arab film
Dan Glaister in the Guardian reports on the producer of James Longley‘s beautifully visualized Iraq in Fragments, John Sinno, and his hard road distributing Arabic-language films in the U.S.. “A funny thing happened to John Sinno on his way into the US last month. Sinno was born in the Lebanon but has run a film distribution company in the US for the past 13 years, specialising in Arab films. He was returning from a conference in Vancouver and, in the boot of his car… he had a box of DVDs. Not unusual for a film distributor. Some were his company’s films, some were films given to him by film-makers and other distributors he had met in Vancouver. The US immigration official didn’t like what he saw, and pulled Sinno over. “I felt like I was in a military zone… They followed me to the bathroom and stood right behind me when I was at the urinal. It was unbelievably harsh for having a small box of DVDs.” Sinno “was travelling with a white American colleague. The colleague was waved on his way, while Sinno was held for nine hours. “They asked me where I got the DVDs from, and when I told them they didn’t believe me,” he says. “It was pretty scary. I said to them, look, I’m being racially profiled. Let’s admit it and move on.” He hesitates. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to talk about it. We live in touchy times.” Of his work, Sinno says, “We’re the only company in the US that focuses on Arab film… We’re pretty much unique in the world. Even in the Arab world companies don’t have the range of titles that we have.” Writes Glaister, “Sinno now sees the bulk of his business through online sales and rental, notably through Amazon and Netflix. Is he fulfilling his aim to “entertain as well as bring into focus the issues that concern the status and future of the Arab world” as the company’s website states? “It’s very tough… There’s a deluge of rival material. I watch CNN and the news religiously, and it’s very depressing seeing the complex being reduced and simplified. I feel like I’m providing an alternative. Even though it’s on a small scale it’s what keeps me motivated. The drive has always been to bring Arab film to audiences in the US. But after 9/11 I felt like I exist in this day and age and I ought to stand up. I see what’s on TV, and I know this isn’t what I know.” [More, of course, at the link, including on Iraq in Fragments.]