Summary

Problems of the Middle East

Source Archive Films by Getty Images
Title: Problems of the Middle East
File Number: PA-4011 Beta SP
Color: Color
Type: Educational
Year: 01/01/1959
Subjects: Aerials Arab Islam Muslims
Description: 01:19:25:10 - 01:22:20:15 Color Sound 1959 Industry in Middle East Handicrafts: person sewing leather shoe together Oil field workers pulling chain at well in desert, oil pipelines, VS maps showing oil line directions, battle for control of Arab oil Conveyor belt in factory, female factory workers Women laborers Assembly lines Woman lifting sheer veil during dance VS women exercising in formations Change, modernization, women's rights Professor writing on chalkboard: education may resolve problems in Middle East Children in classroom, Arab woman teaching French Small Arab girls in babushkas pointing in school VS Arab people 01:00:00:09 - 01:22:20:15 Color Sound 1959 Problems of the Middle East--a film by J Michael Hagopian PhD, former Prof at American University in Beirut Focuses on problems: Minorities, Agriculture, Industry, and Education Focus on fertile crescent area Various maps showing changing history of region Plight of various ethnic groups in the Middle East 01:00:00:09 - 01:03:48:13 Color Sound 1959 Globe ZI to Middle East Camels in desert Rural life Dirt roads, desert mountains, dusty and hot Animated maps VO highway linking diverse civilizations Map shows Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, focuses on former Mesopotamia area Map shows ancient cultures (Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, Macedonian) Woman pointing to ruins (Persepolis?) CU bas-relief Forts built by crusaders Islamic prayer rugs Mosque w minarets Man praying Arab Empire taking over map VO Arabs often find themselves separated by political bounds Survival of ethnic groups issue Various map views 01:03:48:14 - 01:08:45:23 Color Sound 1959 Ethnic groups in the Middle East Marketplace, street vendors, women in veils Burqas Traditional folk dancing VS CUs of people (Armenians, Kurds, Israelis, Lebanese) Lifestyles Man in kaffiyeh Native dress Animated map of region Topographical map Kurdish village Man lights cigarette for villager on donkey Kurdish singing Children weaving, sorting wool AV Anatolian plateau in Armenia, desert mountains ZO drawings Mt Ararat in 6th c BC Drawings, paintings Art & architecture of ancient Armenia CU hands stuffing vegetables w food Middle Eastern cooking cuisine Child saying grace, praying Eating dinner w father Religion, Christianity 01:08:04:24 - 01:11:12:02 Color Sound 1959 Armenia Orthodox Gregorian churches HA religious procession Parades, crowds in street Clerics wearing mitres (big hats), vestments, traditional liturgical garments Priest swings incense, kissing Bible, surrounded by religious artifacts Map of Historical Armenia throughout the years, with cross showing acceptance of Christian religion in Armenian Man playing violin Three men looking over mountain of Lebanon Modern architecture in Lebanese cities People relax in beach chairs by sea Water skiing show Leisure, lifestyles 01:11:12:03 - 01:16:10:19 Color Sound 1959 Israel Animated map showing modern Israel, surrounded by Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon national minority in the Turco-Arab world Peasant rural life: man carrying yoke & woman w jar on her head Art showing: paintings of Jewish oppression, drawings of Moses w Ten Commandments, anti-Semitism in Europe VS Palestine modern Israel (Israeli folk songs on soundtrack) Israelis on city streets VS factories in desert spewing out smoke Pollution, environment, industry Construction workers, man using forklift to load freight train w goods Passenger train pulling away from platform HA Arab refugee camps: poverty, shacks Women washing clothes by hand in basins Arabs working along beaches Israeli ships in Red Sea Israeli troops in jeep VS maps shows Israel vs Arab world Arabs working w more modern farm equipment Tractor, Westinghouse tiller, thresher 01:16:10:20 - 01:19:25:09 Color Sound 1959 Agriculture in the Middle East Problem of low productivity Camels drinking at oasis CU camel hooves on sand Ancient irrigation: camel pulling obsolete waterwheel CU gears, cogs of waterwheel Water flowing down sluice MAP of water sources in region--shows irrigated areas of Iraq btwn Mediterranean & Persian Gulf MAP Jordan River region, w Dead Sea, Lake Kinneret, Syria, Israel, & Mediterranean Sea PAN desert Peasant couple tilling soil, team of donkeys raking hay on farm VO It is the Arab peasant who suffers most thru lack of economic cooperation between Israel & Arab countries Pitchfork lifting grain, shower of grain falling from sky Shoveling, winnowing grain American farmer & Arab man in kaffieyh analyze soil
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