‘Edward Said: Between Worlds’: A Timely Docu That Connects the Life of the Fame Intellectual to the History of Palestine

This Toronto premiere, which also plays the New York Film Fest, is drawn entirely from Said’s own archives.

What You Need to Know:

In the relevant documentary, Edward Said: Between Worlds, director Maiken Bird lets her influential subject speaks for himself as the most significant and articulate Palestinian over the past century.

Said, the late Palestinian cultural critic, academic and defender of his people, tells his story in his own words,

The docu is made up entirely of archival footage in which Said discusses his life, his ideas and the formation of Palestinian identity after the Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.

Born in Jerusalem in 935, when it was part of the British Mandate of Palestine, he studied and lived in the US for most of his life, while spending years in Egypt and Lebanon.

The text starts with Said’s recollection of his early years in Palestine and his family exile to Egypt. His journey reflects that of many migrants through the years, seeking asylum when their home country is attacked.

He talks of studying and then teaching in Ivy League institutions Harvard, Princeton and Columbia.

While he was treated as “other” for his heritage and name, he managed to assimilate and thrive both as a student and as a scholar.

His radicalization occurred after Israel’s 1967 victory over Arab states in the Six-Day War. Referred to as Al-Naksa, which translates to “the Setback,” it is a dark period in Arab history.

For Said, it was a catalyst to become political and to acknowledge his Palestinian identity. Through later interviews, he reflects on the shame of that defeat, and how the West saw his Arab identity.

He went to Lebanon, re-taught himself Arabic and published in 1978 what became his magnum opus, “Orientalism.” The film then focuses on Said’s state of mind as he was writing it.

It took three editors–Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Plummy Tucker and R.A. Fedde– to complete the task, sifting through enormous footage to make a coherent narrative.

There’s no intrusion on Said’s voice, no other point of view, no one else talking about him, and what he mostly talks about is Palestine.

Edward Said: Between Worlds deepens the understanding of the links between the personal and the political. It explains the schism between Western intellectuals’ take on Arab culture, and how the region is viewed by its people.

In the process, Said became “the articulate voice of Palestinians” in America and the western world for decades.

Credits:

Production: A Baird Films, Impact Partners, Louverture Films, Jigsaw Productions

Director: Maiken Baird.

Editors: Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Plummy Tucker, R.A. Fedde.

Music By: Kareem Roustom.

Running time: 107 minutes.

About Edward Wadie Said (Nov 1 1935–Sept 24, 2003)

Said was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist.

As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of post-colonial studies.

As a cultural critic, Said is best known for his book Orientalism (1978), a foundational text which critiques the cultural representations–how the Western world perceives the Orient. His model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse in literary theory and criticism, and Middle Eastern studies.

Born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, in 1935, Said was a US citizen by way of his father, who had served in the Army during World War I. After the 1948 war, he relocated the family to Egypt, where they had previously lived, and then to the U.S.

Said enrolled at the secondary school Victoria College while in Egypt and Northfield Mount Hermon School after arriving in America. He graduated from Princeton University in 1957 and received doctorate in English literature from Harvard in 1964.

His principal influences were Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Michel Foucault, and Theodor W. Adorno.

Said died at the age of 67 in New York on Sept 24 2003, after a 12-year struggle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was survived by his wife, Mariam C. Said, his son, Wadie Said, and his daughter, Najla Said, who serves as consultant and executive of the aforementioned documentary.

Edward Said: Between Worlds: Maiken Baird’s Documentary about the Influential Palestinian Scholar and his Legacy

‘Edward Said: Between Worlds’: A Timely Docu That Connects the Life of the Fame Intellectual to the History of Palestine

About Edward Wadie Said (Nov 1 1935–Sept 24, 2003)

PROFESSOR / CRITIC / AUTHOR