Over 60 people attended the Outreach Center hosted “Film, Music, and Media: Mediums for Political Expression in the Middle East Region” a public program, which featured a screening of the Palestinian Hip Hop Documentary “SlingShot Hip Hop”. The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and has won numerous international awards.  “Film, Music and Media” examined how Hip Hop and film create new horizons for political and social self-expression in the Middle East region and among Muslim communities.  

A panel moderated by Ben Williams and composed of Shamir Allibhai, producer of the film “An Islamic Conscience: The Aga Khan and the Ismailis,” and Jackie Salloum, director of “SlingShot Hip Hop,” began the program. The panel discussed the role of documentary film and Hip Hop music as purpose driven art forms that form communities of social and political inquiry.  Following that, “SlingShot Hip Hop” was screened and there was a discussion with Jackie Solloum.  “SlingShot Hip Hop” details the emerging influence of cross-cultural dialogues, facilitated by documentary film, music videos, and a contemporary global Hip Hop culture, as means for expressing Palestinian political and social struggles in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

“Film, Music and Media” was sponsored by the Outreach Center, Center for Middle Eastern Studies; the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School; The Pluralism Project; the Initiative on Contemporary State and Society in the Islamic World; The Harvard Islamic Society; and, the Society for Arab Students, Harvard University.  For information on how you can check out the film “SlingShot Hip Hop,” contact the Outreach Center.  

See the slideshow below for pictures from the event. All photos by Anna Kreslavskaya.