Online Databases
These databases search across articles in many different journals. They can be a useful starting place for finding relevant writing on both film studies and Arab American studies.
For articles in newspapers, please see the Library's News research guide.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers.
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America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowHistorical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexes articles from over 1,700 history journals published worldwide since 1964.
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Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) This link opens in a new window
EIMA is an historical archive of major trade and consumer magazines in film, television, music, radio, and theater, from their inception to 2000. Includes weekly Variety, Hollywood Reporter, American Cinematographer, Back Stage, Billboard, Broadcasting, Picturegoer, Screen International, Spin, and more. UCLA has access to parts I, II and III of this database.
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Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Complete text of articles from 1959 to the present from publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Covers news, culture, and history, and is searchable in both English and Spanish.
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FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new windowSearches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives.
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Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
Index to literature on Islam, the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes citations to over 2,000 journals, conference proceedings, monographs, and book reviews from 1906 to present.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
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Media History Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFreely available online portal, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema and Media Studies This link opens in a new windowAnnotated bibliographies for topics in the field of Cinema and Media Studies. Combines encyclopedia-style introductions with expert recommendations of the most important reference works, books, journals, and primary sources on the topic.
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Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowArticles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
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ProQuest Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searches all ProQuest newspapers to which UCLA subscribes, both current and historical newspapers from major U.S. cities (Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal), international news sources, and alternative press.
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Film QuarterlyFilm Quarterly publishes in-depth articles, reviews, and interviews on all aspects of cinema, media, and society—from film classics to emergent technologies, combining the best of scholarship and journalism since 1959.
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Framework: The Journal of Cinema & MediaFramework: The Journal of Cinema and Media is an international journal dedicated to theoretical and historical work on the diverse and current trends in media and film scholarship.
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Hollywood Reporter (1935-41; 1952-present)The Hollywood Reporter (THR) is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries.
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TV Guide (1953-present)TV Guide is an American media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
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Variety (1905-present)Variety (first edition published December 16, 1905) is a weekly entertainment publication with a broad coverage of movies, television, theater, music and technology, written for entertainment executives. It is the only remaining Variety print publication and is published weekly and delivered internationally.
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Arab American National MuseumThe Arab American National Museum (AANM) is the first and only museum of its kind in the United States devoted to recording the Arab American experience. It serves as a touchstone that connects communities to Arab American culture and experiences. Since opening in 2005, AANM’s goal has been to document, preserve and present the history, culture and contributions of Arab Americans.
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Arab Film InstituteThe Arab Film Institute, is an Arab Non Profit Cultural Association. The Institute is designed to promote, inspire, influence and mainly to engage Arab film professionals under one roof. The main mission of the Institute is to preserve, educate, support, honor Arab film professional and their work around the Arab world and worldwide.
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Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI)The Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) is the first organization of its kind outside the Arab world, a unique ecosystem to find, nurture and develop Arab film and media projects. They also host the annual Arab Film Festival in San Franscisco.
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Arab Film DistributionA distribution project starting in 1990 with the objective to maintain a permanent flow of Arab film to audiences.
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Arte EastSince its founding in 2003 as a NY-based arts collective specializing in Middle Eastern film programming, ArteEast has become a leading organization advocating for and supporting artists from the South West Asia North Africa (SWANA) region and its diaspora, engaging with New York, U.S. and international audiences and arts communities. Independently and through strategic partnerships, ArteEast delivers in-person and virtual programs such as film screenings, exhibitions, cultural events, and online publications.
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A Chronology of Palestinian Cinema (1927-2012)This chronology of films made by Palestinian filmmakers is part of an audiovisual inventory of the traces that history has left in the 20th century. It
includes the original titles (transliterated if in Arabic) and translations into English and Spanish of 291 films (on-going research). -
Deadline HollywoodDeadline Hollywood is an online news site updated several times a day, with entertainment industry news as its focus.
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Los Angeles Times (Entertainment)LA Times blog devoted to entertainment industry news.
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Screen International (ScreenDaily)Online news blog for the industry magazine Screen International. Print issues also available in the UCLA Library.
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TVLineTVLine is a website devoted to information, news, and spoilers of television programs.
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VultureDaily coverage of TV, movies, music, books, theater, art and the entertainment industry.
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VarietyThe Variety website allows you to freely search articles from the magazine from 2003-present. See the separate guide page on Variety for information on more content.
Selected Articles
Below are articles that give solid overviews of Arab Americans in American cinema and media more broadly. These articles explore the ways that Arabs are depicted in media and the ways that Arab Americans have sought to alter the narrative to give more accurate depictions of their experiences.
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Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People / by Jack G. ShaheenThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2003-07, Vol.588 (1), p.171-193.
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Hollywood's Muslim Arabs / by Jack G. ShaheenThe Muslim world : a quarterly review of history, culture, religions & the Christian mission in Islamdom. , 2000, Vol.90(1-2), p.22-42.
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Arab Americans: Into the Multicultural Mainstream / By Marvin WingfieldEquity & excellence in education. , 2006, Vol.39(3), p.253-266.
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From Sheikh to Terrorist? Arab Characters in American Film / by Günther SommerschuhAmerican studies journal, 2008-12 (52), p.7.
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The Arab in American Cinema: A Century of Otherness / by Laurence MichalekCinéaste (New York, N.Y.), 1989-01, Vol.17 (1), p.3-9.
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Muslims in Film and Muslim Filmmaking in the United States / by Hussein RashidThe Oxford Handbook of American Islam, 2015.
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Representation without Recognition: A Survey of Arab American Images in Egyptian Cinema / by Waleed F. MahdiJCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Volume 59, Number 1, Fall 2019.
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Watchlist: 9 Essential Independent Films by Arab American DirectorsSundance Institute, 2021.
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20 Arab Directors On Why They Made Their FilmsArab Film & Media Institute
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Queer Arab Films to Watch During Pride MonthArab Film & Media Institute. Updated for 2024 - this list is updated annually
