Professor of telecommunication, information studies and media Bob Albers and assistant professor in the School of Journalism Geri Alumit Zeldes joined forces to create “Arabs, Jews and the News,” a 30-minute documentary that “probes the news coverage of the July 2006 war in Lebanon.” Albers was the director and story editor and Zeldes was the producer of the documentary. The premiere of the film was Monday in the Communication Arts and Sciences Building.
Two years of hard work paid off as two MSU faculty members premiered their documentary “Arabs, Jews, & the News” on Monday night at the Communications Arts and Sciences Building.
The film — produced by assistant journalism professor Geri Alumit Zeldes and directed by university video specialist Bob Albers — focuses on the Metro Detroit reaction to the 2006 war in Lebanon and the effect the event had on the area’s Jewish and Arabic communities.
The film started out exploring perceptions and probing journalists’ relationships with the communities, but that changed after reviewing the footage, Zeldes said.
“We figured that one hour was too long around the one-year point (of production),” Zeldes said. “The most compelling material was out of the July 2006 conflict, so we focused on that, and getting to that point.”
The film began when Zeldes wanted to make a documentary and presented the idea to Albers. Albers was in London on a study abroad trip during the 2006 war. Seeing the conflict through British Broadcasting Corporation News was different from seeing it through U.S. media outlets, Albers said.
“There was less violence and variant opinion,” Albers said. “When I got back, Geri had the idea … it was more about how conflict has been transmitted in the (Dearborn, Mich.) area, which was a very real problem between Arabic and Jewish communities.”
After receiving a grant from the MSU Intramural Research Grants Program, Zeldes and Albers recruited students to help attain footage of interviews with journalists, students and other community members to explain their varying views and reactions to the conflict.
Peter Johnston, a telecommunication, information studies and media graduate student and an editor of the film, became involved with the project when Albers suggested the idea.
“I thought it was a project that has a lot of potential and it sounded interesting,” Johnston said. “I think (it had potential) because the subject matter is ongoing. When I first heard about it, another war had broken out. It was clear it wasn’t a time piece, and it was continuously important and relevant to public affairs.”
Being involved with the documentary was one of the best decisions journalism senior Jennifer Orlando, a former State News employee, made in her undergraduate career, she said.
“You can read a lot in textbooks and learn in lecture, but to do something and to use what you’ve learned, something you want to do in the future, for something that’s so awesome is great,” Orlando said.
Albers said the film hopefully will go to DVD for teaching and educational purposes.
“It’s stimulus for discussion,” Albers said. “We hope it pushes people toward increased communication across the two cultures.”
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