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Photo: In Lebanon, vintage film posters question Western cliches

The 61-year-old Lebanese film buff Abboudi Abu Jawdeh is the owner of some 20,000 posters, stacked up to the ceiling at his publishing house, their bright colours shielded from the sunlight. At a Beirut cultural centre, he is exhibiting vintage film posters from his collection that show off a lost art, but also offer insight into decades of Western cliches of the Arab world.

Updated on: May 14, 2019 10:19 AM IST

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Abboudi Abu Jawdeh shows part of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office in the Lebanese capital Beirut. At a Beirut cultural centre, Lebanese film buff Abboudi Abu Jawdeh is exhibiting vintage film posters from his collection that show off a lost art, but also offer insight into decades of Western cliches of the Arab world. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

Abboudi Abu Jawdeh shows part of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office in the Lebanese capital Beirut. At a Beirut cultural centre, Lebanese film buff Abboudi Abu Jawdeh is exhibiting vintage film posters from his collection that show off a lost art, but also offer insight into decades of Western cliches of the Arab world. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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“This is from the artist’s imagination,” Jawdeh says, standing beside the image featuring the camel riders and a palace resembling India’s Taj Mahal. “He knew Lebanon was in the East, so he did this,” he says, despite the country having ski slopes and sand only on its Mediterranean beaches. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

“This is from the artist’s imagination,” Jawdeh says, standing beside the image featuring the camel riders and a palace resembling India’s Taj Mahal. “He knew Lebanon was in the East, so he did this,” he says, despite the country having ski slopes and sand only on its Mediterranean beaches. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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Abu Jawdeh shows part of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office. He first began collecting posters in his teens, starting with films starring American actors Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. Visiting old cinemas in Lebanon and across the region, he unearthed a world of images -- for more foreign films, but also thousands of prints advertising films from the Arab world. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

Abu Jawdeh shows part of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office. He first began collecting posters in his teens, starting with films starring American actors Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. Visiting old cinemas in Lebanon and across the region, he unearthed a world of images -- for more foreign films, but also thousands of prints advertising films from the Arab world. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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Abu Jawdeh looks through digital files of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office. They “resembled the paintings that Orientalists painted of the region in the 18th and 19th centuries,” he says. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

Abu Jawdeh looks through digital files of his vintage cinema poster collection at his office. They “resembled the paintings that Orientalists painted of the region in the 18th and 19th centuries,” he says. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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A poster seen at Abu Jawdeh’s office. Titled “Thief of Baghdad”, after a much-remade fantasy film from 1924, the show is replete with turbaned men, flying carpets, snake charmers and belly dancers. With captions summarising often outlandish screenplays, the posters show a fantastical world far removed from the modern Middle East, but also gross misrepresentation. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

A poster seen at Abu Jawdeh’s office. Titled “Thief of Baghdad”, after a much-remade fantasy film from 1924, the show is replete with turbaned men, flying carpets, snake charmers and belly dancers. With captions summarising often outlandish screenplays, the posters show a fantastical world far removed from the modern Middle East, but also gross misrepresentation. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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Visitors observe vintage cinema posters displayed at an art exhibition. Late Lebanese-American academic Jack Shaheen analysed portrayals of Arabs in Hollywood films. He watched more than 900 movies spanning a century to the early 2000s, and found only five percent showed Arab roles as “normal, human characters”. Instead, a whole people was systematically dehumanised or vilified and female characters were largely belly dancers or enchantresses, silent “bundles of black” or “terrorists”. (Joseph Eid /AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

Visitors observe vintage cinema posters displayed at an art exhibition. Late Lebanese-American academic Jack Shaheen analysed portrayals of Arabs in Hollywood films. He watched more than 900 movies spanning a century to the early 2000s, and found only five percent showed Arab roles as “normal, human characters”. Instead, a whole people was systematically dehumanised or vilified and female characters were largely belly dancers or enchantresses, silent “bundles of black” or “terrorists”. (Joseph Eid /AFP)

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Some of his finds in this rare collection date back to 1930s Egypt or Lebanon in the late 1950s. Today he owns some 20,000 posters, stacked up to the ceiling at his publishing house, their bright colours shielded from the sunlight. Different versions of the same poster are especially revealing -- indicating which country required a change in a film title or a bra to be painted over a naked back to avoid offence. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

Some of his finds in this rare collection date back to 1930s Egypt or Lebanon in the late 1950s. Today he owns some 20,000 posters, stacked up to the ceiling at his publishing house, their bright colours shielded from the sunlight. Different versions of the same poster are especially revealing -- indicating which country required a change in a film title or a bra to be painted over a naked back to avoid offence. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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The images are on show until May 25. Rabbah Faqih, a masters student in archive management, looks at a poster featuring a skimpily dressed actress.”I’m all for a good expressive poster to draw people in, but I’m against commodifying women like this,” she says. “We’re not all belly dancers in Lebanon,” she said. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

Updated on May 14, 2019 10:19 AM

The images are on show until May 25. Rabbah Faqih, a masters student in archive management, looks at a poster featuring a skimpily dressed actress.”I’m all for a good expressive poster to draw people in, but I’m against commodifying women like this,” she says. “We’re not all belly dancers in Lebanon,” she said. (Joseph Eid / AFP)

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