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In “Edward Said: Between Worlds,” documentarian Maiken Baird does not follow the tried-and-true formula of a bio-doc. Instead of trying to cram a whole lifetime in under two hours, she lets the protagonist speak for himself.
Edward Said, the late Palestinian literary and cultural critic, academic and fierce defender of his people, tells his story in his own words — an apt choice for a film about an intellectual thinker. The doc is made up entirely of archival footage in which Said discusses his life, his ideas and reflections; in the process, it reveals an oral history of Palestinian identity in the wake of the 1948 war.
Said, who was born in 1935, is a perfect protagonist for this narrative, having lived through all the milestones of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Born in Jerusalem when it was part of the British Mandate of Palestine, he studied, worked and lived in the United States for most of his life, also spending many years in Egypt and in Lebanon. He was deep in the relevant cultural and geographical milieu when the events in question were transpiring, and the film thus benefits from his strong and unique insight.
The narrative starts with Said’s recollection of his early years in Palestine and his family exile to Egypt. In that time, his journey mirrors that of many migrants through the years, seeking asylum in friendlier lands when their home country is attacked. He talks of studying and then working in the revered Ivy League institutions Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. While he was treated as an “other” for his foreign heritage and name, he still managed to assimilate, finding success in academia both as a student and later as a professor.
The film’s strongest passage comes when Said explains his radicalization after Israel’s 1967 victory over a coalition of Arab states in the Six-Day War. Referred to as Al-Naksa, which translates to “the Setback,” it is a dark period in contemporary Arab history that still has psychological ramifications to this day. For Said, it was a catalyst to finally become political and to acknowledge his Palestinian identity. Through interviews given many years later, he reflects on the shame of that defeat, how it made him question all he knew about being Arab, and how the West saw his Arab identity.
He went to Lebanon, re-taught himself the language that he had mostly ignored in favor of English, and came up with his 1978 magnum opus, “Orientalism.” To its credit, the film does not spend too much time explaining the book beyond its general thesis, prompting any unfamiliar viewers to go and discover it on their own. Rather brilliantly, it instead focuses on Said’s state of mind as he was writing it.
As Baird lets Said’s words steer proceedings, the documentary becomes mostly a brilliant feat of editing. No wonder it took three editors — Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Plummy Tucker and R.A. Fedde — to complete this herculean task, sifting through decades of footage to arrive at 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. For those only now learning about the Palestinian struggle, it is an essential educational piece.
For the rest of us, “Edward Said: Between Worlds” deepens our understanding, crafting tangible links between the personal and the political. Perhaps most importantly of all, it explains the schism between Western intellectuals’ take on Arab culture and how the region, and Palestine in particular, is viewed by its own people. As the film shows, Said became the voice of Palestinians in the United States, and by extension the western world, for many decades.
“Edward Said : Between Worlds” is exactly what you might expect of a documentary taking on such a renowned and respected intellectual. But that not make it less powerful. It’s a necessary document, arriving at the right time — when the culture in general is questioning the jaundiced eyes that have viewed Eastern cultures for centuries. If Baird’s film gets just a few people to pick up “Orientalism,” it will have achieved its goal.
