email Join our email list! divider Register Login cartCart
Icarus Film
Films from independent
producers worldwide.
32 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201divider(718) 488 8900
Edward Said: The Last Interview

Director: Mike Dibb; Producer: D. D. Guttenplan; Interviewer: Charles Glass

 Text Size  Increase Font Size   Decrease Font Size   divider Printable VersionPrintable Version

Edward Said, University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was one of the most important literary critics of the late 20th century, and for many years the most prominent spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the United States.

He was the author of ten books, among them Orientalism, a runner-up in criticism for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The World, the Text and the Critic;Blaming the Victims;Culture and Imperialism;Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process;End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After; and, most recently, Power, Politics, and Culture.

Born into a Palestinian family in Jerusalem in 1935, in 1948 Said and his family were dispossessed and settled in Cairo. Educated in the United States, he lived in New York for many years. Long a member of the Palestine National Council, after resigning from the PNC in 1991, Said wrote critically about the post-Oslo peace process and the political failures of Yasser Arafat and the PLO.

Said was diagnosed with incurable leukemia in 1991, and struggled with the disease throughout the decade, while continuing to write and teach. Towards the end of his life, as the disease and chemotherapy treatments sapped his energy, he stopped giving interviews. However, less than a year before his death in September 2003, he made an exception and over the course of three days spoke at length with the filmmakers about his illness, his work, Palestine and politics, his life and education, and his continuing preoccupations.

EDWARD SAID: THE LAST INTERVIEW is the remarkable final testament of this passionately committed intellectual.

"Said is blazingly articulate…always accessible and engaging…Said's emotional and imaginative range is as great as his intellect…an intimate portrait of a great mind."—Leonardo Digital Reviews

"Gripping and very affecting. Stripped of soundbites, dramatic re-enactments and other conventional devices, [this] is the kind of portrait of an intellectual which is very rare."—Sight and Sound

"A scintillating conversation that ranges over the controversial writer-activist's childhood, education, writings and, inevitably, his experiences in Palestinian politics. Said... is warm, funny and self-revealing."—George Robinson, The Jewish Week

"A wonderful moment spent with a great mind. [The viewer] will be amazed by the thought, the courage, the energy. This documentary will enable everyone to understand his struggle against illness and the courageous positions one of the greatest thinkers of our time took throughout his entire life."—Al Jadid: A Review & Record of Arab Culture and Arts

" * * * [3 stars]! A compelling memoir... Recommended!"—Video Librarian

2005 Middle East & Central Asia Politics, Economics, and Society Conference
2005 Association for Asian Studies Film Festival

114 minutes / Color
Release: 2004
Copyright: 2004

For individual consumers (home video)

This DVD is sold for private, home use only.

This title is also available online from:

For colleges, universities, government agencies, hospitals and corporations

This DVD is sold with a license for institutional use and Public Performance rights.

Subject areas:
Biographies, Christianity, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Studies, Death and Dying, History, Human Rights, Literature, Media Studies, Middle East, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Sociology

Related Titles:
Home | New | Titles | Subjects | Ordering   
About | Best Sellers | Filmmakers | Screenings   
address
  Follow Us! On...
Facebook Follow Icarus Films on Twitter Instagram Vimeo YouTube
Copyright (c) 2024, Icarus Films
Last Updated January 25, 2024 [Build 3.0.a060-d7]
Privacy Policy