Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People is a documentary film directed by Sut Jhally and produced by Media Education Foundation in 2006.
Jack Shaheen analyzes a long series of "demeaning" images of Arabs through his presentation of various scenes from different American movies which he has studied.
The film then attempts to explain the motivations behind these stereotypes about Arabs, and their development at key points in American history, as well as why it is so important today.
[4] Shaheen speaks at the beginning of the documentary about the extent to which Arabs face slander and manipulation in Hollywood, commenting that he has formulated that view of his after having seen over a thousand films produced, in the past and in the present.
Political and economic events like the crisis of high oil prices in the United States as a result of the Arabs refusal of exporting it to The States, the revolution in Iran (a non-Arab country) as well as al-Qaeda activities, the events of 9/11 and others, all exported a bad, faded image about Arabs to every American home...
Showing some examples of films that portray Arabs as ordinary people, he expects the negative images to change, due to the works of a new generation of filmmakers, who see things differently.