Valentino’s Ghost A documentary feature film

Publicity Contacts: Filmmaker Contacts: Amy Grey Michael Singh, Producer / Director Dish Communications Inc. (323) 466-5000 (studio) 10000 Riverside Dr. Suite 5 [email protected] Toluca Lake, CA 91602 (818) 508-1000 (office) Catherine Jordan, Producer (818) 216-7880 (cell) [email protected] [email protected]

Website: http://www.valentinosghost.com

EXHIBITION SPECS: Total Run Time: 95 mins. Format: Digital Cinema (DCP) Aspect: 16x9 1.78 Audio: 5.1

Valentino’s Ghost A documentary feature film

“ENGROSSING … gets you thinking … Valentino’s Ghost is an invaluable entry in the national dialogue on the subject [of the Middle East]. “ – Andy Webster, The New York Times, May 16 2013

“VALENTINO’S GHOST is both sobering and illuminating, and its execution is thrilling.” – Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice, May 16 2013

“ … MAKES A CONVINCING CASE.” “A valuable work that digs well beyond commonplace observations …” “It … makes the connection clear: America is only able to make the moral compromises we've made because generations of storytelling has convinced us we're morally superior to a group of people we barely know.” – John DeFore, The Reporter, May 17 2013

“ … PROVOCATIVE … ABSORBING ... Singh's critical views on Israel and Washington's staunch protection of that country's image will likely set some viewers' teeth on edge.” – Gary Goldstein, The Los Angeles Times, May 16 2013

“Valentino’s Ghost is a great and very important film.” – Alberto Barbera, Director, Venice Film Festival, Italy, where Valentino’s Ghost premiered, September, 2012

“A brilliant new film.” – M J Rosenberg, Media Matters

“Every school and politician should see this film. It's one of the most illuminating films of the Israeli/Palestinian crisis I've ever seen. ” – Elliot Kanbar, President, The QUAD Cinema, New York

“Since 9/11 ... the United States government and the cooperative media have worked together to make sure that a series of enemies are identified and then attacked as a response to what has been shaped as a global terrorist threat. Narrative-shifting also protects against failure, by making it more difficult to advance any actual inquiry either to learn what motivates terrorists or to explore the apparent inability of the federal government to respond effectively.... Valentino’s Ghost exposes widespread bigotry and the deliberate shaping of a narrative against Arabs while also providing considerable insights into why American foreign policy continues to fail in an important part of the world. One has to wonder what the reaction would be if the film were to be viewed in the White House. ” – Philip Giraldi, former CIA officer and executive director of the Council for the National Interest in Washington, D.C., Jan. 2013

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SYNOPSIS Valentino’s Ghost examines the ways in which America’s foreign policy agenda in the Middle East drives the U.S. media’s portrayals of Arabs and Muslims. The film lays bare the truths behind taboo subjects that are conspicuously avoided, or merely treated as sound bites by the mainstream American media: “Why do they hate us?” “Why do we hate them?” What were the events that led to the 9/11 attacks? What are the politics behind the U.S.-Israeli relationship? Why is there a robust debate about these subjects in Europe, the Arab World and in Israel itself, but not in the U.S.?

A dozen expert commentators elucidate the reasons behind the lack of a serious national dialogue on these topics, and reveal the media's – and the U.S. government’s – roles in perpetuating many Americans’ fear and loathing of Arabs, Muslims and Islam.

DESCRIPTION Valentino’s Ghost is narrated by political activist and actor Mike Farrell, known for his role in the TV series M*A*S*H.

Until the 1930s, Americans had little interest in the Middle East, other than as a fantasy play land, depicted in a slew of early Hollywood movies such as the hugely successful “Sheik” movies starring Rudolph Valentino. But as America’s economic and political interests in the Mideast grew by the decade, Arabs and Muslims were increasingly depicted as embodiments of evil, in Hollywood films, in the news media, on TV and even in children’s cartoons.

What social, political and religious forces shifted the image of the Arab to socially acceptable portrayals of the peoples of the Middle East as uniformly barbaric, fanatical, violent, backward and generically hateful toward America? Why do supremely talented artists and intellectuals in America consider it perfectly “realistic” to depict Arabs and Muslims in a fashion that would be described as bigoted, if the same treatment were applied to blacks, Jews, gays, Native Americans, et al? Valentino’s Ghost exposes the patterns and contexts that lie behind the deeply ingrained anti-Arab, anti-Muslim underpinnings in the mainstream media, and in cultural products such as Hollywood movies, including the multiple-Oscar®-nominated Zero Dark Thirty (2012).

The 95-minute film features fresh, riveting and often stunning perspectives from the legendary late American writer Gore Vidal; John Mearsheimer, author of “The Israel Lobby;” celebrated British war correspondent Robert Fisk, Harvard and Oxford historian Niall Ferguson, historian Melani McAlister, TV star Tony Shalhoub, media expert Jack Shaheen and Hollywood writer Alan Sharp, along with biting commentary in performances by comics Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader and Ahmed Ahmed.

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DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – MICHAEL SINGH

People often ask what motivated me to make Valentino’s Ghost, since I'm neither Arab nor Muslim. I was born in the States, but my Sikh-Punjabi father and my white American mother moved our family to India when I was five months old. As a boy there, I saw Islam as a peaceful religion. My friends were mostly Christian, Hindu and Muslim.

When I returned to the States as an adult, I noticed that my new friends found it perfectly acceptable to express intolerant opinions about Arabs and Muslims. These were people who never would generalize that way about Blacks, Jews, gays or Native Americans. And they saw Islam as a suspect religion. I also noticed that the Arab Muslim in Hollywood movies resembled the Jew in Nazi propaganda: big nose, dirty, greedy, rich, sneaky, etc. Many of my friends seemed to know nothing at all about Islam or the rich cultures and histories of the Middle East. They couldn't tell a Sikh turban from an Arab turban.

It was and is my belief that ignorance can trigger fear, which can lead to hatred, which can result in violence. Even before 9/11, hate crimes against Muslims- and Arab- Americans plagued those communities. And the hatred seemed to extend overseas. Over the years, including during Bill Clinton's Presidency, United States sanctions killed over 500,000 Iraqi children, more than in Hiroshima. When confronted with this fact, Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on 60 Minutes: "We think the price is worth it."

After 9/11, all Arab Muslims were terrorists, and vice versa. I saw that the ethnic stereotyping now ramped up. It was occurring in my lifetime, right now. The extreme actions and attitudes of a few were applied to everyone in that group, not only by the Government, but also by the media, including Hollywood, and by the population at large.

I felt frustrated that the majority in this country didn't seem to see what I was seeing. At the time, I was producing a medical reality series for Discovery Health Channel. I decided to make my own film. In pre-production, I teamed up with the talented Producer Catherine Jordan.

Our research indicated that the portrayals of Arabs and Muslims by the mainstream media and even by many of our great artists and intellectuals, shifted to stay in line with U.S. foreign policy, which in turn was bolstered by the media portrayals.

American adventures in the Middle East required our country's artists and news outlets to vilify the Arab Muslim, and for the most part, they complied. For decades, the question as to why Arab Muslims would attack Americans was assiduously avoided.

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We hope Valentino’s Ghost will open people's eyes when they look anew at images of Arabs and Muslims; we hope the viewer will question whether a particular image, news story, song, or movie represents "reality," or fosters a stereotype. Why is it that real-life images of bad Arab Muslims excite us, while real-life heroic Arab Muslims are mostly absent from our national storytelling? All of Europe and Israel itself entertain serious debate about American foreign policy regarding Israel/Palestine. Only in the United States is such a debate absent: why is that?

In the ten years it took to make Valentino’s Ghost, we saw many changes in the political atmosphere, but one constant was an animosity towards the Arab Muslim both here and abroad. At a WGA seminar, I heard an elite Hollywood screenwriter say that he would stop his negative stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims in his top rated network TV show, "when they stop blowing things up." We examined a plethora of such socially acceptable stereotyping and discern patterns and trends. One conclusion we reached: distorted images lead to injustice.

We hope our film can enter the national dialogue on the Middle East. Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin did not free the slaves, but it helped to build a national zeitgeist, which in turn led the country to accept emancipation as feasible. In the same vein, we hope that Valentino's Ghost can inspire viewers to be more skeptical about what they see and learn more about Arabs, Muslims, Islam and our Middle East foreign policy. We believe that's the secret to building bridges of understanding, nurturing more constructive relationships and insisting on the justice and the peace that comes with it.

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QUOTES FROM THE FILM

"The idea that darkness of skin is supposed to represent darkness of soul and character has been a kind of Anglo Saxon hang-up for a long time." – Gore Vidal, historian and essayist

"Media is so central to how Americans think about things. 'It didn't happen' if it didn't come on TV. 'It didn't happen' if we don't have a picture of it." – Melani McAlister, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, George Washington University

"When American politicians insisted in 2003 that they weren’t interested in conquering Iraq, they had come to liberate Iraqis, they were unwittingly repeating a well established British trope, which is,'When you invade a country, you must assure the natives that you’re there to free them, not to subjugate them.' ” – Niall Ferguson, Ph.D., Harvard University

"During the 1990s, the United States put very severe economic sanctions on Iraq, and the end result is, a few hundred thousand Iraqis died, mainly women, children, elderly -- dying of starvation, dying of disease that resulted from the sanctions. The United States knew that these people were dying, but nevertheless kept the sanctions on." – John Mearsheimer, Ph.D., The University of Chicago

"Over and over again, [the government and media] change and diminish the language of the conflict. The “wall” becomes “the fence”, the “occupation zone” becomes “the security zone,” “settlements” become “neighborhoods.” We make the Middle East unintelligible for people who don’t live there or visit there." – Robert Fisk, Ph.D., Foreign Correspondent, The Independent

"The mainstream media presents a rich diet of pictures of Palestinians blowing up targets in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, which leads many Americans to think that Palestinians are terrorists, period." – John Mearsheimer, Ph.D., The University of Chicago

"The Palestinians began to want to bring their own national plight to the

6 Valentino’s Ghost A documentary feature film attention of the world. And, they did so through a series of ... terrorist attacks that were designed to bring the attention of the world onto Palestinians: "Who are these people, and why are they so angry?" – Melani McAlister, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, George Washington University

"We actually have a huge debate in this country about abortion, about Affirmative Action, about race, about gun control. But we do not have any debate -- any MEANINGFUL debate -- about the U.S.-Israeli relationship. It is just considered to be out of bounds." – John Mearsheimer, Ph.D., The University of Chicago

"To be an emperor is, paradoxically, to be tainted, in some measure, by the very barbarism that you claim you're in the business of abolishing." – Niall Ferguson, Ph.D., Harvard University

Robert Fisk, describing his final interview with Osama bin Laden: “The last thing he said to me was, ‘I pray to God, Mister Robert, that I can turn America into a shadow of itself.’” – Robert Fisk, Foreign Correspondent, The Independent, UK

“American Evangelical Christians were taken by the idea that the founding of Israel (would lead) to the Second Coming of Jesus. It was said that those who oppose Israel are acting against the forces of goodness in the world; they are evil.” – Asst. Professor Melani McAlister, Ph.D., George Washington University

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CREW BIOS Producer / Director Michael Singh Michael Singh wrote and associate produced the definitive bio-pic Mahalia Jackson: The Power and the Glory (PBS). He was Senior Producer and writer for the Chicago’s Lifeline series that launched Discovery’s Health Channel, and won the Freddie Award for “Best Health Series” both years when he helmed the show. He has made award-winning documentary shorts on Sikh history, including The Prisoner’s Song, about a WWI soldier captured at Flanders; The Rebel Queen, about Maharani Jindan, the Punjabi queen who almost brought Britain to its knees; and Riding the Tiger, about his own experience witnessing the massacre of Sikhs in New Delhi in 1984.

Valentino’s Ghost is his debut as a feature documentary film director.

The impetus for Michael’s decision to make Valentino’s Ghost comes from his observation of the treatment of Arabs and Muslims in America, ranging from hate crimes, to biased portraits of them created by some of America’s most talented and liberal filmmakers, writers and politicians.

Michael was born in North Carolina and raised in the Indian Himalaya Mountains. He is of Sikh, Dutch and German-American heritage. He studied film production at USC’s Division of Cinema/TV. He is based in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife Joanna Lancaster.

Producer / Co-Editor Catherine Jordan Catherine Jordan’s career includes 14 years of journalism, five years’ work on Valentino’s Ghost and three years at Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures. She was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in London, writing and reporting on topics including the media, the arts and Hollywood.

She also has written for The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Magazine, Condé Nast’s Tatler (London) and The New Scotsman (UK). Before that, she edited and reported for Business Magazine and was a contributing researcher for a biography of Graham Greene, The Third Woman, published in the U.S. and the UK. Catherine was born and raised in the New York area by her English mother and an American father. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Composer / Performer Lisa Coleman, who wrote and performed the original musical score for Valentino’s Ghost, is one-half of the Emmy Award-winning composing duo, Wendy & Lisa, based in Los Angeles. Lisa and won an Emmy in 2010 for their Main Title Theme for Showtime's and were nominated in 2012 for composing the Main Title to the FOX television show TOUCH (starring Kiefer Sutherland).

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Lisa Coleman has composed for many films and TV shows, including top box office films such as, Soul Food, Dangerous Minds, and Just Wright, and her television composing career has included HEROES, Crossing Jordan, Carnivale (HBO - Main Title), MERCY and Bionic Woman.

Lisa was born in Los Angeles in 1960 to a musical and artistic family. After studying classical from the age of 5, and always having written music of her own, Lisa left home at age 19 to tour as keyboardist with what would become one of the biggest bands of the 80s, and the Revolution.

Lisa is based in Los Angeles, and is happily married to her long time manager, Renata Kanclerz. The couple has a beautiful daughter and two rescue greyhounds.

Editors: Brad Fuller, Michael Singh and Catherine Jordan Before editing Valentino’s Ghost, Brad Fuller edited Two Hands: The Leon Fleischer Story, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject. He has edited or co-edited many of Errol Morris’s films, stretching over the last 25 years.

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Shepherd; Barry Conrad; Darren Rydstrom; Pablo Bryant; Michael Torino

Mark Steven Shepherd has been an independent filmmaker and cameraman for over thirty years. He studied cinema at Humboldt State University where he made dramatic, wildlife and documentary films before traveling to New York to work on independent features and documentaries professionally. One of the films that Mark made independently, Nothing But the Truth was bought for the PBS Series Independent Lens. Mark filmed in London, Montreal, Italy and France for his latest indie doc, Red Carpet Burn. Mark is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild and his HD and timelapse work are represented by Getty Images.

Barry Conrad has been a recipient of a number of awards including the Telly Award for his documentary on Parkinson's Disease in 2007, EBE Award for Monsters of the UFO (cameraman, producer, writer), Freddie Award for Proof, Rebirth & Lupe's Dilemma, and an Emmy for the Cosmopolitan Hotel story.

Darren Rydstrom, a highly skilled and accomplished cinematographer, was in a fatal helicopter accident in February 2013 while filming a segment for The Discovery Channel outside of Los Angeles. He was 45. We dedicate our film to him.

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CREDITS

PRODUCED BY Michael Singh and Catherine Jordan

WRITTEN and DIRECTED BY Michael Singh

NARRATED BY Mike Farrell

ORIGINAL SCORE BY Lisa Coleman

EDITED BY Brad Fuller, Michael Singh and Catherine Jordan

POST-PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Rajeev Malhotra

VOICE of T. E. LAWRENCE Gavin Scott

CAMERA Van Carlson Darren Rydstrom Barry Conrad Joseph Hudson Nate Clapp Mark Shepherd Pablo Bryant Danielle Lesovitz

AUDIO RECORDED BY Joseph Hudson Kelly Butler Michael Boyle Danielle Lesovitz Jimmy Westerlund

NARRATION RECORDED BY Jared Orlando

RE-RECORDING MIXER Jonathon A. Lee

SOUND ENGINEER Josh Boardman

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FINISHING EDITOR Jennifer Mayer

ARCHIVIST Eric Jerstad

EDITORIAL ADVISORS Tim Curnen Johanna Demetrakas Marsha Kinder Mark Jonathan Harris Steven Reich

ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL ADVISORS Colleen Stratton Sara Parker Rajinder Singh Shibani Alter Bill Woolery

HISTORICAL ADVISORS Rana Barakat, Ph.D. Issam Nassar, Ph.D. Daniel McGowan, Prof Emer Professor Walid Khalidi

ASSISTANT EDITORS Paul Apelgren Samah Tokmachi

POST-PRODUCTION ASSOCIATES Zanna Williams Thom Wyatt Lynn Berlad

LEGAL Art Neill, Esq. Frank Gruber, Esq. Peter Funsten, Esq. Peter Frank, Esq.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIST Peter Broderick

GRAPHICS sikhpoint.org

MAKE-UP Kedra Hart

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TRANSCRIPTIONIST Willkie Stevens

SPECIAL THANKS TO Joanna Lancaster Alex Kronemer

AND TO Amrit & Rabindra Kaur Singh Don Young Bicky Singh Kim Myers Ozzi Cheeks Jean-Philippe Boucicault Nathaniel Dorsky Richard Sparks Jenny Okun Billy Al Bengston Wendy Al Bengston The DC Improv Robert Bahar Ian Whitcomb Ron Jordan Greg Kachel Laurie White Michael Several Jeff Scheftel Nezar Andary Joan Mandell Karen Hori Jordan Elgrably Tania Kamal-Eldin Souvik De Linda Butler Paul Perry David Clennon Yigal Erens

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