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Brookings Institution Engages Arts and Culture Leaders |
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Kamran Pasha (left), author, TV screenwriter (Sleeper Cell, Bionic Woman) talks with Michael Wolfe, author, film producer, Unity Productions.
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The Brookings Institution’s historic mandate has been to serve as a bridge between scholarship and public policy. Today, the institution’s Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, housed within the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, continues that role, but with a twist on traditional diplomacy: it is exploring how arts and culture can be used to help the United States build more positive relations with Muslim states and communities. Since cultural products like television shows and movies are a top U.S. export, the project recognizes opportunities for leveraging these products to foster cross-cultural engagement.
The Brookings project hosts an annual convening of arts and cultural leaders from around the world at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. In November 2006, the organizers held their first regional conference of arts and cultural leaders in the United States.
This summer, the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World began partnering with Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit media organization, to develop a “Hollywood Engagement Project” that will provide services and information to the professional entertainment community and especially to writers and producers in the feature film and television industries. In offering these services, Brookings and UPF, with the support of One Nation, hope to promote greater accuracy and more nuanced representations of Muslims and Islam in media productions that will ultimately be seen by millions of viewers, here and abroad.
Posted November 8, 2007
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