Edward Said: Between Worlds

Edward Said had an unusual prominence as a public intellectual from his base at Columbia University. He wrote foundational texts such as Orientalism and The Question of Palestine, and frequently appeared on television to explain the Palestinian cause and battle willful distortions. When he died of leukemia in 2003 at age 67, the world lost a vital and complex thinker.

Edward Said: Between Worlds provides the opportunity to reengage that voice and share it with new generations, which feels as timely as I Am Not Your Negro was for James Baldwin. Filmmaker Maiken Baird teams with Palestinian-American producers Sarah Mowaswes and Razan Ghalayini along with the scholar’s daughter Najla Said as a consulting producer. They have combed the world’s archives to uncover hundreds of hours of interviews, public talks, and documentaries that capture Said in his prime. The film team skilfully braids these eclectic sources together to deliver a moving portrait in Said’s own words.

His life is a roadmap for the dilemmas that remain central to global politics today. Born in Palestine in 1935, he had firsthand experience of his family being uprooted by conflict. Said brings insights to historical flashpoints including the 1948 establishment of Israel and the subsequent dispossession of Palestinians known as the Nakba, and the 1993 Oslo Accords when he broke with the leadership of Yasser Arafat. He possessed a rare ability to move between the worlds of academia, mass media, and diplomacy, challenging preconceived notions every step of the way.

THOM POWERS