Proud Arabs and Texan Oilmen

1993, 52 mins BetaSP

First screened in Channel Four’s: Critical Eye series, this film examines the causes and conduct of the first Gulf War, and attempts to provide a framework for understanding and interpreting the chaos of subsequent events.Drawing on war footage, original material from Iraq and interviews with both supporters and opponents of the war – including Tony Benn, Noam Chomsky, Alan Clark, Michael Ignatieff, Rana Kabbani and Olga Maitland – Proud Arabs and Texan Oilmen places the war in its historical context and raises key questions about what really was at stake.

“If you were in England or America during the Gulf war, you probably remember it as a neat, hi-tech operation. ‘Proud Arabs and Texan Oilmen’ will blast that memory our of your mind. Instead you’ll be left with an image of a bloody, unequal war fought for cynical objectives by a megalomaniac America.” Sophy Kershaw, Time Out
“A sustained and often persuasive attack on American manipulation of the United Nations.” Simon O’Hagan, Independent on Sunday