The Middle Geeks

<p>Happy(ish?) New Year! We're back with a discussion on the 2025 Oscar Nominations and the groundbreaking Palestinian, Iranian, and Moroccan films that were nominated. The Palestinian and Tunisian The Voice of Hind...

<p></p> <p>What will one sacrifice for a greater cause? How do we fight overwhelming systems of oppression? Does working within a corrupt system work, or do we need to tear it all down? Wicked: For Good explores these...

<p></p> <p>The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is a reverberating ethos through Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir's latest film, Palestine 36, which chronicles the last days of the British...

<p></p> <p>The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, American Dad, and more all-American animated adult tv comedies have graced our screens for decades, mercilessly interrogating the all-American life and if it's all it's...

<p></p> <p>In Heiny Srour's 1984 film Leila and the Wolves, Leila and her husband live in London, and are making an exhibit on popular movements in Lebanon and Palestine. However, her husband has conveniently forgotten...

<p>Mo Season 2 comes three years after its first, and so much has changed for Palestine in the real world. Yet Mo Amer and his team keep Season 2 directly after the first, honing in on Mo Najjar's personal journey that...

<p></p> <p>As the genocide in Gaza tragically continues, so does Palestinian resilience and resistance, including and especially in artistry and cinema. Now set to release nationwide in theaters January 3rd, via...

<p></p> <p>Jaylee Hamidi (they/she) has made significant history in their supporting role on Nathasha Rothwell's Hulu series How to Die Alone as "Allie." A queer, Kurdish-Iranian-Chinese actor, Hamidi has made history...

<p></p> <p>The Rings of Power Season 2 has concluded, and we have back on our friend Arezou to go through all the details of the riveting sophomore outing of this take on J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium. But on that note...

<p></p> <p>Leslye Headland's The Acolyte, streaming on Disney+, is unique in more ways than one. As one of the most diverse Star Wars series, in front of and behind the scenes, with writers like the SWANA and Turkish...

<p></p> <p>Our favorite costume designer Isa joins us once again to review one of our all-time favorite series, Nida Manzoor's We Are Lady Parts, starring a British Muslim women punk band comprising of frontwoman Saira...

<p></p> <p>In her debut novel, The Jinn Daughter, Syrian-American author Rania Hanna weaves together a family tale based in stories of oral tradition across the Arab world. In telling stories with the Jinn, she seeks to...

<p></p> <p>Joined by our friends Darya Bajestani, Roxana Hadadi, Ali Nasser, and Zaina Ujayli (while sadly missing Mae!), we're live at D.C.'s premier comic-con, Awesome Con! In this panel of SWANA writers, scholars...

<p></p> <p>Roxana Hadadi joins us once again to review the Dune franchise, now with Dune: Part Two in theaters. In a franchise that appropriates so much from SWANA and Muslim cultures, does the second installment...

<p></p> <p>We welcome back our friends Jasmin and Isa to discuss Assassin's Creed Mirage, a sprawling action-adventure game from Ubisoft set in 9th Century Abbasid Baghdad, that tells the story of Basim Ibn Ishaq (Lee...