Student film projects from Bowling Green State University showed the perspective of other countries on
the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
A public discussion and viewing last month capped off the fall semester course, Global Media and Film
Discourses in the Age of Terrorism.
“International Views on Terrorism in the Media” was the title given to the final project.
The Dec. 6 presentation at the First Presbyterian Church included a public screening, followed by
discussion of four student films. The event was co-sponsored by the Not In Our Town community group.
“These films raise issues about fear and resistance of the other, and hope to instigate a dialogue on how
we can engage communities through an understanding of global film and media perspectives to counteract
attitudes that express fear, resistance and discrimination against immigrants, Muslims and those who
appear different,” said Khani Begum, associate professor of English.
Between community members, students and faculty, more than 30 showed up for the films and discussion.
“The course and the presentations are one way of addressing diversity of perspective and raising
consciousness of global cultures, so we can deal with the rise in hate crimes, racial discrimination,
immigration and asylum issues,” Begum said.
Out of the seven students in the class, Africa, India, Germany and France were represented. The American
students also came from diverse communities.
“I feel very troubled by what is happening in our country with the demonizing of other cultures, and for
me, teaching courses like these and having my students engage the community in such discussions is my
attempt at community activism,” Begum said.
Begum considered the course to be a multi-layered way of looking at film, which brought up their own
national tragedies, when looked at through the lens of a foreign director. The perspective was not
limited to documentaries, as students found it also in dramas.
All final projects, the films were documentaries, loosely on the same subject, but each from a very
different perspective.
Jerry Reed’s “Reality Becoming History” gave modern student perceptions of the terrorist attack.
“It’s a very distant historical moment in my mind, so I have no connection to 9/11,” said BGSU student
Conner Froelich said in his filmed interview.
“Nigeria and France, we realized, we had a totally different perspective,” said Nigerian Hammed Oluwadare
Adejare during the presentation with his movie producing partner Gwendoline Grollemund, from France.
Adejare and Grollemund’s film, “None of Them and All of Them,” focused on that international perspective.
Especially for the students who were old enough to watch the news reports at the time, it took time for
reality to set in.
Also, the footage was so unbelievable that some felt the falling towers were Hollywood movie productions.
Some also saw local media presentations that emphasized conspiracy theories, while occasionally also
revealing the existence of organizations such as al-Qaida.
Other changes brought about by 9/11 are still being felt by individuals.
“From personal experience, 9/11 has set off stereotypes of people from other countries. Legally, I’m
under more scrutiny because of the country I’m from, and my last name,” said student Abdulmoez Arab,
from Saudi Arabia.
Begum taught a similar course in 2016, which led to the 15th anniversary conference of the 9/11 attacks
that she organized with her students.
“I am hoping to teach it one more time before 2021, when I would hold another larger conference exploring
the state of the tragedy’s global repercussions up till then.”