A former World Kickboxing Champion and United States Marine Corps combat instructor, German-born filmmaker Lexi Alexander worked her way up from stunt woman to Oscar-nominated director with her live action short film Johnny Flynton, a drama about a boxer. She has helmed feature films including the SXSW Jury & Audience Award-winning drama Green Street Hooligans, Marvel’s Punisher: War Zone and the acclaimed military drama Lifted. Her latest feature, the martial arts movie Absolute Dominion starring Désiré Mia, Alex Winter, Andy Allo, Olunike Adeliyi and Patton Oswalt, is now in theaters through Giant Pictures.
That wasn’t my first choice of headline. I originally planned on writing an article on “How To Promote a Movie During a Genocide” … but I’m ready to admit that it can’t be done. There is just no classy way to place a “Get Your Tickets To This Throwback Martial Arts Extravaganza Movie” post in between “65,000 Children Are Being Forcibly Starved to Death in Gaza” and “Israel Bombs Another Refugee Tent” headlines.
My father was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, and like most Palestinians, his family lost their home to Jewish settlers, causing him and his siblings to eventually join the globally scattered Palestinian diaspora. I grew up visiting countries like Jordan and Lebanon to meet members of my Palestinian family, unless they came to visit us in Germany.
I’d like to think that everybody with a heart and soul reacts to the images coming out of Gaza with the same level of revulsion as I do … but when thousands of brutally massacred corpses look exactly like your nieces, nephews, siblings, grandparents, etc., it undeniably adds a layer of pain exclusively reserved for Palestinians.
How then do I talk about this fun martial arts flick I made … in the midst of all of this?
There is a thing in Arab/Muslim culture where parents famously urge their kids to become doctors … or at least lawyers or engineers. I’m not sure they consider being a filmmaker a real profession (even if that filmmaker was nominated for an Oscar once). I was always amused by this, though at a certain point, realizing that Hollywood’s distorted lenses portray Arabs only as one-dimensional, heartless, brutal, uncivilized religious fanatics and terrorists … because that’s how you dehumanize a people, I started pushing back on it within the wider Arab/Muslim community, because there is no doubt it is much easier to ethnically cleanse people you don’t consider to be human.
In a 2015 speech, the late Dr. Jack Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs, stated:
“Another way we can look at the connection between politics and entertainment, Washington and Hollywood, is the manner in which, historically, cinema and TV have projected the Palestinian people. Beginning with the film Exodus that dealt with the very early conflict. Here, Palestinians are either invisible or they’re linked with Nazis, perpetrators of horrific acts. Then today, we have some of the most horrific anti-Arab shows I’ve seen in my life, Tyrant, Dig and Homeland. If you haven’t seen Tyrant, don’t. It’s all about this mythical Arab country where Arabs slaughter Arabs. The one brother seduces women while the family watches, even rapes his daughter-in-law. Dig is set in Jerusalem. You’d never know there were Arabs in Jerusalem at all. They don’t appear—except last week, they did appear. They attacked a car with U.S. diplomats, beat up the diplomats and the Israeli driver. That’s the only time in four episodes I’ve seen a Palestinian. What I keep trying to hammer home gently—very gently—is entertainment as propaganda. We don’t see it as propaganda. We think it’s mere fluff. The films of Leni Riefenstahl in Nazi Germany were more effective than Germany’s propaganda films. So we cannot look at these films and shows in a vacuum and think they’re pure fluff.”
When the righteous Dr. Shaheen passed away in 2017, there was no one left who advocated for this cause, so a few Arab/Muslims within Hollywood took it upon ourselves to speak on it … with comically abysmal results. I honestly don’t think I have ever failed at anything harder than improving Arab/Muslim representation in Hollywood … and while I hesitate to judge anybody else’s effort, I know what’s been produced, but more importantly, I know what didn’t get made. You can learn far more about Hollywood by looking at what screenplays were submitted but not greenlit than by looking at the shows and movies that made it to the screen.
As a former competitive fighter, one thing I am very good at is knowing when to continue fighting and when to throw in the towel. While Hollywood pretends to be an overall liberal and progressive industry, when it comes to occupied Palestine and this never-ending genocide in Gaza, committed by a self-acclaimed far-right Israeli government, Hollywood unabashedly stands to the right of most U.S. industries.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), International Union of Painters (IUPAT), National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Auto Workers (UAW) and United Electrical Workers (UE) are just some of the major U.S. labor unions who have officially demanded to cease military aid to Israel, while actors, writers and directors sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians have not been able to convince their respective labor unions, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the Writers Guild (WGA) and the Directors Guild (DGA) to even release a pro-ceasefire statement.
Yeah.
I recently quit Hollywood and moved to beautiful (and Palestine-friendly) Ireland. If I ever make a show or movie again, it will be here, among people who empathize deeply with the oppressed, because they were oppressed themselves. But I haven’t given up hope that those who haven’t experienced oppression, including Hollywood aristocracy, will develop the same level of empathy as the Irish … or at least enough to demand an end to this unbearably cruel genocide.
I guess if there is one reason I could give you to watch a fun martial arts movie during these dark times, it is that it will definitely be my last Hollywood film.
