Filming a dream in Dearborn 

Activist's documentary to tell stories of Arab Americans 
July 15, 2004

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER  - Actual printed article 

From New York City to Tokyo, film crews from around the world have descended on Dearborn in recent years to film the community's large Arab-American population. 

But now, one of the city's own is making a documentary that will bring a unique, inside perspective to a town that has received international attention since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. 

Titled "The Arab American Dream," the documentary will focus on the real lives of ArabAmericans in Dearborn and metro Detroit. It will be filmed by Neal AbuNab, a corporate consultant and activist who was one of the founding members of the Dearborn-basedArab American Political Action Committee. 

"I want anybody who sees this movie to take away the idea that Arab Americans are not just Arabs, but Americans," AbuNab said. "OK, they are different, but we don't need to hate them just because they are different." 

AbuNab hopes to have the film ready for viewing for a general audienceby Sept. 11, 2005, the fourth anniversary of the attacks. He sees the film as a way to close the gap between the Arab and American worlds. 

"This is part of a campaign to thrust our community into the mainstream of America and say, 'We are part of this society,' " he said. 

Since 9/11, a number of television and film crews have come to Dearborn to record the experiences of Michigan's large Arab community. In 2002, PBS broadcast a documentary that featured a Muslim nurse from Dearborn. Last year, a television crew from Japan came to Dearborn and became so familiar with the local Iraqi community they at times helped local reporters find sources. And last month, a documentary crew from New York City was in town searching for a family to document. 

AbuNab was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who came from Jerusalem. His father, the late Ibrahim AbuNab, was a well-known journalist and filmmaker in the Middle East who once made a documentary about the plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. 

AbuNab immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's degree in engineering management from Drexel University in Philadelphia. 

He has been a consultant for various corporations, has been active in Arab-American politics and writes for the Dearborn-based Arab American News. His inside access will give the film an authenticity that he saidwill make the movie resonate with viewers. 

"It will show you the real thing," AbuNab said. "As real as you can get." Last week, AbuNab spent the afternoon filming and interviewing Don Unis, a lifelong Dearborn resident who's a retired fire captain and an Arab-American activist. Supporters of Unis recently persuaded the Dearborn school district to name a public school after him. 

The film will show how Arab Americans were increasingly making a name for themselves before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, especially during the 2000 presidential campaign. The 1 1/2-hour documentary will then deal with how the community's civil rights and political voice were affected by 9/11. 

"They shrank into a cocoon," AbuNab said about the aftermath of the attacks. 

AbuNab said the name for the film comes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech. 

"I want to show America what is real," he said. "I want to look at anti-Arab sentiment and take that hatred, and heal it with hope and optimism, and hope that tolerance prevails." 


For more information on the project, contact Neal AbuNab at 313-506-4409


Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO at 248-351-2998 or warikoo@freepress.com.