Warner Bros. has rejected a demand by the Council on American Islamic Relations to change the title of its forthcoming movie Towelhead to its original title, Nothing Is Private. Cair had objected that "the use of such a derogatory term by a major film studio will serve to increase its acceptability in public discourse." Towelhead, however, is the title of the novel by Arab-American Alicia Erian on which which the screenplay -- which she also wrote -- is based. In an interview with Reuters, Erian said she had used the racial slur in the title "to highlight one of the novel's major themes, racism." And in a commentary posted on the Cinematical website, critic Eric D. Snider, addressed Cair's protest this way: "Could it be that one of the movie's messages is that slurs like that are unacceptable? Could it be that only the most bigoted and idiotic of viewers could come out of it thinking, 'I'm gonna start sayin' "towelhead" more often!'?"

Towelhead follows the dark, bold and shockingly funny life of Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, as she navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening.

When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbors find her and her father a curiosity. Worse, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbors Mr. Vuoso, an Army reservist, and Melina, a meddling but caring expectant mother.

Thrown into an unfamiliar suburban world, Jasira must confront racism and hypocrisy at home and at school - and at the same time struggle to make sense of her raging hormones and newfound sexuality. Her boyfriend, Thomas, though a few years older, provides some comfort - but even that relationship causes problems when her father discovers that Thomas is black. Surrounded by adults who are just as lost as she is, Jasira yearns for understanding, even amidst often brutal acts.

From IMDB:




So the novel was named "Towelhead" but the author changed it when the screenplay was written. It is unclear who made the decision to change the name of the film.

I tend to agree that things like this do challenge people to confront topics head on. I would have never read Randall Kennedy's book "Nigger" had the title not confronted me in the bookstore. Something about this smacks of publicity for some reason. Most likely the author's decision to change the name, then the change back.

While I don't think anyone that regularly uses the term will go see this movie unless they get a serious dose of misinformation regarding the content, I don't think the intended audience gains anything by the title change either.

What do you think? Good idea or publicity stunt?

From IMDB:






I tend to agree that things like this do challenge people to confront topics head on. I would have never read Randall Kennedy's book "Nigger" had the title not confronted me in the bookstore. Something about this smacks of publicity for some reason. Most likely the author's decision to change the name, then the change back.

While I don't think anyone that regularly uses the term will go see this movie unless they get a serious dose of misinformation regarding the content, I don't think the intended audience gains anything by the title change either.

What do you think? Good idea or publicity stunt?
[Edited 8/28/08 1:15am]

From IMDB:
I would have never read Randall Kennedy's book "Nigger" had the title not confronted me in the bookstore.

Mars23 said:

I thought Dick Gregory wrote that book. (I'm too lazy to look up and see if there is really a book by that title by Randall Kennedy.)

jone70 said:

He did ...Nigger: An Autobiography.

Byron said:

It's a great book. I was in speech & drama in high school and did a prose interpretation of one of the chapters--the one where he talks about shame, being 'not poor, just broke', and how he had a crush on the little girl who was clean.

Ooh! I found it online: http://www.angelfire.com/...broke.html

Ironically, I never knew the 'real' title of the book it came from when I was in high school; I thought it was titled "Not Poor Just Broke." My speech coach cut the speech so that you couldn't even tell what race the characters were, so I never even knew Dick Gregory was black! I guess the he thought it would be less controversial in an all white town to not use the n* word, and focus on shame/poverty, which can affect anyone. After college I looked everywhere for that book, "Not Poor, Just Broke" by Dick Gregory and couldn't find it anywhere! (Since I didn't know my "not poor, just broke" Dick Gregory was black, I always thought the author of N*gger must be someone different.) Then one day my (then) boyfriend was reading N*gger and told me I should read it because it was a good book. So I did and I found the speech in there!

jone70 said:

...Yeah, I was wondering how you pulled that off in your high school from everything you've said about where you grew up lol ...