“The Arab Awakening – The end of a dictator” is a documentary by Al Jazeera English, a Qatar based broadcaster of Arabic news and affairs who attempts to show all sides of every story. This documentary is the first of an eight part series, called “The Arab Awakening,” that focuses on Egypt during the time of the Arab Spring. “The end of a dictator” shows the end of Mubarak’s rule as seen by those who took part in the protests. The documentary follows two young people, Miral Brinjy and Ahmed Badawy, who were part of the protests from the beginning. Miral kept a video journal of the protests starting January 25, and uploaded them in an effort to spread awareness of the movement. The documentary follows the two on February 11 and 12. The first night they are in Tahir square with many others, awaiting Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. But when Mubarak doesn’t resign, the protesters become very emotional. Twenty four hours later when Mubarak announces his resignation, the protesters, as well as Miral and Ahmed, are shown celebrating. The documentary also follows the Maatouk family, a middle class family that joined the protests a few days after they started, during the same time frame. The first day the family brings food down to the protesters in Tahir square, and then join in themselves. The second day they watch Mubarak’s resignation in their home while talking about the challenges that come after.The documentary also films some farmers in rural Egypt some time after Mubarak’s resignation, showing them talking about what has happened and how it effects them. One tells the story of how he, as a member of the security force, was ordered to attack the protesters but decided instead to quit his job and join them. The documentary also interviews a few other people some time after Mubarak’s resignation. Shahira Amin, a former state TV presenter, tells her story during the protests. She worked for a state owned news station before the protests, but when she saw what the regime was doing to the protesters she quit her job. There are also interviews with Moaz Abdel-Kareem, who helped organize the initial protests, and Dr. Mohammad Wahaby, an obstetrician who shut his clinic down to protest in Tahir square. The documentary also shows a visit to a local café where many older men tend to go, and interviews some of them. The whole documentary tries to show the Egyptian uprising through the eyes and stories of the people by following and interviewing a wide range of people, from the old to the young and the poorer to the more wealthy. They enforce the idea that the uprising started with the people, and should be focused on the people.

This documentary, as well as the rest in the series, help to show what was happening elsewhere in the region around Tunisia. It is important to know about the other uprisings happening during the Arab Spring to be able compare Tunisia to the rest of the region. Egypt’s protests had a lot in common with Tunisia’s, but Egypt faltered after the uprising while Tunisia was much more successful. To understand why Tunisia was able to do much better than Egypt after the uprisings, you must understand the uprisings in Egypt too. This documentary is able to show what the Egyptian uprising was like, and hopefully it helps people to see its faults and what could have been better about it.

One of the things the documentary could have done better was address the opposing views. It did shortly mention how there were protests, in favor of Mubarak, against the protesters, but it did not follow the stories of anyone from the other side. If the documentary was trying to show the people’s side of the uprisings, they should have tried to include opposing views even if they are in the minority. However, the documentary could have also done this on purpose, trying to just tell the story of the people who were fighting against the harshness of the dictatorship.

I think this documentary is well made, and I agree with much of what they are trying to convey. Al Jazeera English is known to be fairly reliable and not too biased, and this can also be said about their documentaries. This one does a good job at what it is trying to do: show the Egyptian uprising through the lens of the Egyptian people. Al Jazeera English tries to “bring a voice to the voiceless,” and I believe they did a good job of that with this documentary. None of the people they followed or interviewed where very well known, and this documentary allowed them to show their struggles. They also did a good job of not forcing any ideas on the viewer; rather, they showed the stories of the people that suffered and allowed the viewer to form their own opinion.