Muslim
Prejudice and Injustice Examined in Adama
The new documentary Adama, by filmmakers David Felix Sutcliffe and Su Kim, examines why the FBI picked up a 16-year-old Muslim girl from Harlem on suspicion of being a potential suicide bomber. ITVS Broadcast and Distribution Manager Kate Sullivan Green spoke with director David Felix Sutcliffe about the film — which airs this Sunday, November 6 on the WORLD Channel and will stream freely for 30 days after the broadcast on worldcompass.org.
How did you first hear about Adama’s story?
DAVID: Adama had been a student at The Harlem Children’s Zone where I was teaching video production…We started talking and I thought if anyone needs to pick up a camera and tell a story, it’s her. We gave her a camera but because there was so much pressure to take care of the family since her father was detained as well, she didn’t have time to make the film. At that point I asked her if I could take on the filmmaker role and that’s how it began.
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WHAM! BAM! ISLAM! Director & Star Discuss Film After SF Sneak Preview
Isaac Solotaroff and the inspiration for his film Wham! Bam! Islam!, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, were on hand for a special San Francisco sneak preview screening of the documentary last week.
The film screened before an audience of 130 at the Delancey Street Screening Room, where ITVS hosted a reception and post-screening discussion. Dr. Al-Mutawa explained his motivation for creating THE 99 comic book series based on the 99 attributes of Allah — “to provide Muslim children around the world with new superheroes.”
He also discussed his struggles to get distribution in the U.S. for an animated television series based on THE 99 due to pressure from a few press outlets.
Solotaroff, who lived in San Francisco for 10 years, acknowledged many of his filmmaking mentors in the audience and his experiences telling this story as a non-Muslim.
ITVS Announces Funding for 30 Mosques in 30 States Project
30 Mosques in 30 States is a unique, multimedia portrait of diverse Muslim communities throughout America.
Part travel blog, part photo essay, part video diary, and part mobile application, 30 Mosques in 30 States is an original documentary experience developed by digital media producers Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq – two young Muslim Americans who set out to visit a different mosque in a different U.S. state for each of the 30 days of Ramadan. The two’s 13,000-mile route will essentially take them across the entire country before they end up back home in New York City. Through their journey, we learn about the first mosque built in the U.S. in the tiny town of Ross, North Dakota in 1929 as well as what life is like for Muslim Americans in Alaska.
There are an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslims living in the United States – a number that is expected to double by the year 2030. Muslims in the U.S. come from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds including African Americans, South and East Asians, Europeans, Arabs, and East Africans. 30 Mosques in 30 States is a glimpse into the mosaic of Muslim life that can only be told with today’s new forms of digital storytelling. Join Aman and Bassam on their journey, here: http://30mosques.com/
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Karate Kid Takes on Global Voices
Shadya airs on Global Voices Sunday, July 25
A young Muslim Israeli is trapped between her passion for karate and religious tradition in Shadya, airing this Sunday on Global Voices on PBS World (check local listings).
Directed by Roy Westler, the film takes place in Northern Israel and profiles a 17-year-old charismatic karate champion. Shadya is a rare breed, a feminist in a male-dominated culture and a Muslim Arab living in Israel.
As she grapples with the looming tension of an early marriage and her Palestinian identity, Shadya refuses to play by the rules of her traditional Muslim community.
Check out the trailer for Shadya ahead of the broadcast this Sunday.
Kashmir: An Explosive Eden
The ever-embattled territory of Kashmir in the Himalayas is again in the news, as representatives from Amnesty International arrived there this week to investigate reports of human rights abuses lodged against both Indian and Pakistani combatants. In the 21 years since the Muslim insurgency against Indian rule in the region erupted, between 50,000 and 100,000 people have been killed.
Coincidentally, Project Kashmir premieres on Independent Lens tonight (check local listings). In this beautiful and cogent new show, producers Geeta Patel and Senain Kheshgi sneak their cameras into Kashmir to observe the secretive and anxious lives of the region’s inhabitants, and to look for clues to what started the conflict — which could become nuclear at any time — and how religious and national allegiances can seemingly immunize people to their own most human instincts for survival.
The filmmakers’ journey is especially moving when they find themselves pulled in separate directions by their own divergent ethnicities. Patel — an Indian American Hindu, and Kheshgi — a Pakistani American Muslim find their own friendship eroding as they begin personally identifying with opposite sides of the struggle.
Catch the film tonight on PBS, and watch this exclusive behind-the-scenes footage for a glimpse into this beautiful and deadly region >>
Filmmaker Kathy Huang Discusses TALES OF THE WARIA
ITVS’s Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.
Check out the clip below with filmmaker Kathy Huang, who received Open Call funds for her film TALES OF THE WARIA. The film looks at three transgender individuals in Indonesia––the world’s largest Muslim country––who search for love and acceptance with unexpected results. Learn more about what Huang hopes people will learn from the film.
Season Premiere of P.O.V. Tonight on PBS
NEW MUSLIM COOL premieres tonight on a brand new season of P.O.V. on PBS
Even though the Independent Lens season has come to an end, you can still catch some of the best Indie films on our sister series P.O.V., which kicks off its season with NEW MUSLIM COOL tonight at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).
Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he’s moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. NEW MUSLIM COOL takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through streets, slums and jail cells—following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing. Produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
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