A wedding to be held!



In Abraham's Children, Naeemah Rashid talks about being nervous and excited about getting married to Mohammed - the man she's been engaged to since she's been 14. It's two years later and last Friday evening Naeemah, now 19 and Mohammed 25, tied the knot (so to speak). I was fortunate to be witness the ceremony at Masjid at Taqwa in Brooklyn.

I loved hanging out with the maid of honor, Saeedah, while we waited three hours for the ceremony to start (not a Swiss affair) and chatting without a camera or an agenda. Naeemah, was nervous and excited, but positively glowing and I wish her and Mohammed a life of love, partnership and happiness, inshallah.



Saeedah & Naeemah Rashid



Tariq Rashid, Mohammed & Naeemah

 

Naeemah, Nina, Saeedah, brother, Malika

Naeemah - how do I look?



"Abraham's Children" Post Screening Discussion

@ Intersections International, September 2010, New York City

New York Times Columnist, Nicholas Kristof: My Apology to Muslims

What a powerful article by journalist, writer and activist Nicholas Kristof. Also check out his book: Half the Sky.

This my comment:

Dear Nicholas: thank you! Thank you for doing what so many of us should have done weeks (months and years ago) - speak up! And thank you for doing it so eloquently and succinctly and I want to join you in your apology to Muslims in America and Muslims around the world.

I wish I could have put my thoughts into words like yours, but I hope I put them well enough into images with a film called 'Abraham's Children' - www.abrahamschildrendoc.com - about Muslim children in the New York school system, where every 10th child is Muslim.

Muslim children in America (and NYC particularly I think) are robbed of a 'normal' childhood and find themselves having to defend their religion at an age where they should be busy figuring out 'teenage stuff'. They are - often unwilling - experts on their religion when they might not have the inclination, maturity and oratory finesse to be pulled into such a difficult and private discussion about one’s own faith. I certainly - even today - would not want to have to explain my believe system to strangers.

May we all have the strength to keep educating those in need of learning about bigotry, racism, hatred and just plain dumb generalizations - and on the latter I'll start with myself.

Imam Ibrahim Negm

The Islamic Center of Long Island held, as every year for the past seven, an interfaith Iftar during the month of Ramadan.

The house was packed and Isma Chaudhry (one of the mom's in my film) did an extraordinary job in hosting the evening. Her smarts, wit and kindness kept the evening moving along with many inspiring and lovely moments as local leaders from so many different congregations took to the podium to either talk about their faith or expand on fasting - each from their point of view.

I was fascinated and a bit intimidated as Isma had asked me to say a few words about the film. But it was a wonderful opportunity to have a captive audience that actually cared about the topic of the film - and, inshallah, we are a small step closer to getting this film into all schools in America! Sukran.

MC Isma Chaudhry

AALBC.com Backyard Screening

Saturday night was a perfect night - warm, dry and starry. Troy Johnson of the AALBC.com hosted a wonderful backyard screening in his brownstone in Harlem. The Q&A afterwards was very enlightening - a very different crowd than the one on Wednesday at Global Kids, they focused more on the filmmakers choice of kids in the film and their ethnic and social backgrounds - I enjoyed that discussion very much and it also showed me on how many different levels the film can be viewed and critiqued.
As there was no 'escape' during the screening I did see the film for the first time in a while in its entirety and it was mind boggling to me that I once though that every frame was necessary. There is so much I would cut out now and so much else I would like to put in. The two stories that I miss seeing the most are the more 'street wise' kid, maybe one that is even struggling with his/her faith and a West African Muslim.
But hindsight is always 20/20 even as we get older and need reading glasses.

Global Kids Screening and Iftar

Global Kids Team, Nina and Imran (3rd from L)

Q&A after the screening

On Wednesday we had a wonderful screening and Iftar at Global Kids. The audience seemed very appreciative of the film and some of the questions during the Q&A were very thought provoking - thank you!  Global Kids raised over $300 and a I was able to sell a few copies of the film.

I want to thank Rik Panganiben, Amira Fouad and Usman Farooq and the GK team for their enthusiasm and for making the screening happen. Their blog post about the screening gives a nice overview.

Usman also shared a lovely story about the restaurant that donated the very delicious food for the Iftar and I want to share it with you - it's in the true spirit my crew and I experienced when we were shooting the film during the month of Ramadan 2008:

I had to share this story as I am extremely touched by it.

For the movie screen of Abraham's Children we decided to do an iftar dinner (breaking the fast for Ramadan). Rik, Amira and I walked around our local restaurants to ask for food donation for the event. 

We had some luck until we went to Chandni restaurant. I spoke to the front counter person and he gave me the owner's phone number and said that he is a nice man so ask him. After a brief conversation with the owner, Muhammad Asharaf, he agreed to provide us with food and emphasized that to take as much as we want. I was a bit shock about this man generosity over the phone.

A day before the event I spoke to him on the phone to confirm and requested food for 40 people instead of the original 30. He again mention not to worry and order as much food as we need.

The day of movie screening we had more then enough good tasting food to go around. Filmmaker, Nina Froriep, was kind enough to offer a copy of her film and wrote a thank you letter to the owners of the restaurant [...].

The next day of the screening I went to the restaurant with a thank you letter from GK and Nina; and the DVD. A calm mannered middle-age man approached me after the front counter person mentioned that he is Muhammad. I started to thank him for his generosity only to be thank twice as much in return for selecting him to provide food for our Iftar. I mentioned that everyone loved the food and how grateful we are. The next moment his eyes teared up and he humbly thanked me again for appreciating his generosity. He then proceeded to say that what we are doing is great and he saw purity in our work. Adding that God will defiantly bless us.

I wanted to share his gratitude and his well wishes to all of GK staff for the new school year. I can truly say that our purse of educating the underprivileged and misunderstood youth is very pure and it shines out of our staff. I am grateful to be part of such an organization.

Good luck to all of us for a very new and exciting school year.
Sincerely, Usman Farooq

Upcoming Screenings

Ramadan Mubarak! The North-America Screening Tour of Abraham's Children is in full swing. Visit the Ramadan Screening Tour page for more information and links to all the screenings.


There are two screenings I'd like to highlight as I will be attending them and many of you e-mailed me after you missed the Premiere in the Bronx in May (sorry for the remote location, but it was an awesome screening), so here is your chance for a MANHATTAN screening:

AALBC and my friend Troy Johnson are screening next Saturday, August 28th, 2010 in Harlem - this will be an outdoor screening in a brownstone garden and should be lovely. RSVP!

Intersections International is screening on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 - we have a GREAT panel after and it should be a very interesting discussion.

See you there!

The Challenge of Anger Among Young Muslims in America

A supporter of the film sent me this blog post looking for my response to it. I read the blog post plus the 10 pages of commentary. It talks about polling and the discovery that a much higher percentage of Muslim youth than any other denomination is angry, depressed or unsatisfied with their lives. The commentaries went in a totally different direction and worried me more than the article.

Here my comments:

I was a bit surprised at the responses that really did not at all address the issue at hand but talked about ‘repatriating’ rather than actively working on a solution to a real problem. I find at my end there is very little energy from Muslim NGO’s to reach out across the faiths to educate and create understanding – I get a lot more support from other groupings […] to help spread the word with the film, then I do from Muslim organizations. There seems to be much more of a fatalistic undercurrent that is also visible in the responses to the survey.

The survey itself however I’m not surprised about. If Muslims are demonized all the time of course the youth and children will internalize that, be it that they pick it up subconsciously at home when adults talk about it or actually have negative experiences themselves. Going ‘back’ – for many, especially converts there is no ‘back’ – is not the answer. Muslims in this country and Europe have to learn to take responsibility to teach, reach out and build bridges - that is what’s so important. We don’t all need to agree on everything but we need to learn to live together respectfully….

Not screening in a Theatre? No problem…

We are at a stage in the distribution of Abraham’s Children were we hold grass-roots semi-theatrical screenings. What that means is we go to non-traditional venues, like school auditoriums and class rooms, mosques, meeting halls and living rooms to show the film. Last weekend I had the good fortune to show Abraham’s Children twice myself. Once at a high school auditorium and once in a 1-12K private school whose auditorium also functions as a prayer room.

Early on, Caitlin Boyle of Film Sprout had warned a bunch of us filmmakers at her (awesome) workshop on grass roots distribution outreach for social change documentaries, to let go of having the film screened in a ‘perfect’ setting. I took that to mean, that the film might be shown in 4:3 format rather than the intended 16:9 (widescreen) or that the sound was not going to be perfect, etc. I also assumed that I would not be there to have to witness it.

SO on Friday and Saturday I made sure we had it all set up perfectly – right aspect ratio, sound as balanced as possible with the sound system available, room darkened, temperature right, etc. Friday: perfect! Saturday? Not so. For reasons beyond my control it was decided stop the film after it was only about 80% done. Whaat?

Reason being, they had simply run out of time and needed the room for something else. I was dumb folded. Why invite me to attend? Why go through the trouble of holding a screening of a film whose length is known? Why schedule a speech and Q&A session with the director? The Q&A turned into a discussion in the hallway with a few interested parties and I was back at my car before I knew it. It was a bizarre experience and something tells me: not the last.

Moral of the story: you can only control so much and then you have to let go. You where right, Caitlin (and Mom).

All I can say: donate $50, get the DVD shipped to your home and FINISH watching it!

Screening Photos - Abraham's Children Premiere

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see (nearly) all the kids and their families in the same place and have them all meet and then have them up on stage with the crew! Thank you for all that came to the Premiere of Abraham's Children at the New World High School in the Bronx! It was a trek for those not from the hood, but I hope it was worth it.

And please, don't be shy ACT! and donate to get this film into classrooms! Thank you.

Photos are courtesy of Bob Cowin and Marc Seago.

Yasmine, Susan, Isma, Teresa, Claudia, Terry, Marc, Saraj, Tariq, Kasem & Ahmed

Terry, Claudia, Saraj, Tariq, Kasem, Ahmed, Haleema, Anam, Dareen, Nina















Yasmine with Teresa Pereira and Sister Susan

Ahmed and Saraj

My friend and supporter, Betsy holding up a donation envelope.

One Educator = $1

We are launching the "ONE EDUCATOR = $1" Campaign!

We are raising funds to help us distribute Abraham's Children to educators and get the film into as many American classrooms as possible. Act! and help us achieve our goals. $1 pays for a postcard to an educator and we are sending out over 3,000 cards. Share, educate and contribute!

Donating is easy. Go to our "Donate" page. One dollar, hundred dollars, what ever you can give. Get a DVD copy of Abraham's Children, a "thank you" credit on our website, a poster and we have other cool thank you gifts. Check it out.

Abraham's Children Magazine Review

Elan The Magazine, posted a review of Abraham's Children, by Imran Khan. In anticipation of this article I've started reading Elan and find it totally entertaining, amusing and often thought provoking, although I couldn't be further from their target audience - or at least: I'm definitely neither in the age-group nor in the cultural-religious group their targeting, but it crosses over beautifully. Below their mission statement and I would put a very big emphasis on "sarcastic" and actually call it irreverent. Give it a try.


elanthemag.com is a daily, online publication on global Muslim youth culture. Formerly known in print form as elan Magazine, elan offers witty, engaging, thought-provoking and sometimes sarcastic takes on the issues that matter to our fellow young, hip Muslims. In addition to daily commentary from our bloggers on topics ranging from entertainment to politics, elan includes feature articles from prominent voices within our community, round table discussions by young Muslim leaders on hot topics, photo-essays, videos, profiles, special sections like “WTFatwa” and “Policy Shift,” and much more.

A Screening

Abraham's Children will have it's first screening at the LITTLE THEATRE at St. John's University in Queens on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 6:00 PM. Terry Katz, our editor, who is also an Adjunct Professor at SJU made the screening possible. Terry, Nina and Teresa Pereira, our associate producer will be there for sure and after the screening there will be a discussion round.

For those of you who cannot make it out to Queens - hold you horses - we will be announcing a day of screenings (yes, plural) in Manhattan soon!

The Conversation

Yesterday the Conversation happened. That is, THE CONVERSATION on Social Media, Digital Distribution and the Future of Film (Tweet: #convoNYC) at Columbia University in Manhattan.
Organizers, Scott Kirsner (who wrote one of my all time favorite books: Fans, Friends and Followers), Tiffany Shlain and Lance Weiler and http://www.workbookproject.com/) put together a full day of panels and beak out meetings that kept me focused for 9 hours straight. Really good stuff if you are an independent filmmaker and especially if you are in DIY distro mode with a documentary.

We are at a cross roads of our industry, not only as independent filmmakers but also as producers and conent-providers at large. The web, new technology and new ways of interaction with content of any kind, audience participation, instant access paired with very limited time resources are completely, totally and irrevocably changing how we consume media, how we engage in politics, social lives and just pretty much everything else. The generational divide of participants and non-participants is bigger than ever and has little to do with age, and everything to do with willingness to engage and sadly for many with insufficient access to computers and the internet.

There were so many things yesterday that were of micro interest to an independent filmmaker, but the bigger picture was ever present in the back (and the front) of the room. My head is still spinning with all the awesome possibilities that not necessarily cost much in terms of technology or bells and whistles, but do tend to take a huge amount of engagement, sic. time, sic. labor and sic. cost.

After all that, my two favorites take-aways from the day had nothing to do with being at the cutting edge in terms of knowledge or technical savvy, but just two quotes that would have been equally as pertinent 20 years ago, but do take a whole new meaning in today's environment.

The first, attributed to one of the organizers of this amazing event, Tiffany Shlane - more precisely her father: "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space." And the other, uttered as a throw away sentence summing up the panel he participated in by Richard Lorber: "Everything is possible and nothing is working". Imight ad a resounding "YET" to the last quote. On on we plod....

Mel Berkowitz Presents

Watch the show. Cable access in Manhattan, Thursday, April 1st at 10:30 AM on channel 67 (TWC) or on http://www.mnn.org/ (channel 4, culture).

Terry Katz (editor) and Nina talking about Abraham’s Children with host Mel Berkowitz for an our(!)…. some never seen before footage (unless you’re one of the few lucky with a copy of the film).

Film Festivals

I really, really have not wanted to write this post, but it's time.

As I think you all know by now - I'm new to film and documentary distribution game. Making the film - which at first I thought would be the challenge, was actually the easy part. Distribution is the challenge - I spare you the unprintable thoughts I have about it.

So: what I really want to say is this: film festivals suck. So, there, I said it. Oh, no - any chances of getting into one: down the drain... Actually I should say: film festival submissions suck.  If festivals actually suck I don't know because I've never been at one (not as filmmaker at leat). Envious? Definitely!

The real question here of course is: "what is wrong with Abraham's Children"? And from my ever so slightly slanted point of view I would say: "absolutely NOTHING". My theory, why a timely, beautifully produced film with awesome talent does not get into Film Festivals is: no sex, drugs and rock'n roll. Not a sliver of it.

Abraham's Children is littered with fun, well spoken and behaving children that happen to be Americans and happen to be Muslim. Gosh: no terrorist, not even alcohol, teen pregnancy, drugs - just normal kids. It's a bore, I know.

But if you watch the film you might actually learn something about Islam you didn't know (unless of course you're Muslim, but then you’re just checking out the competition),  and you will definitely fall in love with one of the kids if not all of them, you will laugh and you will maybe even see some of yourself in one of them and be amazed at the diversity these kids bring to the screen. So give it a try.

Support the film, buy the DVD, and tell your friends on FB, Twitter and all other social networks I'm oblivious to, about it. Host a screening and get the word out that there is this little film that shows a slice of live of Muslims in America from a normal, every-day perspective. Can you do that?

"Abraham's Children" Director's Notes

I believe in the power of storytelling to change minds and pre-conceived notions and to grow an understanding of the world around us.

The topic of Islam and Muslims in America is fraught with emotions, fueled by the post 9/11 media frenzy and the negative stereotyping of Muslims, both in the news and in entertainment in general. In contrast, Abraham’s Children gives a non judgmental, apolitical presentation of real stories of Muslim children in America.

When I set out in the fall of 2007 to learn about the lives of Muslim children in America, I knew almost nothing about Islam, whether in America, in the world over, or my own backyard in Central Harlem. I also had little idea of what it meant to grow up in America. I was born and raised in Switzerland and didn’t come to this country until I was in college.

What I did understand was the feeling of displacement, which I felt very much myself, even as a Western-European-Christian with a reasonable command of English transplanted to New York. How much more intense must it be for an adolescent coming to America, like Kasem, with an Eastern-Yemeni-Islamic upbringing.

I also knew that Muslims got the short end of the stick in the media, especially after 9/11. I was curious to find out why Muslims were not speaking up. Where were the leaders and the Muslims that fought the injustice and ignorance about their religion, culture and way of life?
Many of these questions are still unanswered. I had to learn that one documentary can harbor only so many angles and stories, but in the end Abraham’s Children became a study on Islam in America from a youth’s point of view.

I feel very passionate and protective of the kids in Abraham’s Children and I think it comes through in the film. All the families were incredibly courageous to let us into their lives. We are extremely appreciative of the way they spoke to use, gave us access to their homes, schools, and workplaces and also graciously hosted us during the shoot days. This film represents a true collaborative effort from production, to crew and talent.

I discovered that this generation of Muslim-Americans growing up in a post 9/11 era are the future leaders and spokespersons of Islam in America. I very much look forward to seeing what they will be up to in years to come.

NEW Fundraising tool for an educational version of "Abraham's Children"

We are fundraising for an educational version of Abraham's Children.  March 1st we are launching our website anew.  This will allow us total flexibilty with content and we are adding a few new cool features, like a donation page (hint!) and a page with downloadable PDF's for press kits, viewer guide, photos and a "how to host a fundraiser" document (hint!).  We also signed up with IndieGoGo for a fundraising page (hint, hint).  It's a very cool website and an awesome tool.  Check it out; comments are welcome.

What I learned - the abstract stuff continued...

This is something I seem to have to learn over and over again.  I had a teacher once tell me: "if it smells fishy and looks fishy, it is fishy".   Whenever I dismiss my gut feeling I'm in trouble.  Instinct is a fine thing, but you also need to have the guts to follow it.  Right! 

Remember that when making those quick production and slow post production and glacial distribution decisions: instinct and courage.

What I learned - distribution, part 2

In the book "Think Outside the Box Office" by John Reiss is an entire section I have been ignoring: "Sanity and the Future".  The first chapter is:  "Keeping Sane".   Last night I took that chapter to bed with me and as I read it I must have had a hundred "AHA" moments.    As in: "Wow, I'm not the only one who feels like she's working into a black abyss of self-distribution" - it was like reading confessions of a "DIY-Distributor's Anonymous" meeting. - DIYDA.

The book talks about other things the fact that creative talent hates to deal with the business side of things, but that's not even it for me.  I'm a producer and I run small business and I actually very much enjoy the business side of things, but what drives me absolutely NUTS is the fact that everything moves at a glacial (as in when glaciers didn't melt yet) pace.   In production decisions are made fast and you get bids, crews, equipment, answers, etc. immediately.    Now everything feels like pulling teeth - and very slowly so.  Consultant Peter Broderick gave me one good piece of advice:  don't rush anything, take your time to decide what to do....  great advice, especially for a producer, but more than not it feels like I don't have a choice either. 

I think a very obvious piece of advice and one I wish I would have gotten from the get go would be: your film is not like any other film and what worked for others will not necessarily work for you - sounds really straight forward, no?  Yes, and no.  There are SO MANY moving variables.  Every decision you make has ramifications for other venues of distribution and some of them demand a very strict sequence of distribution, lest you shoot yourself in the foot and have your world premiere inadvertently with a small screening in a library and the big film festival you've been dreaming about will now no longer consider your film.  

I would say, first and foremost:  learn who likes your film; show your film:  who loves your film, who responds to your film - how do different groups react? Are there common denominators with groups of people, e.g. educators, women, religious groups, professionals? LISTEN....