You can thank former President Donald Trump for the remarkable rise in TV shows featuring Muslim protagonists – including Hulu’s “Ramy,” Netflix’s “Mo” and Disney+’s “Ms. Marvel,” among others.
Trump’s 2017 executive order banning travel from certain Muslim-majority countries not only fueled the rise of such shows but “led to an unprecedented expansion in [Muslim] representations,” said Evelyn Alsultany, a professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC’s Dornsife College and expert on the history of Muslim and Arab representation in the U.S. media.
Shifts in representation often occur in response to a crisis, she said, but this change was dramatic.
“There was something about the Trump presidency that inspired people to act that galvanized not just individuals and organizations but industries like Hollywood,” said Alsultany, whose latest book on the issue is titled “Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion.” “I’ve never seen anything like it before,...
Trump’s 2017 executive order banning travel from certain Muslim-majority countries not only fueled the rise of such shows but “led to an unprecedented expansion in [Muslim] representations,” said Evelyn Alsultany, a professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC’s Dornsife College and expert on the history of Muslim and Arab representation in the U.S. media.
Shifts in representation often occur in response to a crisis, she said, but this change was dramatic.
“There was something about the Trump presidency that inspired people to act that galvanized not just individuals and organizations but industries like Hollywood,” said Alsultany, whose latest book on the issue is titled “Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion.” “I’ve never seen anything like it before,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Brenda Gazzar
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Sony Pictures International Productions has acquired global rights to the award-winning comedy Americanish, marking the feature directorial debut of Iman Zawahry. Specifics as to plans for the pic’s distribution have not yet been disclosed.
Written by Aizzah Fatima and Zawahry, Americanish follows sisters Sam (Aizzah Fatima) and Maryam Khan (Salena Qureshi), and their cousin Ameera (Shenaz Treasury), as they navigate love, careers and familial pressures in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Zawahry’s first feature won the Audience Award in its 2021 world premiere at San Francisco’s CAAMFest before going on to win a total of 25 awards at festivals around the world. Pic’s cast also includes Mo‘s Mo Amer, as well as Lillette Dubey (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Kapil Talwalkar (Charmed), Ajay Naidu (The Good Nurse), Godfrey (South Side), George Wendt (Christmas with the Campbells), David Rasche (Succession), Natasha Chandel (Seal Team), Purva Bedi (One Of Us Is Lying...
Written by Aizzah Fatima and Zawahry, Americanish follows sisters Sam (Aizzah Fatima) and Maryam Khan (Salena Qureshi), and their cousin Ameera (Shenaz Treasury), as they navigate love, careers and familial pressures in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Zawahry’s first feature won the Audience Award in its 2021 world premiere at San Francisco’s CAAMFest before going on to win a total of 25 awards at festivals around the world. Pic’s cast also includes Mo‘s Mo Amer, as well as Lillette Dubey (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Kapil Talwalkar (Charmed), Ajay Naidu (The Good Nurse), Godfrey (South Side), George Wendt (Christmas with the Campbells), David Rasche (Succession), Natasha Chandel (Seal Team), Purva Bedi (One Of Us Is Lying...
- 1/11/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The Islamic Scholarship Fund will launch its inaugural Muslim Centered Writers’ Lab. The organization says the initiative is designed to give more opportunities to Muslim screenwriters to be at the center of their stories. It will take place from Nov. 11 to Nov. 13, 2022, and was made possible with support from Extracurricular and The Black List. The fund’s leadership says it is undertaking the lab because there is a correlation between how Muslims are represented on the screen and how they are perceived in public.
“Media representation is integral to helping reduce stereotypes and marginalization that so many communities face,” said Executive Director Somayeh Nikooei. “Specifically for American Muslim youth, it offers them the chance to see themselves and their community on the big screen in a nuanced and empowering light.”
The three-day lab will offer workshops that will instruct participants in the art of everything from writing a script through pitching it to studios.
“Media representation is integral to helping reduce stereotypes and marginalization that so many communities face,” said Executive Director Somayeh Nikooei. “Specifically for American Muslim youth, it offers them the chance to see themselves and their community on the big screen in a nuanced and empowering light.”
The three-day lab will offer workshops that will instruct participants in the art of everything from writing a script through pitching it to studios.
- 9/28/2022
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Americanish
“Sam is going to be so successful,” Ameera (Shenaz Treasury) gushes as she lies between the beds of her two cousins, Samira and Maryam (Salena Qureshi). “And you’re going to be a great doctor,” she tells Maryam. “Everybody’s going to get what they want.” Including, hopefully, Ameera, newly arrived in the US on a six-month visa and hoping to get some help from her khala to find the answer to her own dreams, namely, marrying a Pakistani-American doctor.
The film’s title, with that little “ish” added to the end of America, neatly sums up the world of these young women caught between two cultures: one, overwhelmingly American, into which they are born, or into which they arrive; the second, the culture of their homeland, or their parents’ homeland, with ties to culture that sometimes are in direct conflict with the former. Any child of immigrants knows that there are always expectations,...
“Sam is going to be so successful,” Ameera (Shenaz Treasury) gushes as she lies between the beds of her two cousins, Samira and Maryam (Salena Qureshi). “And you’re going to be a great doctor,” she tells Maryam. “Everybody’s going to get what they want.” Including, hopefully, Ameera, newly arrived in the US on a six-month visa and hoping to get some help from her khala to find the answer to her own dreams, namely, marrying a Pakistani-American doctor.
The film’s title, with that little “ish” added to the end of America, neatly sums up the world of these young women caught between two cultures: one, overwhelmingly American, into which they are born, or into which they arrive; the second, the culture of their homeland, or their parents’ homeland, with ties to culture that sometimes are in direct conflict with the former. Any child of immigrants knows that there are always expectations,...
- 6/22/2022
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
Showcasing at the prestigious London Indian Film Festival is Americanish, the fabulous, many-layered film full of romance, comedy, family, drama, and finding out who you are in the world. Directed by Iman Zawahry, the film was written by Aizzah Fatima, who also stars in the movie. This brilliant slice of life film also boasts an incredible cast, including Lillete Dubey, Shenaz Treasury, Salena Quershi, Kapil Talwalkar, Ahya Naidu, Godfry, David Rasch, and George Wendt.
Welcome to America: Where dreams come true…ish. A relatable and endearing storyline, Americanish invites viewers into the home and lives of three women, career-driven sisters Maryam and Sam Khan, and their fish-out-of-water cousin Ameera, as they navigate the often turbulent waters of romance, culture, career, and family. Americanish delves into the complexity of trying to both honor and break from cultural traditions while balancing personal values and career goals in a society that does not always accommodate both.
Welcome to America: Where dreams come true…ish. A relatable and endearing storyline, Americanish invites viewers into the home and lives of three women, career-driven sisters Maryam and Sam Khan, and their fish-out-of-water cousin Ameera, as they navigate the often turbulent waters of romance, culture, career, and family. Americanish delves into the complexity of trying to both honor and break from cultural traditions while balancing personal values and career goals in a society that does not always accommodate both.
- 6/21/2022
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
After going fully virtual in 2020, the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) returns with a hybrid lineup of screenings Aug. 6-22.
The festival will open Aug. 6 with Ryoo Seung-wan’s South Korean action-drama “Escape From Mogadishu,” which depicts the perilous escape attempt by Korean embassy workers stranded during the onset of the civil war in Somalia.
Samuel Jamier, executive director of Nyaff, calls it one of the biggest Korean releases of the year and says the film will open in theaters simultaneously with its in-person international premiere at Film at Lincoln Center.
“‘Escape From Mogadishu’ shows the expansion of Korea and where it’s aiming to be,” Jamier says. “It would have been hard to conceive 10 years ago another war film set in Somalia, a territory that has only been explored in ‘Black Hawk Down’ in some fashion.”
One of the few American film festivals devoted to pics from the Asian continent,...
The festival will open Aug. 6 with Ryoo Seung-wan’s South Korean action-drama “Escape From Mogadishu,” which depicts the perilous escape attempt by Korean embassy workers stranded during the onset of the civil war in Somalia.
Samuel Jamier, executive director of Nyaff, calls it one of the biggest Korean releases of the year and says the film will open in theaters simultaneously with its in-person international premiere at Film at Lincoln Center.
“‘Escape From Mogadishu’ shows the expansion of Korea and where it’s aiming to be,” Jamier says. “It would have been hard to conceive 10 years ago another war film set in Somalia, a territory that has only been explored in ‘Black Hawk Down’ in some fashion.”
One of the few American film festivals devoted to pics from the Asian continent,...
- 8/6/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center will unspool the 2021 edition Aug. 6-22 at Flc, kicking off with the premiere of “Escape From Mogadishu,” directed by Ryoo Seung-wa.
In all, 60 films will screen to audiences in person and virtually, with premieres of first and second features from directors for the feature film competition: “Anima”, “City of Lost Things”, “Hand Rolled Cigarette”, “Joint”, “Ten Months” and “Tiong Bahru Social Club”.
Hong Kong new wave director Ann Hui will receive the Variety Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award, and the festival will screen her film “The Story of Woo Viet” and Man Lim Chung’s pic on Hui, “Keep Rolling.”
The festival will introduce the section Asian American Focus, which will feature films including Aimee Long’s “A Shot Through the Wall.” The team behind the film will be present at the festival.
“Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me?...
In all, 60 films will screen to audiences in person and virtually, with premieres of first and second features from directors for the feature film competition: “Anima”, “City of Lost Things”, “Hand Rolled Cigarette”, “Joint”, “Ten Months” and “Tiong Bahru Social Club”.
Hong Kong new wave director Ann Hui will receive the Variety Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award, and the festival will screen her film “The Story of Woo Viet” and Man Lim Chung’s pic on Hui, “Keep Rolling.”
The festival will introduce the section Asian American Focus, which will feature films including Aimee Long’s “A Shot Through the Wall.” The team behind the film will be present at the festival.
“Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me?...
- 7/16/2021
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
The 7th annual Atlanta Underground Film Festival is like having four different fests crammed into an exhaustive three days on Aug. 27-29. It’s an outrageous underground fest, an animation festival, a documentary fest and a horror movie festival: The culmination of a month of fests run by Atlanta’s Festival League. There’s tons of short films, documentaries, features and more.
There’s lots of great stuff to recommend, too. On the last night of the fest, there will be a screening of Chris Hansen‘s second feature film, Endings, which tells the touching story of three people spending their last day on Earth together. The film was reviewed on Bad Lit a few months ago. On the short film front, there’s Loretta Hintz‘s wild lesbian bestiality (sort of) tale, The Sheep and the Ranch Hand and two films by the perpetually awesome Neil Ira Needleman, Meeskit...
There’s lots of great stuff to recommend, too. On the last night of the fest, there will be a screening of Chris Hansen‘s second feature film, Endings, which tells the touching story of three people spending their last day on Earth together. The film was reviewed on Bad Lit a few months ago. On the short film front, there’s Loretta Hintz‘s wild lesbian bestiality (sort of) tale, The Sheep and the Ranch Hand and two films by the perpetually awesome Neil Ira Needleman, Meeskit...
- 8/18/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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