Last spring, Janan Najeeb was gratified by the turnout for Milwaukee’s first Muslim Film Festival. Since then, the mission driving the event has only grown more urgent.
“The purpose of the film festival was not necessarily to reach Muslims, but the broader community,” she says. As president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, the festival’s sponsoring organization, she has heard the rising stridency of anti-Muslim rhetoric during the Republican presidential primary. “We think the festival is an opportunity for the public to attend events that will generate meaningful discussion of Muslims and Islam.
The second annual Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival includes documentaries, dramas and a comedy. “We’ve done lectures and workshops over the years,” Najeeb says of her organization’s outreach, “but we thought it would be important to do something different and creative to generate dialogue and discussion. We thought film would be a great way to do that.”
Each screening will be capped by a talkback conducted by Milwaukeeans, Muslim and non-Muslim. “We want to give people an opportunity to ask questions—not necessarily related to the film, but also broad questions about Islam and the world. We wanted to create a forum for that.”
The 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival runs through April 21 and includes the following titles:
Journey into Europe
7 p.m., March 24
UW-Milwaukee Union Cinema
Journey into Europe is especially timely given the attention surrounding new waves of Muslims arriving in Europe. The documentary is directed by Akbar Ahmed, Islamic studies professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and at the U.S Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was formerly Pakistan’s ambassador to Great Britain.
Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr
2 p.m., April 3
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Lubar Auditorium
Director Patrick Reed debuted his documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. Guantanamo’s Child concerns a Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old taken prisoner in Afghanistan in 2002 and held in U.S. captivity despite conflicting evidence. After 10 years he was released to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence in a case that remains controversial.
Al Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine
7 p.m., April 7
UWM Union Cinema
2 p.m., April 17
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Lubar Auditorium
When a group of African Americans arrived in the West Bank of Palestine to stage a play about Martin Luther King Jr., they were confronted by the reality of another group of people struggling with massive civil rights violations on a daily basis. Connie Fields (The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter) directs the documentary.
The Idol
7 p.m., April 14
Oriental Theatre
Filmed by Oscar-nominated Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now, Omar), The Idol dramatizes the story of Mohammad Assaf, a young Palestinian wedding singer from war-torn Gaza who won the “Arab Idol” singing contest in 2013 and became a musical star in the Arab world.
American Sharia
7 p.m., April 21
Oriental Theatre
A rare U.S. comedy about police profiling and Islamophobia, American Sharia is an indie film funded by Kickstarter after director-star Omar Regan and his production company, Halalywood Entertainment, circulated the story through a trailer. Regan will be on hand for the April 21 screening.
To learn more about the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival, visit mmfilmfest.com.
