Thursday marks the start of the eighth annual Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival. It runs through Oct. 22 at the Oriental Theater.
Eight carefully curated films, featuring stories from Muslim communities around the globe, aim to encourage reflection, connection and spark meaningful conversations. The festival’s opening night film does this, especially for Wisconsinites.
The new PBS Wisconsin documentary Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project highlights Muslim communities and individuals all across the state. From the Fox Valley Islamic Society in Neenah to a Milwaukeean working to curb hunger, the project aims to stimulate connections between Wisconsin’s Muslim and non-Muslim populations.
The Wisconsin Muslim Project was made possible through a partnership between The Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, PBS Wisconsin and We Are Many - United Against Hate.
Janan Najeeb, the executive director of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition and founder of the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival, says opening night showcases an overview of Muslims in Wisconsin. "What people are doing — the unique, the interesting, the average — and helping Wisconsin really get to know their Muslim community better," she says.
Masood Akhtar started We Are Many - United Against Hate in 2016 shortly after former President Donald Trump proposed a Muslim registry in America. When he was asked to respond to the proposed registry for local media, Ahktar says it was in that moment that he came up with the idea to start a registry that would bring people together regardless of their ethnicity, color, religion or political affiliation.
He notes that the Muslim community across the U.S. has been actively engaged in organizing events to change the perceptions and misconceptions people have about Islam and Muslims since the aftermath of 9/11.
"What we learned through that process is that engagement is the best way to communicate your message," says Ahktar. "A lot of people are reacting out of fear, confusion and other [things]."
We Are Many - United Against Hate's mission is outreach and intervention in communities to promote understanding, healing, reconciliation and redemption. Ahktar asked Jon Miskowski, PBS Wisconsin director of television, if they could partner to help share stories about Muslims and their communities to help change the persisting negative perceptions.
"We really saw a common cause. We really believe that stories help connect," says Miskowski. "I think that's really a key thing — is to bring people together to see stories and understand things in a deeper, more human way than sometimes the political conversation takes us."
The connection between We Are Many - United Against Hate and PBS Wisconsin soon grew to include the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition, and Miskowski credits Ahktar and Najeeb for helping to make the connections with the different Muslim communities they featured in the documentary.
"Janan and Masood helped us open doors, build trust and share those stories. We're really mindful of our name, PBS Wisconsin ... this is not simply a story of the urban areas of our state," notes Miskowski.
Najeeb says its been a great experience to collaborate and share expertise to make meaningful community connections for "a trustworthy project."
"That's actually a model that I think is phenomenal and I applaud PBS Wisconsin for really thinking about that and not just coming from the outside to talk about the community, but involving the community to represent the community accurately," she says.
"I am looking at misconceptions and how we are going to address that for the Muslim community. But if you think about the hate crimes and those kinds of things [in the] Jewish community, Asian American community ... once this model is developed this is an excellent way to do the same thing for the other communities who are subject to hate of how to change that," adds Akhtar.
You can see "Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project" Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Oriental Theater. This opening night screening is free and open to the public.
Opening night activities will also feature an interactive Wisconsin Muslim Project photo gallery showcasing work by award-winning Milwaukee photographer Lila Aryan, as well as a performance by the musical duo Salaam. You can reserve your tickets and find out more information about the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival here.
