It’s a Mooz-lum Thing

If you have been anywhere near Facebook or Twitter lately, which no doubt you all have, then you have heard about the upcoming release of the film Mooz-lum”>Mooz-lum. The film depicts the American Muslim experience through the journey of young man entering college in the wake of 9/11 and follows him as he questions both his identity as an American and Muslim. Even pre-release the film is resonating with young American Muslims across the United States. Mooz-lum‘s Facebook”>Mooz-lum‘s Facebook page already boasts close to 60,000 fans from just this summer alone. The hype surrounding the film is the result of years of struggle and hard work, particularly by Mooz-lum‘s writer and director, Qasim “Q” Basir. In a candid interview with Nadia S. Mohammad of Elan Magazine, Basir speaks of overcoming personal adversity and how his faith has guided him to create films that inspire positive change.

ELAN MAGAZINE: What got you interested in film?

QASIM “Q” BASIR: I started making films when I was 17. It was never something I thought I could do for a living. It was just a hobby. So I went to college intending to go to law school and majored in criminal justice and pre-law.

In 2002, I was in a pretty bad car accident where I flew threw the windshield and flew 30-40 ft into the woods. I was pretty badly injured and almost died. Alhumdulillah, I stayed alive. That was a changing point in my life. It didn’t happen immediately. I went through this whole thing of – if I make it through this I will dedicate my life to [film] and make a difference by doing so.

I moved to New York in 2006. I was pretty lonely and broke. I had this studio apartment. I just sat there and wrote this script for Mooz-lum in 2007. Since then I’ve been trying to get it made. I ended up doing a short film based on some scenes from the script and I entered it in the One Nation film competition in 2008. I won the drama category. Danny Glover was one of the judges. His company called me up and asked for feature version of the script. After that we started working on drafts of the script to make it better. The company actually ended up being a co-producer and Danny Glover is in the film. So that ended up working out.

That’s pretty much the short version!

EM: How do you think your films can change the world?

QB: I’ve watched people in theatres who are watching my films. I remember my first premiere. I was running around like crazy. I was trying to get all this stuff together, cause it was at a point where I was doing everything on my own. I finally walked in the theatre and looked at the audience. People were completely focused on my film. At that moment it was like – Wow, this is what it’s about, right here. Nick Clooney [wrote], “The fascination remains. The hope is stubborn. As opening titles roll, just before the first establishing shot, before we heard a word of dialogue, our expectations are in equipoise with possibilities. This could be a movie that changes us.” I kind of live by that when I make films. This could be the film that changes someone.

EM: How does your faith impact your work?

QB: I’m on a particular journey, personally. This movie doesn’t exactly represent the journey I’m on. This movie more so represents the plight of the American Muslim. I wanted to be fair regarding the accuracy of the Muslims in America, as opposed to how we’ve represented in the last few years. That’s the purpose. It’s not to push anything on anyone or to try to get everyone to be Muslim.

A large majority of [what we see] is on other end. Mostly focuses on negative aspects of who we are. And it’s not fair. I think about my sister who after 9/11 was scared to wear her scarf but still did, and would walk down the street in fear. She always had to walk with friends and husband. That’s not cool.

EM: Is this [the negativity] what you’re trying to address in the “Yes, we can.” Film?

QB: That was when I saw Will.I.Am’s video. The Yes, We Can song. I was like – Wow, that’s sweet, man. You know, I’m a filmmaker I can do something like this. So I called one of my other filmmaker friends. We got together. We didn’t really have any money. Well, no “really”- we just didn’t have money. So I sent out an email and asked people to donate to the cause of making this film to support the Obama campaign. We set up a PayPal account and all these people donated. When we got like a couple grand it was enough. I flew out to LA then. The cool part about it was that everyone who worked on it, basically, worked for free. Free camera. Free equipment. Free catering. It was such a great thing.

When we did the video we put a couple of them up on YouTube. They just started getting mad hits. The best one was at couple hundred thousand hits before we had to take it down because it got picked up for distribution. Once that happened I had to remove it from the web.

There was this point when Will.I.Am’s people contacted me. They were like – “We’re going to be in Philly. You should come meet us down there.” So I ended up going to Philly and was backstage with all these people. Will.I.Am and Obama. I don’t know what it’s like now, but at that point they were like texting each other back and forth. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever – texting Obama! He told me he appreciated what I was doing. And Will.I.Am told me he loved my video and I was like – “Yo, I was inspired by your video.”

It was such a great experience. We ended up traveling all over. We did 7 videos. So we did a behind the scenes 10 min video showing the making of and then we showed the 7 videos. We had all these screenings in Michigan, New York, California, Ohio and more to support the campaign. We sold DVDs and donated a portion of the money to the campaign. It was fun. I will never know how much it helped. I hope it helped. I look at it as, even if a couple hundred people out of the couple hundred thousand that saw it, if it altered their opinion about Obama a little then it was worth it.

EM: What are the reactions you’ve gotten from people to your work?

QB: People are always going to come out of the screening and say it was great. That’s what people do. No one wants to hurt your feelings. It’s always a lot of praise after a screening. And it’s cool. It makes you feel good and it’s an ego booster. I always try to give surveys and that can be anonymous so I can get honest feedback. I like that the most. As an artist I’m trying to grow with the projects I do. I wouldn’t be doing myself justice if I did not. More so than that, I really like when people come up to me and give me constructive criticism and give me in-depth reviews of whatever I do. I have a lot of people who do that. Overall though, I’ve received some really good responses on the things I’ve done. I’ve never really done anything big enough do be all over the papers and have the big reviews. But so far most of my reviews have been good, really good actually.

EM: Where do you find inspiration for your films?

QB: Right now I’m working on another script. I went to a concert the other night. Very moving soulful singer. I was in the audience. It was a very intimate setting. I was watching him [the artist]. For some reason something he said made me have an insight about him, about his life, and who he was. I just saw something in him. From that I thought about a particular character in mind in my new script. The entire character. This guy, you know, I’ve never met him, never spoke to him, but something that I saw in him gave me inspiration for this character. That happens to me all the time, no matter where I am. No matter what situation I’m in, there’s always inspiration.

My inspiration overall, though, is the fact that I’m still here. I never forget. I’ve got all these scars on my body from this accident, right. So every time I see them I remember that. Something happens to you when you go through something like that. It can be the best thing that happened to you or the worst. For awhile I had post-traumatic stress disorder. Every time I saw an accident I would hyperventilate. I got through all that. Some people never get through that. Some people live in fear. But for my situation, it’s the best thing that happened to me. Because I look at everyday now as a gift and everyday I feel great. There’s not much that can keep me down. Not much that really stresses me out at this point. That’s what gets me through all this.

My journey at this point has been very difficult. There have been times when I didn’t really know when I’d get money again or food again. But I never lost my faith. I think when you go through something like that, nothing else can be that difficult. I made an agreement that if I made it through this I would dedicate my life to doing [film] and trying to make a difference that’s what I’m doing. That’s where my main motivation comes from. I just feel like I’m a tool for this stuff. I’m basically doing as I feel Allah wants me to do. Not like I’m going to be making this film and I’m going to be the man. I’m just a tool. I get inspiration from praying and looking beyond myself.

EM: How are you feeling about the upcoming release of Mooz-lum?

QB: I feel very strongly and passionately about this project and what we just did. I’m really looking forward to putting it out there. Seeing the reactions of people. Seeing what place this has in the current state of affairs in regards to Islam and Muslims in America (and also worldwide). I really look forward to seeing what place if it has a place at all. I really hope it gives a voice to some people. That people will be proud of this film. Personally, I’ve never seen a film that represented me. When a film comes out that speaks for a people – that means something. I hope other people feel the same way.

Want to catch a screening of Mooz-lum?

In the New York area, Mooz-lum will be playing in September 17 and 18 at the AMC 34th Street Theatre. For more info check the Events tab on the Fanpage: ”Mooz-lum” the Movie Fanpage. Not in NY, “demand” the movie in your hometown: Demand it!