Now in its ninth year, the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival celebrates the transformative power of storytelling through film by promoting understanding, empathy and unity for audiences of all walks of life. The films shown from Oct. 17 – 20 celebrate the diversity of Islamic culture and the power of the human spirit.
Organized by the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, the film festival will be in conjunction with the launch of the nonprofit’s new name: The Muslim Women’s Coalition (MWC). “For 30 years now we have been known as the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, but our work has expanded far beyond Milwaukee throughout the state for a number of years now,” says Janan Najeeb, president and cofounder of the organization. She says a number of groups have reached out to open chapters in other states, and while that’s a future goal to work towards, changing the organization’s name was the first step.
As part of the MWC rebranding, a new logo and new website will be launching soon as well as a PR campaign called “Connecting Hearts and Strengthening Communities” following the film festival. “What we really wanted to focus on is not just tolerance but celebrating the diversity of our community here and how important that is,” explains Najeeb. “We want people to realize that the Muslim community is part and parcel, regardless of what political entities would like to create divisions or create polarization. And so, it’s not really a campaign about educating about Muslims, it’s a campaign more of saying we’re here, we are important, we’re part of this community and we’re part of that wonderful diversity that makes Milwaukee what it is.”
While the MWC campaign will be launched after the film festival, Najeeb shares a preview of a few of the films, including speakers related to each topic.
“For now going on nine years every single film has a talk back or a panel or some component, because we feel that that’s really part of the experience — to have that dialogue, to have that discussion,” she says.
Pain and Peace — October 17 @ 7 p.m.
“Pain and Peace is really about a survivor of hate. [Rais Bhuiyan] originally was from Bangladesh and him and two of his coworkers were attacked by a white supremacist when they were in their store. The other two were killed and he’s the lone survivor, although he has long term effects as a result of that. But what is really interesting, it is a compelling story because it’s really about healing,” says Najeeb.
“Bhuiyan is going to be our talk back speaker for opening night,” she adds. “He went around the country to speak with individuals that have experienced hate and violence from groups that felt they didn’t want them in the country. And what he found is that a lot of times these individuals really took their self-hate and were kind of putting it on others. And so he interviewed both the survivors of that hate and he also interviewed the perpetrators of the hate and it’s a very compelling film.”
The Night Won’t End — October 19 @ 7 p.m.
“The Night Won’t End — we felt is an important film just simply because of what’s been happening this past year,” says Najeeb. “We’ve seen so much death and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank and now in Lebanon, and this is really a film that records much of what is happening on the ground and it talks about, really, our government’s complicity in these atrocities in this genocide.”
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal — a nonprofit medical mission group, will be a speaker following the screening of the film. “He had been there in Gaza and had helped deal with a lot of the victims [and] he’s going to be coming to talk about his personal experiences,” says Najeeb.
Hajjan — October 20 @ 7 p.m.
“We have a lot of films so some that are heavy and some that are light, and Hajjan is really an interesting film about desert camel racing. It’s a drama and we thought you know this is something that’s unique — people know more about horse racing but not a lot of people know about camel racing,” says Najeeb.
“When we were thinking about having a talk back speaker we thought, ‘Well who are we going to get to do that?’ And we found a caucasian American woman in Louisville, Kentucky, [Isabella Leslie], who had gotten interested in camel racing during a visit to the Gulf and she participated in a number of camel races,” notes Najeeb. “She’s the only known American woman to be involved with that.”
In fact, Leslie became the first American to both participate in and win at the C1 camel racing championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in March of 2024.
The complete list of screenings for the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival and tickets can be found here.
