Taking AlMaghrib to Hollywood
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Okay, so the title is slightly misleading, considering this post is about bringing the Ilm Summit documentary to film festivals and there aren’t any tier 1 film festivals in Hollywood that I know of. However, there is a tier 2 film festival in LA!
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WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN NOW?
Imagine the names Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Toronto, Tribeca, or Berlin. Now that would be exciting.
Considering that I practically shot and edited a feature film because of Ilm Summit, I found myself asking, “What’s keeping me from going all the way with this?”
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A question regularly being asked of the people who attended Ilm Summit was, “What will you bring back to your community?”
I believe the above question is at the core of the AlMaghrib business strategy.
After the tawfeeq of Allah it’s the internalization of this question combined with the systemization of its operations that has led AlMaghrib to grow at the exponential rate that it has.
I honestly believe an organization, company or brand becomes socially successful only when it becomes selfless. Making it’s existence for the betterment of community. Giving to the people before asking for their hand.
I believe what needs to be recognized by people who attend these seminars and are active participants is that initially people don’t care about the company, organization or brand.
Whether it be AlMaghrib, Bayyinah, etc, they initally only care about the potential benefit that can be brought to themselves and their community as a result of them being there.
Only after a relationship has been established will people become loyal.
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WHAT’S THAT GOT TO DO WITH FILM FESTIVALS?
In order for an organization or brand to be successful they must build solid relationships with their market.
One of the quickest ways to build a relationship with people is through stories and characters that pull your emotions. That’s why producing films with those elements can be a major asset to an organization’s marketing strategy.
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Imagine seeing the front page of your local entertainment section covering the screening of this Ilm Summit documentary.
The purpose of putting a film into the festival circuit is to give it exposure and to build its pedigree by getting as many media outlets that are covering the festivals to also do a story on the film.
One of my objectives is to recut the episodes and put them together to make a “feature film version” of the Ilm Summit 2009 experience.
It should be fun submitting this to film festivals and exposing AlMaghrib to an audience that would never have heard of it otherwise.
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How many more new people would be exposed to the dawah?
Think of people attending the film festivals, people in the documentary ending up on IMDB, as well the possibility of getting a distributor to buy the film and air it on television.
I ask again, How many more new people could be exposed to the dawah that would never have otherwise been exposed.
None of us are responsible for the outcome. Just sincere work. The rest is up to Allah.
Comments and criticisms are welcome 
Danish S. Says: 15.10.09 at 2:47 pm
Masha’Allah, awesome idea! What can we do to help?
Idil Says: 15.10.09 at 3:22 pm
Br.Belal this is an amazing idea!
here’s why I think so:
1. Religion in general is a CRAZY HOT topic in the public consciousness right now. I’m reminded of all the religion-themed docs in recent years: Jesus Camp, Religulous (Bill Maher), Expelled (with Ben Stein), Where in the world is Osama bin Laden (focuses mostly on culture, but people lump Middle Eastern and Islam together).
That’s just off the top of my head. And there was that “30 days” episode where the guy lived with a Muslim family.
2. Ilm Summit is short and focused *much* better than doing a generic “Muslims in America” doc.
There is a purpose and a story that can be wrapped up in an elevator pitch, but through some strong story telling methods you can still cover universal themes.
3. It’s different. Ilm Summit is incredibly unique – it’s not a camp, it’s not a seminar, it’s not a conference. And to be honest, it’ll probably worry some people. You know, the words “Jihad training camp” may be thrown around
And that’s fine insha’Alah, more buzz = more people watching.
And Allah knows best.
I could go on. Go for it, bi ithnillah.
The whole AlMaghrib community is behind you, (continue to) make us proud. May Allah accept your efforts and put barakah in your work. Ameen.
AlBaraa Says: 15.10.09 at 7:11 pm
Jazakallahu khairun for the support.
How you can help:
First step to making a marketable film is to put together a blockbuster title and a catchy logline that tells the audience what the film is about and make them curious to know more.
Ive created a name calling thread on the AlMaghrib forums in the marketing section by the same name as this post. pass it around inshaAllah.
Bilane aka GracefulLioness Says: 15.10.09 at 7:32 pm
wow great idea….how about getting Almaghrib to the Oprah show
Have you heard of the Oprah effect?
Nahyan Says: 15.10.09 at 9:58 pm
Do it up homie!
Fantastic stuff Belal, mashaAllah.
Questions/Comments: (you prolly thought of these alrdy, i’m curious what’s in your mind)
1 – So is the focus AlMaghrib now with IlmSummit n future, or more how AM came about n jouney to IlmSummit (ie. including Dawah in the West)?
2 – What other ‘religion’ genre documentaries have have made it to those big named festivals n how’d u find them (quality, content, n publicity gained from those festivals)?
All in all I’m looking forward to all your successes, wa salaam alaikum.
Nahyan
UntangleYourTime.com
Arif Kabir Says: 15.10.09 at 11:58 pm
Awesome Idea!
However, I think it would be more amazing to see a documentary on AlMaghrib seminars as opposed to IlmSummit – AlMaghrib is AlMaghrib because of the Qabeelahs, the Forums, and most importantly, all that surrounds a seminar. Of course, IlmFest and IlmSummit are really important things, but AlMaghrib’s reach in North America and the United Kingdom rely on the seminars and the committed volunteers behind each Qabeelah. If all that can masterfully be produced on film…that would be something
Saleha Says: 16.10.09 at 3:50 am
All I gotta say is GO FOR IT!
Here in Fremont, California we had a Muslim Film Festival..I’m not sure if it still goes on because we went back in 2007, never went after that..One of the reasons was because there were so many documentaries from various different views I disagreed with. After some years I see the same producers/actors in those movies being the big people behind institutes or authors of huge books.
For example: Asra Nomani had made a small documentary that was filmed at the festival, and though I largely disagreed with the point, that’s one way she got her way through with her influence with Progressives. SubhanAllah if people like that are getting into main media stream, what’s stopping us!
We have a right to try this out and be really committed in getting into north America, before other propoganda comes up about Islam that we don’t agree with, I say we bring out the realness of Islam to people’s screens.
I got a T Shirt @ the festival that said Rated H for Halaal…:), inshaAllah let’s try to implement these types of ideas to get our influence out there in the community, let’s do that dawah work we’re meant to do!
May Allah swt grant you success with this, if the Muslim Film Festival is still happening, be sure to try to hit that as well.
Brother Says: 17.10.09 at 11:57 am
Assalaamu alayum wa rahmatullah Belal,
MashaAllah, good to see you’re still thinking creatively about new videos!
Great Idea MashaAllah, but I had a few questions. If you could answer them that’d be great:
1. Do you think they’d really let you show something about Islam at these big film festivals? SubhaanAllah maybe it’s different where you are, but over here I would have thought that’s near impossible? Do they allow that?
2. If you did show it, wouldn’t they start to send spy’s into AlMaghrib classes? That’s been done here with flourishing salafi mosques, and portrayed to the nation otherwise. I would’ve thought AlMaghrib might be put on their ‘list’ as a result.
For those reasons I thought actually it might be a bit harmful to the growth of AlMaghrib. What do you think?
Anyway whatever you do, make sure you pray istikharah before making a descision.
I look forward to your reply!
Wa’aalikum salaam wa rahmatullah.
AlBaraa Says: 17.10.09 at 2:53 pm
@Nahyan -
I didn’t understand the first question.
Re the 2nd Question. There are a lot of religion themed docs and narratives that make it film festivals every year. Some are good quality some are not so good. You really hear about the ones that only get distribution in the main stream, but MANY are featured in the film festivals.
@Brother -
At the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival – a tier 1 festival – in NYC they had over 30 films they featured on the topics of Muslims, Arabs and Islam.
RE 2nd question, truth is there are “informants” within pretty much every masjid and Islamic organization in the USA. Personally, getting exposure on the media side can’t be a bad thing. Even if someone decides to turn things the wrong way in a specific newspaper – I don’t think it’ll happen much – then at least it’ll get exposure.
Allahu alam.
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