Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

by Omar Sacirbey, Globe Corresponden | June 26, 2007

When Labid Aziz of Natick thinks about “Never Mind Nirvana,” he sees a missed opportunity. A 2004 pilot for an NBC sitcom, it was centered on the travails of an Indian-American doctor, his pregnant white girlfriend, and his traditional parents, who move in. It was written by Indian-American novelist Ajay Sahgal, directed by “Friends” star David Schwimmer, and starred Kal Penn of “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.” But the show didn’t make NBC’s final cut, losing out that year to “The Office” and “Joey.”

South Asians like Aziz, 32, a Bangladeshi-American Muslim and aspiring producer, saw in “Nirvana” a wellspring of roles that didn’t involve playing a terrorist or convenience store clerk while portraying the South Asian community, or a slice of it, in a way that might inspire empathy rather than incite resentment. On this fall’s schedule, Aziz has a second opportunity: The CW network is unveiling a new sitcom called “Aliens in America” about a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan.

- — – — -

Read  the full Boston Globe article here: Producer eyes better TV, film roles for Muslims

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Update 03-02-08: With the recent launch of IlmCast.com — this video was released on the website on a high quality service called blip.tv:

Update 01-05-08: Someone compiled the whole thing and uploaded it on youtube. Enjoy:

When I did “The Sheperd’s Path” trailer, one of the things I got out of it was a DVD video of Sensei (Muhammad Alshareef) giving an account of the life of Prophet Muhammad – sal Allahu alayhi wasallam. This was back in Jan o7. I hadn’t watched the full video until March 07. That’s when I thought, “Everyone has got to see this!”

After talking with Sensei, I got the green light to edit the video for online distribution. This is the trailer we ended up with:

The video was delivered on YouTube over a period of a week in seven chapters. After this, AlMaghrib decided to webcast it on its new “Radio-on-Demand” which is a monthly international online event. “Desert Rose” will be

I had an awesome Idea. In light of all the Islamaphobia, and prophet bashing, An awesome way to set things straight would be if “Desert Rose” and other videos regarding Muhamamd – sal Allahu alayhi wasallam were produced on DVD Digipaks.

The DigiPaks, are disc cases, with flip panels, on which one can include information, and reading material for dawah. Its more modern than simple pamphlets…I think so.

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

“Love Noted” is a film adaptation of a short stand up I did at a friend’s wedding. The story went through a few drafts, and development. Once that was completed, production was a bomb…

…the following are a few lessons that came out of that day:

• When “actors” aren’t paid, and you want their commitment to help you out…have them sign a contract for them to say that they will be there at least a week in advance. Follow up a few days later, and a day before. People have a tendency to forget.
• It’s a good idea to give people a gift as a token of appreciation for helping you out. Take them out for lunch or dinner.
• If you can, keep filming to a weekend when working with students, and non-professionals. During the week they have lives of their own.
• Let people know that the production start time as 1.5 hrs before the actual time — or — start right after one of the daily prayers, that way everyone shows up for salah, and then you can start right after that.
• Don’t be afraid to ask other to be backups for current “actors”. As them to bring their friends if they can to help behind the scenes.

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

Filming for “Free Parking” has been postponed until further notice. While filming there were things we didn’t consider, thus resulting us into filming at another time. Some things to note if you want to do a production on campus:

• Do NOT schedule any filming within a month of finals.
• When having an all volunteer team, unless working with you carries some prestige…expect some people to not show up.
• Take the weather into account.

Maybe working in smaller groups of people would make it easier since coordinating around different people’s class schedules wont be as difficult.

“Free Parking” is a short that needs a campus parking lot that doesn’t have any parking. When finals are finished, the lot is empty, making it difficult to have the setting we wanted.

Perhaps for the future, we can adjust the storyline and setting to fit in a mall. That way we have weekends to film without a problem.