American Muslim Documentary & Discussion with Adam Zucker

On June 15, we’ll gather on Zoom for a discussion of the documentary American Muslim along with filmmaker Adam Zucker. On June 8, we’ll send you a link to access the movie (for free). Access will be available June 8-15. Watch the movie sometime between June 8-15, and then join us via Zoom to discuss the movie with others and to have Q and A time with Adam Zucker.

American Muslim:

Five Muslim Americans in Brooklyn and Queens, each once an immigrant and now a U.S. citizen, deal with a new reality of Islamophobia in the Age of Trump. Under the shadow of the Muslim Ban, they are each forced to navigate the changing reality of what it means to be an American Muslim.

Film Synopsis: 

On January 27, 2017, less than a week after taking office, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning people from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States. The action was a strike against religious freedom unprecedented in this country’s history. Protesters rushed to airports where passengers were being detained while legal proceedings against the ban began.

For the next year and a half Muslim Americans and their many allies protested a string of executive orders declaring a travel ban. With a series of setbacks in the courts, the Administration continued to fine-tune the edicts in attempt to pass legal scrutiny. As the lives of American Muslims were upended and family members remained separated by borders, the Muslim ban slowly made its way to the Supreme Court. The trajectory of the ban provides the film’s backbone.

About Adam Zucker:

Adam Zucker, a Jewish filmmaker and native New Yorker, sets out to understand his Muslim neighbors and brothers-in-faith, opening a door to communities many non-Muslims truly don’t know. ADAM ZUCKER is an independent filmmaker and editor. Previous to American Muslim he made The Return (2014), about four young women in Poland discovering their long forgotten Jewish roots, and Greensboro: Closer to the Truth (2007), about the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission held in the U.S. He was also producer/director of episodes of Free to Dance, an Emmy-award winning series for PBS about the African-American contribution to modern dance. Adam is simultaneously an award-winning editor and has cut dozens of feature documentaries, on issues of social justice, civil rights, environmental justice, American history, and many other subjects. He’s worked with a range of directors including Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Ken Burns, Sydney Pollack, Michael Kantor and Dori Berinstein.