On June 15th, 2021, MeckMIN will host an online interactive discussion followed by a Q & A session with Adam Zucker, independent filmmaker and creator of American Muslim, a film about being Muslim in the age of Trump. The documentary features 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.
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.
Upon registration, MeckMIN will send a link to view the documentary for free between June 8 -15. On June 15th, participants will join via Zoom for an online interactive discussion followed by a Q & A session with Adam Zucker.
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.
