our Mark the self-appointed patriarch of the family accountant by Day Flea Market vendor on the weekends you haven't gone into a single fight all night it's e mean I'm taking the day off a new featurelength film Anthology written by directed by and starring Muslim Americans is uh featuring holiday stories about Ramadan and Aid it's called Ramadan America and five scripts making up the movie were selected from dozens of submissions and we are joined by Kashi pasta he is the director of Playmates
one of those short films welcome congratulations thank you thank you so much for having this looks so good I I saw little clips of it and it looks really amazing and I know there's an appetite uh for this right now so tell us about it and how it's making history this project yeah so Ramadan America is this kind of first of its kind short film Anthology that makes up a feature film it's five films that are as you said written directed and starring Muslim Americans that all are connected to Ramada
n or age you know there's been I don't know there's like 20 25 Christmas movies a year which are great they're fun uh and there really hasn't been a featurelength English language film about Ramadan or E there's like three and a half million Muslim Americans or something we haven't had that yet and so it's kind of breaking ground in that way of having these five different stories that all touch on it uh directors writers actors of different backgrounds so it's kind of getting a wide range of Mus
lim Americans um and it's a really fun film too right and it is a really wide range of Muslim Americans spanning many countries many cultures many languages why is it important to have representation especially right now when it comes to Muslim faith and culture yeah I think I mean films or media in general I feel like are meant to reflect our society back to us and that's kind of how we get to know ourselves and so when you don't have that representation in a sense it's like you don't exist or
it's hard to get to know each other and we live in such a diverse City here in La such a diverse country that like we see each other out there in the city but we don't necessarily like know what's going on in each other's communities and a film like this is such a strong way to kind of peel back the curtain kind of invite people in um and and that's important because then we kind of get to know each other we see the the kind of depth of our country and and uh and kind of feel more together and i
t is welcoming to come in and see people's family life and home lives and their little quirks that they have with their families and the crazy cousins and everything else and Hollywood has not always portrayed Muslims in the best light so there has been kind of a vacuum in terms of representation right yeah I mean it's it there's been a vacuum or actively damaging representation often times too that comes from um a lot of times yeah lack of familiarity or kind of leaning into really damaging ste
reotypes that just again going back to reflecting reality that just don't reflect that reality right and as you said some of the films in our Anthology the one I directed is about kind of cousins getting up to Shenanigans at a holiday party which Muslim are not you've been through that um there's other films that are about family about a kid Nan bani is about a kid you know trying to make a viral food video or whatever right and it's like maybe maybe you have or haven't had it but you've had a k
id or been a kid who's like trying to make online videos kind of thing right so just being able to have that accurate representation means and The Human Experience that we all share whatever our faith and our background is um tell us about the screening tonight at UCLA yes so there is a screening tonight at UCLA at 5:30 and it'll be followed by a discussion um it is open to the public seating is limited you can get uh on RSVP at Ramadan am.com um and if there aren't any RSVPs left then on on ame
rica.com you can also uh stream the film you can rent it uh for the next 5 or six days and proceeds go to uh American food banks right I was going to I was going to ask there is an alternative way because I know some of your other screenings or at least one of them was packed and too many people showed up yeah no it's you need the streaming option the demand has been high which is really great and and yeah I mean if you can't make it out to UCLA there's always that rental option uh for probably
less than the cost of parking at UCL that's true very honest um and I love the idea of how it's split up into these different vignettes you know that's like uh more digestible sometimes than a really long movie with one plot yeah yeah exactly and you're not you know if you I mean all the shorts are great but if you don't like one of them it'll be over in like 10 minutes and then you're on to one you really like but they are all really great and fun and in in between the shorts there are these in
terviews with real Muslim Americans on their Ramadan and E traditions and uh you know I saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago at a watch party and I didn't expect that to be such an impactful part of the film but just seeing so many individuals having different experiences from different Traditions uh it's kind of like that When Harry Met Sally there's those segments interviewing people about love it's it's a lot like that and and it really got me a lot more than I expected well I I loo
k so forward to watching the whole thing and we really appreciate you joining us congratulations thank you so much all right and for more information on the movie and how to see the screening tonight at UCLA you can also check out our website KCAL news.com now let's
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