When San Francisco-based film maker Jennifer Taylor was sent to make a TV feature about young Muslims, she didn't expect to spend the next three years documenting Latino hip hop artist and community activist Hamza Perez, his family and community. Born Jason Perez, Hamza converted to Islam at the age of 21, leaving a life of drugs and crime behind him. Since then he's worked with prisoners offering inter-faith guidance, is collaborating on a book of Jewish and Muslim poetry, has set up an anti-drug dealing programme, and helped establish a Muslim neighbourhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Shot from the point of view of the local community, New Muslim Cool offers insight into what life is like for indigenous American Muslims today. Wheel asked Jennifer and Hamza about their experiences both in front of, and behind the camera.

By Ananda Pellerin

What brought you to this project?

Jennifer Taylor: The public television station where I work put me on assignment for reporting about Muslim youth in the Bay Area, San Francisco, and I found this small record label that produced hip hop by and about young Muslims. That’s what led me to Hamza.

I’d always made films about people who I thought were being misrepresented by a Big News Story, and about whom we have a lot of pre-conceived ideas, but where their humanity had been lost. I also tend to make films about Latino subject matter because part of my family is Mexican.

What were your intentions at the start of filming?

JT: My intent is always to create good public dialogue. That’s the mandate we have in the public broadcasting system in the US and I feel very earnest about heeding it. Initially I took an anthropological approach, looking at it as a survey film. I was interested in this idea that hip hop culture, which is very syncretic, is a way of bringing together multiple influences without them having to fight each other. The idea that Hamza and his community are Muslim AND American doesn’t mean they’re experiencing some kind of reconciliation drama. So much discussion about Muslims is framed as Muslims and the West, where it’s really Muslims IN the West.

But then I was finding that to represent the full humanity of a person’s experience we needed to focus on one story. I met Hamza and his brother in the course of initial shooting, and as soon as I talked to them I thought this was where the story could go.

Hamza, what was the benefit of opening your doors to a film crew?

Hamza Perez: Usually you see documentaries about Islam in the United States and you might have the immigrant Arab story but not the indigenous story of Islam. There’s over 70,000 Latino Muslims in the United States, there are white American Muslims, African-American Muslims; we have all those elements in our community so it was a chance to tell a side of the story that’s usually not seen in films. I had to talk to some community members for advice about whether we should open our doors and build a relationship with Jennifer. We decided to give it a try.

Was it a difficult decision to trust her with that?

HP: Muslims, not only Muslims but minorities, we can be leery of media so we checked her out first and she’s good people. We ate together, we spent time together; it wasn’t just filming, so it made it a lot easier for us to trust her.

Scenes from New Muslim Cool – Brothers Hamza and Suliman Perez are rap duo M-Team; Hamza on his way to work

Did you learn a lot about indigenous Muslims in the US?

JT: Definitely. I started at zero in terms of information about Islam or Muslims, indigenous or immigrant. Our two co-producers were both young American Muslim women who are anthropologists and journalists. They brought a huge amount in terms of contacting academic colleagues and other people that could help us build a diverse board of advisors and also guide a lot of the research and provide a measure of confidence.

Did you expect to be filming for three years?

JT: I thought it would take at least a couple of years. Nothing in my mind can replace long form journalism, whether it’s print or film. There’s gratification in the YouTube age of putting stuff up right away but there’s also something different when you get to build a relationship; Hamza and his generosity of spirit and his whole community being so generous that they would let us do that, that’s a huge gift. The film was made in a collaborative way but also in some very traditional ways in that Hamza and his family only saw it when the picture was locked.

Were you nervous at all about agreeing not to see the picture until it was locked?

HP: Definitely because you don’t know what’s going to be in there, you don’t know what you may have said, each three months my belly was at a different stage, did I wear that outfit two times? You don't know what’s been filmed.

JT: Your ‘continuity’ was an issue.

HP: Keeping the moustache trimmed was a big task.

How did you feel when you first saw the film?

HP: I was shocked. Seeing and hearing yourself is annoying. And a lot of stuff happened in that time, from me being a single father to married, and the [community mosque] being raided by the FBI. I was blown away seeing it all.

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