The Mosquers Film Festival it is something different from his usual short-film festival. As a Muslim American, this festival means the most to me for obvious reasons — but more than that, this festival helps to raise creative voices in a field where they are often overlooked or seen as “other”. With headquarters in Edmonton, Canada, the short-film festival takes place during the fall. Given the current climate, the festival of the real in the person of his presence in 2020 is held in suspense, but that, however, is an important event to highlight important stories.
The Mosquers aims to educate, entertain, and build bridges through which it showcases the talent and variety of Muslim experiences. It is not one shoe fits all, and the festival of selections about this for the short films they choose to show.
The festival itself has provided a platform for some of the largest Muslim creatives from far and wide to share their talents, including notable actors and comedians as Ramy Youssef, who won a Golden Globe in January for his show Ramy, Mo Amer, a comedian and actor, who opened for Dave Chappelle on tour. I had the opportunity to catch up with one of the festival board chairs, Sikandar Atiq, and dive into some important questions.
POPSUGAR: in Addition to helping to elevate the voices that are often overlooked in this field, what are you waiting for the festival develops and provides to the public as well as to the participants?
Sikandar Atiq: Our vision has always been to be the largest in the world, a festival that seeks to change the way people perceive Muslims . . . to be on the scale of Sundance or TIFF, but centered around Muslim creatives. Obviously, that can mean a lot of things and has seen us evolve in many different ways. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are reaching as wide an audience as possible, and the amplification of the voices in as meaningful a way as possible. Each year at the festival to judge this in two ways: how large was the audience, and how diverse is the audience? We have been very fortunate to see our audience to expand year to year and continually have care and presentations from all over the world. Our more than 100 presentations in the past year came from more than a dozen countries.
“For us, to be simply showing Muslim talent to the Muslim brotherhood is great, but until and unless we have our Muslim community so excited about what we are doing, I haven’t actually given in the blank.”
For us simply by showing Muslim talent to the Muslim brotherhood is great, but until and unless we have our Muslim community so excited about what we are doing, I haven’t really hit the mark. Therefore, this is as much about the construction of bridges that are about celebrating our creativity. Something that we have also begun to recognize over the last few years is that, as important as the bring members of our Muslim community [is]we also have to make sure that we are representing the many different sects and ethnic groups within our Muslim community.
PS: What has been the biggest accomplishment we have had since the launch of the festival?
Atiq: For clarity, no one in the current team was part of the founding team, but I have been fortunate to have been involved since year one [in 2006]. Originally, as an amateur film-maker, and now in the last five years as a member of the board of directors [and] last three as president. I think the more awareness that we have come to see is that there is absolutely an appetite for viewing and consuming art Muslim. Edmonton is a random city in the northwest of Canada, and up here, we are able to gather more than a thousand people to come and celebrate films made by amateurs Muslim filmmakers. It really is remarkable to see.
“I don’t think that we, as consumers of entertainment and media, to fully recognize how many voices we have out there trying to make a name for themselves. We’re finally starting to see that, in some way, with more and more Muslims get to the point of looking, but we have a long, long way to go.”
I think another of the main conclusions is that the talent is far and wide among Muslims creatives. We have been fortunate to interact with incredibly talented people from literally all walks of life, all corners of the world and doing all kinds of limit-pushing projects. I don’t think that, as consumers of entertainment and media, to fully recognize how many voices we have out there trying to make a name for themselves. We’re finally starting to see that, in some way, with more and more Muslims get to the point of looking, but we have a long, long way to go.
PS: what are some of your biggest obstacles with The Mosquers which is expected to overcome?
Atiq: Make sure that we can not be selfish is a big one for us. It is very easy to be a good halal night to the Muslim community, which is a very noble effort in its own right, but we have a very real intention to be a bridge-builder between Muslims and non-Muslim communities. We want to dispel the misunderstandings and stereotypes and show our complexities and similarities. I think that the simple fact that we exist helps to show that not all Muslims are like many, come with us in the media, but taking the next step and ensure that non-Muslims feel comfortable being a part of the audience and really enjoy your experience is what we can’t lose sight of that.
Another big hurdle for us is exposure.
“We have a very real intention to be a bridge-builder between Muslims and non-Muslim communities. We want to dispel the misunderstandings and stereotypes and show our complexities and similarities.”
Being in a smaller market, it definitely has its advantages (very wide community support, for example), but as we grow up and really try to reach out to an international audience, we lack the same level of exposure we would have if we were in a major market. The value of the production of our event, the quality of our programming, and the caliber of the feature performers that we bring are truly insurmountable – we just need more people from around the world to know that we exist.
Due to the current Covid-19 of the crisis, The Mosquers has chosen to cancel his festival this year and the push of the date of the event for the Spring/Early 2021. In the meantime, you can check out past festival features and more on your web page: TheMosquers.com
