Down the Road the short film from yacine helali on Vimeo.
Excerpt from the press release - 23rd September 2008
"Yacine Helali, 30, is a French-Algerian filmmaker who created a film about the West End of Newcastle that he hopes will challenge people’s perceptions of Islam and the Muslim community.
He said: “I have the same concerns that the Muslim community as a whole has about how the media misrepresents us. I just wanted to show that the reality is different. It is a social responsibility for Muslims to interact and benefit the society they live in to keep the youth off the streets and engage with them.
“Through this short film I wanted to show that we can coexist. People on the street find a way to meet and explore each other. Individuals and groups are doing things to improve cohesion in the community. This film demonstrates that people have plenty in common, contrary to what we often hear. We have the same concerns, the same hopes.”
Yacine, who lives with wife Zofta and 17-month-old daughter Nusaybah, in Fenham, works for IDC - a charity that raises awareness about Islam and helps young people avoid the dangers of gang culture and anti-social behaviour.
He said: “I’ve come to the UK during a time when people feel invaded by foreigners so there has been a mixed response. I like living in Newcastle.
“I like Geordie people, I appreciate them, Newcastle is a city where people are approachable. But the reality is you will find a mixture of feelings from local people.
“But I believe that even though there is an economic crisis we can still promote cohesion among the communities. Through my work with IDC, we get a fantastic response and can see the changes in people’s thoughts about Islam as they learn more.”
"Yacine Helali, 30, is a French-Algerian filmmaker who created a film about the West End of Newcastle that he hopes will challenge people’s perceptions of Islam and the Muslim community.
He said: “I have the same concerns that the Muslim community as a whole has about how the media misrepresents us. I just wanted to show that the reality is different. It is a social responsibility for Muslims to interact and benefit the society they live in to keep the youth off the streets and engage with them.
“Through this short film I wanted to show that we can coexist. People on the street find a way to meet and explore each other. Individuals and groups are doing things to improve cohesion in the community. This film demonstrates that people have plenty in common, contrary to what we often hear. We have the same concerns, the same hopes.”
Yacine, who lives with wife Zofta and 17-month-old daughter Nusaybah, in Fenham, works for IDC - a charity that raises awareness about Islam and helps young people avoid the dangers of gang culture and anti-social behaviour.
He said: “I’ve come to the UK during a time when people feel invaded by foreigners so there has been a mixed response. I like living in Newcastle.
“I like Geordie people, I appreciate them, Newcastle is a city where people are approachable. But the reality is you will find a mixture of feelings from local people.
“But I believe that even though there is an economic crisis we can still promote cohesion among the communities. Through my work with IDC, we get a fantastic response and can see the changes in people’s thoughts about Islam as they learn more.”
Help us make it happen
A note from the Filmmaker
Whether you are a Muslim and want to invest in your Hereafter or a brother or a sister in Humanity and believe in what we are trying to create, we need your help to make things happen.
Whatever your contribution, even a few words of encouragement, we would appreciate it. Support our up and coming productions, including a series of short documentaries and fascinating stories about people who have chosen Islam as a way of life. We also want to produce a road-movie documentary exploring the real thoughts and feelings of the Muslim community in the UK.
We plan to create a training course, (don't worry it's fun!!) to help the wider community understand what Islam really is about beyond the spins, the twists and the common misconceptions.
Finally, we've been working in partnership with an orphanage the Maygoma, in Khartoum, Sudan, and want to highlight the critical situation these Sudanese kids are living in due to the devastating effects of the conflict in Darfur.
Supporters will receive special access to early shots of the films and documentaries, and in addition, behind the scenes information, (just like DVD extras, but frequently updated).
If you want to help or want to get in touch, please contact me by email at yacine.helali@gmail.com.
Kind regards
Yacine Helali
2 comments:
A very engaging and nicely understated documentary. I think these quiet reflective kinds of portraits of people of faith are much more effective than a full on political or 'evangelical' assault (not the Muslim way I know.) I'd be very interested to see more of these portraits of ordinary people from the West End. It's interesting that you don't foregound their religious beliefs right at the start (so as not to put off some viewers?) but it'd be good to to see some portraits which pull no punches in this respect. The portraits kind of split into two parts (sport/faith) and it would have been interesting to develop the latter further, to hear more about how their faith has informed their working lives. It was very explicit that one guy wanted to put back into the community what he felt he'd got out of it. But did this come out of his faith as well as his social background or just the latter? I guess that to strike that kind of balance it would have to be a full on religious documentary (the kind of thing ITV1 put out late on a sunday night.) However, perhaps that will be the center of gravity of youe later films. May you make many more!
Yours,
Simon
First of all I'd like to thank you for your comment. There's been a great deal of reactions, mostly positive, about the way the faith bit comes in. It's mainly a matter of choice from me: I first wanted the spectator to view the main character as "normal" guys, citizens. We aren't use to watch portraits or stories of ordinary Muslims in the media generally. So I wanted people to appreciate the fact that what make them special is their contributions to the wider society. Then comes their main drive, their faith. I did it that way as a mean to emphasize it. As you said this is in some ways an artistic and narrative experiment.
Post a Comment