April 2010
1 post
Listen
March 2010
5 posts
day one - recap
day one was pretty hectic at sxsw, as my friends and i still found ourselves trying to settle into austin.
yesterday, i blogged a picture from a filmmaker’s luncheon that sxsw put on at robert rodriguez’s austin film studio. there were some great opening speeches by the heads of the festival and a few notable filmmakers shared some words. it was a great way to start of this...
landed in austin
after a painful morning flight leaving la, i’ve landed in austin. i’m staying with my old buddy from ele/mid/high school — my dear friend amie. amie picked me up from the airport and took me straight to one of his favorite restaurants, torchy’s tacos. their signature taco is the fried avocado. it was slammin.
im settlin in a bit, then ill be heading out to the sxsw film...
new blogger & sxsw
hey guys — this is eyad, the director of “the taqwacores”. i’ll be taking over the festival blog for the film. my blogs will be short and sweet, and i’ll do my best to provide non-average material.
our next fest is sxsw, which starts this friday. sxsw is a fest that mashes up the following: music, interactive, and of course, films. we are excited and honored to be...
February 2010
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January 2010
74 posts
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And So It Ends
It was my last day at Sundance, and the last screening of The Taqwacores. The bands had all left, most of cast had left, the punk rock house was clean again, and really just a condo again. I wore my bootleg praying man shirt, and walked with Dominic Rains, who wore his Jehangir green laced boots, and Bobby Naderi to the theatre.
I sat by myself in the second row in a packed theatre. Unlike the...
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Ian and Volkan's Week at Sundance
You know Eyad gave me the best piece of direction I had ever received,” I was sitting with Ian Tran who played Fasiq in the The Taqwacores movie. It was near the end of the week at Sundance and the house was just about empty. Ian and Volkan Eryaman, who plays Amazing Ayyub, were waiting for their ride to take them to the airport.
“Eyad told me to just ‘be ready for anything,’” Ian continued. “...
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Closing with the Knights
“See Mike,” Sadaf said. “You do like to dance! You get into moshpits at punk shows and you do matam.” Sadaf was referring to how at the punk show not only was Mike thrashing in the pit, and hitting his chest for The Kominas’ song ‘I Want a Hand Job.”’
“That’s not dancing,” he responded. “And really that’s only because one, it’s what you do at punk shows and two, I’m a big fan of Shia Islam.”
It...
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Every Show
Al Thawra’s set that night was an explosive end to a long tour full on with Marwan getting hoisted up as he sang and a roll on the ground where all the guys jumped in on.
Ari found me after the last song, eyes bright with giddy excitement. “Taz, you were right!”
I looked at her quizzically.
“This show was totally epic, in it’s own way! It was amazing!” she continued. I smiled back in...
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Fuck Muslim Punk
This evening the set went The Kominas first, Filmstrip next, and finally Al Thawra. I found Arjun right before his set. He was the resident Hindu and played guitar for The Kominas. He was wearing a black shirt that in white said, “Fuck Muslim Punk.”
“Nice shirt,” I said to him. “Did you make it yourself?” He wide toothed smiled back and nodded his head. He had lost his voice earlier in the week....
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Taqwacore the Fashion Line
Earlier that week I had walked into 7-11 to find Mike Knight searching through the aisles looking for duct tape. He was wearing this deconstructed long sleeve jacket that looked like it was pieced together from odds and ends light green army material. He had this odd pocket that resembled a fanny pack hanging off of the back of it. It was a shirt gifted to Knight by Niilartey DeOsu who is the...
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Inside Movie Gossip
One of the great things about being in a car for ten hours (each way) with the director of The Taqwacores is that you can ask all the questions that you wanted and chances are he’d have to answer.
Over the course of my ten days at Sundance, a plethora of questions were asked. What was Eyad’s favorite Knight book? (The Taqwacores, still.) How did he film the punk scene? (He got local bands...
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The Epic Punk Rock Show
The concert was epic. That is the only word to describe it. Absolutely EPIC. Filmstrip warmed the crowd with their nu-punk sound. In the crowd you had faces of the cast and crew of The Taqwacores. You had scenesters that had come to Park City from across the country, and you had new faces – people that had just seen the movie or happened to be at Sundance and wanted to see what the hype was about....
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Tattoos
I walked over to Ari and Arjun. They were whispering in a conspiratorial tone and Ari had this excited look in her eyes. She was motion along to an ink free section of her left arm.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Are we talking about a new tattoo?”
They both looked up at me. “Yeah,” Ari said. “I was just telling Arjun how I wanted to get his lyric from the song he wrote, “Blow Shit Up” tattooed...
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Muslim Don't Smoke
In the Harley store I sat with Mike Knight while the rest of the posse was in the other room recording for a half an hour radio show. From the other room we heard lyrics of “Punk Rock Fucking Sucks” and “Sharia Law in the USA” as all of the bands here at Sundance did a combined acoustic set. In the room there were members form the bands The Kominas, Al-Thawra and Filmstrip. As the band all left...
Punk Shirts
There was a few of us sitting in the living room, recharging from the day. Faith Gobidas (who did costumes and make up for the movie) was sitting in a corner stretching her punk rocked fez that she had made for Mike Knight. It had the number 7, and a bunch of metal spikes around it.
Marwan walked into the living, and looked at Shahjehan who was sitting on the floor next to me. “Hey. I like...
Do-Over
“So, you wrote The Taqwacores so long ago, and in the making of the movie, it was kind of a re-writing process, right? So if you could do it all over again, re-write The Taqwacores, would you change anything?” I was sitting with the Taqwacore posse once again at the pizza place on Main St. talking to Mike Knight. My mind was still reeling from just watching The Taqwacores movie earlier that...
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Naysayer
“A covered girl like Rabeya would not have done what she had done in the movie. It is wrong.” It was the man that had spoken up during the Q&A portion of the premiere of The Taqwacores. He had said that a woman in niqab would not have acted as Rabeya had at the end of the movie. He was now arguing with Rasika Mathur outside of the theatre. I rolled my eyes as Rasika grabbed my arm and pulled...
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Acted Out
“How did it feel seeing yourself up on the big screen?” Rasika asked me. Rasika Mathur played the role of Fatima in The Taqwacores. She had hung out with me before she went on set so she’d know what it was like to be a Muslim punk girl.
“What?” I responded surprised. “That wasn’t me. That was all you, girl. And you were fantastic.”
“Yeah, it was me,” she replied. “But I got my inspiration for my...
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Once You Go Taqwacore
“You played Amazing Ayyub exactly how I pictured it in my head,” I said to Volkan Eryaman. His character is the wild, tweaking, half naked misfit with a tattoo of “Karbala” around his neck. In the movie he looks like he is constantly on something, and ready to run at a moment’s notice.
“Yeah?” he said smiling back. In real life, he’s a tall sweet guy. He had all the amazing characteristics of...
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The Taqwacores Motion Picture World Premeire
As the lights dimmed down for the world premiere of The Taqwacores, there was a uproar of cheers and clapping. My heart flip flopped like mad. I was sitting between Marwan of Al-Thawra and Imran of The Kominas. But beyond them, I was surrounded by The Taqwacores family. Mike Knight was down the row, Ian Tran who plays Fasiq was right in front, Omar Fadel who did the scoring for the film was down...
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“Yo Shahj, man, it’s Mike Knight, I’m at the Sacred Grove where...”
– Mike Knight as heard on The Kominas album Wild Knights in Guantanamo Bay
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Leading Prayer
“I feel like we should pray,” Mike said. It was the afternoon before the premiere of The Taqwacores motion picture and we were standing in the living room. Everyone was starting to get ready for the movie screening.
“Yeah, I’m kind of feeling like that too,” Shahjehan of The Kominas responded.
“I think Taz should lead the prayer,” Mike said, looking at me. I raised my eyebrows back. Of course...
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We Made It To Oprah
You know you’ve made it big when you are on Oprah. Allright, so The Taqwacores wasn’t on Oprah, exactly. It was the radio show the Derrick Ashong Experience that was premiering on Oprah’s Sirius network channel that day. The Taqwacores entourage followed Eyad Zahra and Mike Knight to the basement of a pop-up radio station set up in particular for Sundance.
As Eyad and Mike got ready for their...
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Punk House
The punk house is packed. And the first thing you notice when you step inside is the ridiculous amount of shoes in the front foyer, and the smell of all the dirty punk rock boys. Air mattresses are strewn about and everyone is looking for a missing phone charger. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, and madness. But. You there is a poorly strung acoustic guitar that the bands had bought at a pawn shop along...
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The Accident
The snow was downpouring outside, it looked like white out conditions when we glanced out the window down to the streets. “The bands got into a car accident,” Mike said, looking up from his phone. Shahjehan Khan of The Kominas had texted all of us. “Just got into an accident… everyone is fine, subhanallah.”
We went to the window and tried to call back the band. They were fine, stuck somewhere...
Mike on the Red Carpet
Mike Knight, his wife Sadaf and I were standing on a red carpet with a huge video camera shoved up to our face. We were trying to get into a party that my friend DJ Rekha was spinning at. Except, they wouldn’t let us go into the party without being asked a few questions first.
“What do you think of Sundance so far?” the reporter man asked with a microphone shoved up into Mike’s face.
“Uh, it’s...
Party Time
Mike Knight was sitting on the edge of a modern art deco-ish sofa next to his wife. Loud club music was blasting from the DJ spinning on the patio, and dim blue lights were illuminating all of us. We were at a party at the Sky Lodge, surrounded by pretty happy people.We nursed our non-alcoholic beverages, unable to talk to each other because of the loud music. Mike looked slightly out of place,...
Women Up the Taqx
At the bar, Riz Ahmed asked us all if we wanted a drink. Five of us passed. I looked around, realizing that half of us were the non-drinkers. Only around taqwacore types would being a non-drinker be alright. Riz Ahmed is an old skool Taqwacore, in from the UK for his film Four Lions which also showed at Sundance. His movie is a comedy about jihadists – it’s one of the other “Muslim” movies at...