February 12, 2010
January 31, 2010
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. “ And wow. It was so simple but it was the best piece of direction I had ever received. It meant that he trusted me.”
“What was this week like for you?” I asked.
“This week was incredible,” Ian said. “And honestly it goes back a couple of months to when we first found out. The whole build up to it. I’m just the kind of person that wants to share everything wonderful with the people I love.”
“The eighteen days we all spent together. I felt love for everybody. I was scared to watch the film but I was glad to see everybody again. We all shared a journey together. To see everybody here this week, all celebrating, just going nuts over the film, was incredible. I’ll be honest, the first time I saw the film, didn’t pay attention, didn’t absorb one bit of it. And I found out talking to other people that I wasn’t the only one. But when I saw it [the next day] in Salt Lake, I thought to myself ‘That is a great fucking film.’”
“What about you, Volkan?” I said, turning to him.
“It was fun,” he answered matter of fact-ly. “It was a lot to take in. I feel like such an amateur and there’s a lot to learn so much more to grow and so much more to do.”
“You mentioned yesterday about how you had discovered the Taqwacores and the feelings associated with it. Can you tell me what it was like to discover The Taqwacores?” I asked.
“It was like a confirmation,” Volkan answered. “The same things Mike went through, I went through. So for him to identify with that was really weird. He is an Irish Catholic convert, you know? But he was going through the same thing I was going through. As a kid, I was brought up with a Turkish background. I was not really forced into any religion. In fact, my mom actually is not Muslim. She’s too feminist to be Muslim. And my dad is but he doesn’t force it at all. It was always in a sense half assed with me… Half assed to the orthodox Muslims at least. But I guess Taqwacore made me understand that that was okay. It wasn’t ignorance that made that decision, it was that after understanding everything.’
“I’d be fasting for Ramadan and people would ask are you Sunni or Shia? And I’d say - I don’t give a shit about that. Stupid politics that happened 1500 years ago. It’s not what Islam is about. And they’re like “if you don’t pick Sunni or Shia, you’re not really Muslim.” What about Sufis? What about all these other sects to Islam? I’d question myself because everyone was questioning me…’
“So after reading this book and checking out these characters… I decided that if Amazing Ayyub can call himself a Muslim then I can call myself a Muslim. So I felt good about myself. It was like confirmation and conclusion. And after that I got to meet the real Taqwacore characters and that was like a huge confirmation that the book did something and meeting everyone else just totally solidified it.”
“What was it like meeting everyone else in the scene and letting them into your home?” I asked. I knew that Volkan’s house had turned into a surrogate taqwacore house in New York City, over the past year.
“It was like comfort. Like you have people like yourself. Whether it’s like people that are like-minded politically, sociologically, philosophically - like everything. And it gives you a sense of comfort.”
January 25, 2010
This is a taste of what happens when a bunch of Taqwacore punks get together at the Sundance punk house.
January 22, 2010
“Did you hear? The locals are all upset that a graffitti artist is in town,” the woman behind the register said.
“Rumor was being spread that it was because of The Taqwacores. That it was some of their people graffing,” someone else in the store said.
“But it wasn’t them. It’s Banksy! He’s the best, we should be so lucky to have his artwork here,” the first woman responded.
I kinda laughed to myself. It would be an honor to get mistaken for Banksy, but I just can’t see anyone in our crew tagging at Banksy level.
As we walked back to the condo, we found a Banksy. It just had to be. How could it not be?
Party Riot Grrrl Noureen Dewulf
In The Taqwacores story, Rabeya is this niqab-ed riot grrrl, she wears an abaya covered in all these punk rock patches. Her room is covered in stacks of books, and she may not fall into a conventional idea of what it means to be Muslim, but she has strong beliefs that she stands by. She is an activist in her own right mind.
The character is played by Noureen Dewulf in the movie. Noureen is also an activist in her own way, breaking down conventional ideas of what it means to be a Muslim woman. Noureen is also an activist - and this Friday at Sundance, Noureen will be co-hosting a party in support of animal rights. The party will be supporting the Human Society of the US Fur-Free Campaign.
Check out the party - looks like a fun fur-free affair, and I think we may try to sneak all of The Taqwacore scenesters in. We rock studs, not fur, anyways.
Caravan, a New York-based studio to some of today’s actors and musicians, is proud to introduce its own collection of Faux-Fur fashion apparel. Caravan will launch the compassionate collection in partnership with Facebook and The Eldridge, in an exclusive Belvedere Vodka-sponsored event during The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Caravan Faux-Fur will help to raise awareness for The Humane Society of the United States’ Fur-Free campaign, and will encourage fashion and entertainment industry insiders to go faux – in favor of compassion in fashion.
Main street is where the action happens. This is where the Tawqwacore bands will be performing, it’s where Kim’s photos will be displayed, it’s where Mike will be doing his reading. Main street is where the taqwacore sundance madness goes down.
January 21, 2010
Eyad Zahra, the director of The Taqwacores drives us into Park City early this morning. It was our second attempt into Park City since we got Whited Out on our climb to the city the night before.
