This nationwide program is using movies to strike back at Trump's Muslim ban

By Isha Aran  |  March 20, 2017 | 2:42pm
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The film industry (with a couple exceptions) has been very vocal about Donald Trump, his immigration orders, and the Muslim ban, essentially rendering the theme of this year’s award season, “We’re all immigrants worthy of stories, aren’t we? Also, fuck Trump.” Now, some members of the industry are putting those sentiments into action as part of the Seventh Art Stand, an upcoming nationwide series of films and discussions that aims to battle Islamophobia and “elevate the cinema and stories of the people affected by the executive orders inhibiting their rights to travel to the U.S. “

The program, organized by Abramorama and the Northwest Film Forum, is the result of a partnership with organizations across the nation like the Arab American National Museum in Michigan, the Metrograph, and Anthology Film Archives in New York, and the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii. Several celebrities, like director Ramin Bahrani, John Turturro, Woody Harrelson, and Debra Winger, have supported the series, which will take place in various theaters, community centers, and museums.

“We believe it is crucial to build a tradition of sharing more stories, voices, and faces on our screens,” organizers Courtney Sheehan and Richard Abramowitz said in a statement. Films to be screened will include Karama has No Walls and The Mulberry House, both from Yemen, Fishing Without Nets, from Somalia, and the Oscar-winning The Salesman, by director Asghar Farhadi, who boycotted the Oscars in response to the Muslim ban.

 
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