Watched
2017 · 20m · Documentary
This short 19-minute documentary is an intimate and moving exploration of the profound and far-reaching impact of surveillance on Muslim American individuals and communities. Premiering at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, WATCHED is told through the personal experience of two women, both coming of age in New York. The film charts the devastating toll of surveillance and reveals the scars it leaves behind.
More Like This
Besa: The Promise
2012 · ★ 10
A documentary exploring how Albanians, including many Muslims, helped and sheltered Jewish refugees during WWII at their own risk, and trying to help the son of an Albanian baker that housed a Jewish family for a year return some Hebrew books that the family had to leave behind.
More info →
A Calling to Care
2001 · ★ 9
A Calling to Care is the inspiring story of 55 year-old Grace Stanley, a Canadian nurse who left her home and prestigious career behind to answer a calling halfway around the world in Karachi, Pakistan. Teaching nursing to local women in a strict Muslim culture that forbids them to even to touch men is a formidable task. However, Grace challenges her own values and belief systems to find common ground with her students, helping them to excel and feel respect for themselves in a culture that doesn't respect them. Whether it is getting her hands painted with henna, swimming fully-clothed in the ocean, or marching bravely with them on International Women's Day, Grace bonds with her students in a very special way, and ultimately discovers how the West can learn a lot more from the Third World than she ever thought.
More info →
Islam and the Future of Tolerance
2018 · ★ 7.8
In the thick of a controversial war of ideas, two enlightening figures, Sam Harris, an atheist and a critic of religion, and Maajid Nawaz, an Islamist-turned-liberal activist, partake in an engaging dialogue on the state of Islam, its potential reform, the militant ideology of Islamism, and where all this lays in a secular world.
More info →Crimes of Honour
1999 · ★ 6.8
Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.
More info →Children of Islam
2006
Three boys and three girls. All born in the Middle East now living in Sweden. All with different views of Islam, integration, the World and Sweden. Some follow Sharia. Others fight Islamic roles. One is a hip hopper. The other thinks music is a sin. One thinks that the woman must obey her husband. One fights for women’s liberation. One girl is a boxer. The other is an ordinary worker. Some are closely followed by the Security Police. Children of Islam is a documentary about religion, culture, conflicts and looking for an identity in a changing Sweden.
More info →
Railway Station
1980 · ★ 4.7
Warsaw's Central Railway Station. 'Someone has fallen asleep, someone's waiting for somebody else. Maybe they'll come, maybe they won't. The film is about people looking for something.
More info →
Atatürk, Father of Modern Turkey
2023 · ★ 8
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938.
More info →Saudi Solutions
2006
How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revealing documentary about the lifestyles and attitudes of ambitious career womenin conservative Saudi Arabia - the only country in the Arabworld where women are obliged to cover themselves inabayas and aren't allowed to drive cars. Because of the strong influence of fundamentalist Islam on society, filmingis severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. With unique access to the Kingdom, Backlight had the opportunity to film the daily routines of Saudi working women. This documentaryfeatures a top gyneacologist, a TV news anchor woman, a photographer, and a university professor. It also introducesthe wealthy Prince Al-Waleed, who passionately promotes the acceptance of women into the workforce. He kindly invitesBacklight to his luxury desert camp, but there are no women to be found - only thousands of men.
More info →
Was lebst Du?
2004 · ★ 7.5
I followed the everyday lives of Ali, Kais, Ertan and Alban with my camera for over two years. The time was characterized by disappointments, conflicts and also great successes. It all began with a visit to the "Klingelpütz" youth center in the middle of Cologne. Young migrants have been meeting here for many years.
More info →
Camera Sleuth
1951 · ★ 7
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, we see how real-life investigator Jo Goggin used a motion picture surveillance camera to gather evidence and disprove a fraudulent insurance claim.
More info →
Diam's : De la lumière à l'ombre
2025
Diam's, the beloved icon of French rap, gave up everything at the height of her success. The young woman experienced a real descent into hell: depression, loneliness, and disillusionment in the face of suffocating fame. On the brink of disaster, she found refuge in religion. Rare archives, memorable music videos, and previously unseen testimonials reveal the violence of her success and her vital need to disappear in order to rebuild herself, choosing the shadows after the light.
More info →
gOD-Talk
2023
Explores the lives of seven Black Millennials – Atheist, Buddhist, Christians, Muslim, Ifa, and Spiritualist – and the challenges and discoveries with faith and spirituality.
More info →