The Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival (MMFF) stands as a testament to the transformative power of storytelling through film by promoting understanding, empathy, and unity among all walks of life. MMFF celebrates the vibrant tapestry of Islamic culture and commemorates the shared human spirit that binds us all together, reinforcing the values of compassion, respect, and coexistence.

Launched by the Milwaukee Muslim Women Coalition in 2015, the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival shares films from around the world to encourage reflection, hold meaningful conversations, and celebrate the Muslim community and their experiences. The festival is one of only a handful of Muslim film festivals in the country and was founded by Janan Najeeb, the current president and founding member of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition.

Milwaukee FIlm's dedicated programming team has carefully curated eight films for this year's Festival from across the globe that transcend countries, languages, and cultures while highlighting the common humanity among people of all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs.

Schedule of Events

October 19, 2023

7:00 p.m. - Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project At the Oriental Theatre (Abele Cinema)

In the all-new PBS Wisconsin special, Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project, audiences are invited to join host Angela Fitzgerald as she shares the stories of Muslims across the state. In the program, Fitzgerald visits the Fox Valley Islamic Society in Neenah. She then shares stories of a mosque director helping curb hunger in Milwaukee, Barron's first Somali-born city council member, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor getting young people engaged in civics and the founders of a Muslim art collective in Milwaukee. Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project is part of the larger Wisconsin Muslim Project, a collaboration between PBS Wisconsin and two other Wisconsin-based partners, the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition and We Are Many - United Against Hate. The project aims to stimulate connections between Wisconsin's Muslim and non-Muslim populations, and encourage us to obtain greater knowledge about, empathy for, and appreciation of one another. Funding for Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project is provided by the Doris Duke Foundation through the Building Bridges Program, Lowell and Mary Peterson, Alliant Energy, the A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Also Showing

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour
2 Hr. 40 Min.
The cultural phenomenon continues on the big screen! Immerse yourself in this...
6:00 p.m. - At the Oriental Theatre (Lubar Cinema)
9:45 p.m. - At the Oriental Theatre (Lubar Cinema)

A Nightmare On Elm Street
1 Hr. 31 Min.
Can your nightmares be fatal? In this classic of the horror film genre that launched a movie...
9:00 p.m. - At the Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

October 20, 2023

7:00 p.m. - In Search Of Bengali Harlem At the Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

As a teenager in 1980s Harlem, Alaudin Ullah was swept up in the revolutionary energy of early hip-hop. He rejected his working-class Bangladeshi parents and turned his back on everything South Asian and Muslim. Now, as an actor and playwright contending with the Islamophobia of post-9/11 Hollywood, Alaudin wants to tell his parents' stories. But he has no idea who they really were, no idea of the lives they led or the struggles they faced as Muslim immigrants of an earlier era. In Search of Bengali Harlem follows Ullah from the streets of New York City to the villages of Bangladesh to uncover the pasts of his father, Habib, and mother, Mohima. Alaudin first discovers that Habib was part of an extraordinary history of mid-20th century Harlem, in which Bengali Muslim men, dodging racist Asian Exclusion laws, married into New York's African American and Puerto Rican communities – and in which the likes of Malcolm X and Miles Davis shared space and broke bread with immigrants from the subcontinent. Then, after crossing the globe to visit the former homes of his parents, Alaudin unearths unsettling truths about his mother: about the hardships and trauma that she overcame to become one of the first women to migrate to the U.S. from rural Bangladesh. In Search of Bengali Harlem is a transformative journey, not just for Alaudin Ullah, but for our understanding of the complex histories of South Asian and Muslim Americans.

Runtime: 1 Hr. 24 Min.
Director: Vivek Bald, Alaudin Ullah

Also Showing

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (35MM!)
1 Hr. 24 Min.
Freddy's back...and he wants revenge. When teenager Jesse Walsh moves to Elm Street, Freddy...
9:00 p.m. - At the Oriental Theatre (Abele Cinema)

October 21, 2023

1:00 p.m. - A Gaza Weekend At the Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

Director: Basil Khalil
Runtime: 1 Hr. 30 Min.

From acclaimed filmmaker Basil Khalil (Academy Award-nominated director of Ave Maria) comes this comedy-adventure set against the backdrop of a sealed-off Israel. Israel is on lockdown after the outbreak of a deadly virus and Gaza has become the safest place in the region, leaving a British journalist and his Israeli girlfriend trapped on the wrong side of the border. With no one else to turn to, they must entrust two Palestinian street merchants who promise a way out in exchange for much needed cash. What follows is a hilarious culture clash comedy-adventure as the couple desperately try everything to get back home.

4:00 p.m. - My Maysoon

Filmmaker Batoul Karbijha uses making a film about her disappeared sister as a means of finding out what happened and as a way of dealing with it. For herself, for her family and for all families who lost loved ones on their way to a better future. On 24 August 2014, 20-year-old Maysoon Karbijha disappeared on the Mediterranean Sea. She was on her way from Syria to Europe when her boat capsized. Of the 712 people on board, 488 were rescued, 24 where found washed up on the Italian shore, and the 200 people remaining have been missing ever since. Maysoon is one of them. Batoul's search for her sister takes her from Sicily to Tunisia and to Libya, and confronts her with graveyards full of missing migrants, in a labyrinth of ignorance, indifference and powerlessness. The search also results in a confrontation with Batoul's family. For years, they have not been able to talk about Maysoon and they silently refuse to accept that she may no longer be there. Batoul hopes the search will make it possible to talk about Maysoon with her family. An intimate process in which loss, pain and hope alternate.

Runtime: 0 Hr. 55 Min.
Director: Batoul Karbijha

7:00 p.m. - Rabiye Kurnaz Vs. George W. Bush At the Oriental Theatre

Desperate to help her son, Rabiye Kurnaz, a housewife and loving mother from Bremen, goes to the police, notifies authorities and almost despairs at their impotence and in the end, against all the odds, something truly remarkable happens.

Runtime: 1 Hr. 59 Min.
Director: Andreas Dresen

October 22, 2023

1:00 p.m. - The Neighborhood Storyteller At the Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

War tragically pushed Asmaa out of her home country, Syria, where her destiny had been written as a wife and mother with only 16 years of age. Asmaa rebuilt her adult identity as the neighborhood storyteller and began using reading aloud to children for fun as a bridge to tackle critical issues in her new community at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Seven years later, with Asmaa's first born daughter reaching adolescence, a flashback of her education deprived past emerges and inspires her to embark on a new read aloud project to empower teenage girls to build a future of opportunities she never had. Despite her complex living situation as a refugee and the community's conservative mindset, Asmaa is determined to raise a conscious generation of successful women.

Runtime: 0 Hr. 49 Min.
Director: Alejandra Alcala

4:00 p.m. - Harka at Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

Dreaming of a better life, Ali makes a precarious living selling contraband gas on the streets of Tunisia. Forced to take charge of his two younger sisters after their father's sudden death, and facing impending eviction, Ali will have to make a decision from which there is no turning back.

Runtime: 1 Hr. 27 Min.
Director: Lotfy Nathan

7:00 p.m. - Draw Me Egypt - Doaa El-Adl, A Stroke Of Freedom At the Oriental Theatre (Herzfeld Cinema)

Doaa el-Adl is one the most prominent of the very few female cartoonists in the Arab world. Draw me Egypt - Doaa El-Adl, A Stroke of Freedom creatively blends documentary, cartoons and animation to bring to life this courageous artist's thoughts on politics and feminism as she uses her talent to advocate for women's rights.

Runtime: 0 Hr. 54 Min.
Director: Nada Riyadh

Date: October 19-22, 2023

Cost:
General Admission: $12.00
Senior - 60 and over: $10.00
Student/Educator (ID Required): $10.00
Child - Under 12: $6.00

Location:
Oriental Theatre,
2230 North Farwell Avenue,
Milwaukee, WI 53202.

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