For decades, Muslims have been tired of reacting to stereotypes on film and TV, and the constant demand to justify their existence by explaining to people who they are not.
Taking a step forward to end this, a new project to promote the inclusion of Muslims in filmmaking has been launched by Muslim advocacy group Pillars Fund in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company.
Announced on Tuesday, the Pillars Muslim Artist Database will include profiles for actors, directors, cinematographers, sound technicians, and other professionals working across the film industry in the US.
📚 Read Also: Actor Riz Ahmed Urges Hollywood to Re-examine Muslim Imagery
Directors, producers, and casting executives can search through profiles on the network and invite artists they want to collaborate with.
That way, “Muslims around the country would be able to opt in and talk about their talents, talk about their expertise,” Kashif Shaikh, a co-founder of Pillars and its president, told The New York Times.
“It was really meant to be a resource for studios, for the film industry.”
We are excited to celebrate the launch of a new initiative: the Pillars Muslim Artist Database! pic.twitter.com/HHslhYuGnD
— Pillars Fund (@pillars_fund) November 9, 2021
Disney supported the creation of the database with a $20,000 grant, Shaikh added.
Representation Matters
The initiative follows an earlier research study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, titled Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies, which found a dearth of Muslims depicted in popular films and Muslim characters often limited to harmful stereotypes.
USC’s researchers examined 200 popular films from the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019. They found that only six of them had a Muslim in a co-leading role, and only one of those was female. Of the nearly 9,000 speaking parts, fewer than two percent were Muslim. And there none in animated movies.
Earlier this year, the Pillars Fund launched the Pillars Artist Fellowship. The program secured $25,000 grants in unrestricted cash rewards alongside mentorship from celebrities like Riz Ahmed, Hasan Minhaj, Mahershala Ali and Nida Manzoor.
“Our communities have largely been missing from behind and in front of the camera for decades. Not only has this led to terrible misrepresentations of Muslims on screen, but there is an entire demographic of talented artists who have been underutilized,” said Pillars Fund Co-Founder and President Kashif Shaikh in a statement.
“Pillars is incredibly grateful to Disney for partnering with us on this important and historic resource. We are making it easier than ever before to find Muslim professionals to work on a film or television project.”