Join PBS Wisconsin on opening night, October 19th at 7pm at the Oriental Theatre in downtown Milwaukee, to see Wisconsin Life: The Wisconsin Muslim Project begin the festival series.
Milwaukee Film and the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition present the eighth annual Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival, one of the country’s leading Muslim film festivals, on October 19-22, at the historic Oriental Theatre (2230 N. Farwell Ave.). The festival showcases eight carefully curated films–stories that range from across the globe and transcend countries, languages, and cultures while highlighting the common humanity among people of all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs.
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.
In the Wisconsin Life special, 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, shares stories of a mosque director helping curb hunger in Milwaukee, speaks to Barron’s first Somali-born city council member, learns from a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor getting adolescent people engaged in civics, and meets the founders of a Muslim art collective in Milwaukee.
Opening night on October 19th will feature an interactive Wisconsin Muslim Project photo gallery showcasing work by award-winning Milwaukee photographer Lila Aryan. The gallery will offer an intimate look inside the contemporary lives of 15 Muslim Wisconsinites and families.
Each film screening will also feature local ethnic food offerings and a post-screening conversation with local leaders.
