Interview with Iman Zawahry:
1. Tell us about your self, where are you and your family from? What is your background?
I was born and raised in Panama City, Florida (a.k.a. Redneck Riviera). My parents immigrated to America from Egypt in 1972.
2. Did you feel a contradiction growing up in America while experiencing a different upbringing culture at home?
It certainly made my upbringing unique and special. But it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t be who I am today but for the extreme dichotomy that existed between my cultural background and growing up in America. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because it gives me a perspective that is unique to me and allows for me to tell my stories through that lens. The ultimate theme of my short films is meant to convey that there is no contradiction between being Muslim/Arab and American, but it can certainly add extraneous complications to the formative coming-of-age years for young Muslims.
Meet filmmaker Iman Zawahry
by Angela S on Thursday August 13, 2009
1 comments
Director of "Tough Crowd", which won an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Student Emmy Award and the Award of Merit at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival. "Tough Crowd" also qualified as a finalist in the NBC Comedy Short Cuts where Iman was a finalist to pitch a sitcom with NBC executives. The Directors-In-Training program at NBC recently nominated Iman as a possible finalist for its exclusive program. To see the short click here.
For more info on Tough Crowd click here.
3. What is your comedic/artistic background, before film school? Do you have any stand up/ writing experience?Before film school I got my BA in Religion and Near Eastern Languages in Cultures at the University of Florida. While growing up, my friends and I would make spoofs of the Arsenio Hall show called the Iman Hall Show and 90210 called 32405 (pc zip code). We would add our own comedic characters like “LaDonna” as Donna in 32405.We also had full commercial breaks in between. That was the extent of my comedic background. I never did stand-up and I don’t think I will in the future.Most of my comedy stems from my experiences of being the brown girl in a hick town.
4. Tell us about your favorite filmmakers, comedians, and Muslim artists. Who are your inspirational idols?
I’m a huge fan of 80’s comedies.So I’m a big fan of John Hughes films.Woody Allen and Mira Nair are also some of my favorites. I’m also a fan of Gurinder Chadha (director Bend it Like Beckham) who is able to use comedy in family tradition and who gives heart to a lot of her films. Tom Hanks is my all-time favorite actor and I love all his films, especially 80s films (“The ‘Burbs”…”Money Pit,” come on! ).My favorite comedians are Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chapelle.
5. In your interviews you have noted your family wasn’t originally supportive of your career choice. What sparked the desire to break away and go to Film School?
I always perceived film as an unattainable dream of mine. I originally promised my family that I would be a physician here in America (my cousins were shipped to Egypt to attend medical school, but I fought to stay here.) That didn’t work so well so I told them I would become a lawyer like my brother. I took the LSAT twice and applied to law schools. My husband got accepted to FSU Law School and I saw that as an opportunity to apply to FSU’s film school. When we moved to Tallahassee I continued to try and met my family’s ambitions but I simultaneously began pursuing my dreams. When I got rejected from every law school I applied to but managed to get accepted into FSU’s film school, I took it as a sign to pursue my dream of film.
6. Your short Tough Crowd is hilarious. What inspired you to make Tough Crowd? Is the film in any way autobiographical? Thank you. Tough Crowd is definitely autobiographical. A girl breaking away from her family tradition of becoming a physician to become a stand-up comedian directly mirrors my own path of pursuing film. The medium of standup comedy is meant to parallel the medium of film in that it is an artistic deviation from the medical field that both I and the protagonist in Tough Crowd yearn to attain. That is my story except replace standup comedian with comedic filmmaking. My goal is to tell stories about my family tradition and religion through comedy.In that regard, I felt that a girl going against the norm of family tradition to chase her dream was a story that many could relate to in their own journey to achieve their dreams. This vision is meant to inspire, educate about my religion and way of life, and the culture and religion allow for a great comedic forum.
7. Do you consider yourself more of a writer or a director? What is your favorite role on the creative process?
I consider myself more of a director. I know many of my colleagues and other filmmakers say that writing/directing are intertwined, which I agree with to a certain extent. Every director needs to have a strong understanding of story. I am more visual in my story telling and writing comes a little more difficult then directing for me. I always write with a writing partner(s).
I consider myself more of a director. I know many of my colleagues and other filmmakers say that writing/directing are intertwined, which I agree with to a certain extent. Every director needs to have a strong understanding of story. I am more visual in my story telling and writing comes a little more difficult then directing for me. I always write with a writing partner(s).
8. Congratulations on your Princess Grace Award, which has allowed you to work on your next short film: UnderCover. Tell us, what is the short about?Thanks! UnderCover is about Nada Assad, an-American Muslim cop who struggles between balancing her religion and her dream job of becoming a detective. Her plight is exacerbated when she takes on a pig-napping case. It has been a different experience for me than the other three short films. Since Princess Grace gave me the opportunity and funds to make a movie without boundaries, I wanted to venture out and try different things with the story and to work differently with actors. It was also the most fun I have had on set. The entire cast and crew laughed while at the pig farm, pig meat locker, and police station (During the swine flu outbreak no less!).
9. What is the status of the project? Are you done shooting? When can we expect it to come out?
We have been calling this film the epic because it’s taken almost a year to complete, although it’s only a 20-minute movie. The movie is currently finished shooting and we are in post-production. Hopefully the film will be finished in September 2009.
We have been calling this film the epic because it’s taken almost a year to complete, although it’s only a 20-minute movie. The movie is currently finished shooting and we are in post-production. Hopefully the film will be finished in September 2009.
10. What is next for you? Are you planning on tackling a feature film next? After Tough Crowd, I was approached to write for TV, so currently I am beginning to write specs for TV and thinking about my feature script.My heart is more with film so I hope to write/direct my feature soon.
11. What are your goals for the future? Are you planning to stay in Florida?
I’m currently starting my own production company and hope to stay around this area. Our goal is to move to Atlanta, GA, where there is a strong film/tv community. It’s harder in Florida because there is not a strong film community. It was one of my goals to help strengthen the film community in Florida before I came to film school, but I’m realizing how difficult that is now. Although, I would like to shoot my films in Florida.
12. You are an inspiration to minority women filmmakers everywhere. Not only a filmmaker but also a wife and mother, you thrive to crush the stereotype that you can’t be both. Any thoughts or a message you want to give out to other aspiring minority women filmmakers and girls looking up to you?
Wow, thank you. I wouldn’t say that I am an inspiration, but just a brown girl trying to make it! Minority women have the strongest personalities and great stories to tell because we come from not only different backgrounds but from different perspectives. As mothers, wives, daughters, etc, we see each experience through a different eye and telling these experiences and stories are very important for the world audience. Being a woman, nevertheless a minority woman, in the industry is rare and uncommon in this arena.
The world can definitely benefit from an influx of minority women joining the film industry to tell their stories. The younger generation of minority women needs to see the stories we tell so we give them the inspiration and support they need to be successful in their lives. Film is a special medium because it reaches the masses worldwide and can touch so many people in so many ways. It memorializes stories, images, themes, designs, messages, etc. in a fashion that can come to life for all to see. As cliché as it sounds, it is vital to engage in the struggle to achieve your dream because doing so is the only way to ensure you attain a fruitful journey in your endeavors. Doing what you love to do is the only real way to carve out a niche for yourself in this world.
Fore more information on Iman check hijabtrendz.com & film.fsu.edu
Wow, thank you. I wouldn’t say that I am an inspiration, but just a brown girl trying to make it! Minority women have the strongest personalities and great stories to tell because we come from not only different backgrounds but from different perspectives. As mothers, wives, daughters, etc, we see each experience through a different eye and telling these experiences and stories are very important for the world audience. Being a woman, nevertheless a minority woman, in the industry is rare and uncommon in this arena.
The world can definitely benefit from an influx of minority women joining the film industry to tell their stories. The younger generation of minority women needs to see the stories we tell so we give them the inspiration and support they need to be successful in their lives. Film is a special medium because it reaches the masses worldwide and can touch so many people in so many ways. It memorializes stories, images, themes, designs, messages, etc. in a fashion that can come to life for all to see. As cliché as it sounds, it is vital to engage in the struggle to achieve your dream because doing so is the only way to ensure you attain a fruitful journey in your endeavors. Doing what you love to do is the only real way to carve out a niche for yourself in this world.
Fore more information on Iman check hijabtrendz.com & film.fsu.edu
1 Comments
S.A. Sherif - August 13th, 2009 at 8:14 PM
August 13, 2009
Dear Iman:
I really enjoyed reading this interview and was a very proud father-in-law.
Keep up the great work!
S.A. Sherif
Dear Iman:
I really enjoyed reading this interview and was a very proud father-in-law.
Keep up the great work!
S.A. Sherif
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