Pittsburgh’s “New Muslim Cool” on WQED-TV

Depending on which route you take, four to five miles from Bellevue is the Light of the Age Mosque on Pittsburgh’s North Side. A couple of weeks ago I went to a screening of “New Muslim Cool,” a documentary film about the local mosque and some of its people. Present for the screening was the main film subject, Hamza Perez, “former drug dealer turned politically outspoken hip-hop artist, anti-drug counselor, community activist, family man and devout convert to Islam.” California filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor was at the screening, too. This event at Pittsburgh Filmmakers included an interfaith panel discussion featuring Amir Luqmon Abdus-salaam, director of Light of the Age Mosque, Christian minister Reverend Cornell Jones, Rabbi James A. Gibson, as well as Mr. Perez and other local community activists and educators.

During the three year period of filmmaking in Pittsburgh the Light of the Age Mosque was raided by FBI agents, in July of 2006. You may recall news coverage of this incident. The raid is featured as part of the story of Hamza Perez in the film. You will also get to know a lot more about Mr. Perez in his family life as well as in his anti-drug and chaplaincy work in the Allegheny County Jail.

I write about this now not because I was able to attend a screening in May but because you, too, will be able to watch this film of local public interest on public television. While viewing, you’ll want to look for distinctive Pittsburgh landmarks, including our famous Heinz 57 towers. “New Muslim Cool” premieres on the POV documentary films program on June 23, 2009 at 10 pm on WQED. The Tuesday night show follows Frontline, another of my personal favorites.

Note: As I write this, in a few hours WQED will be broadcasting the final film in the America at a Crossroads series, “The Mosque in Morgantown.” Not as close as the North Side, nonetheless, Morgantown, WV is not very far away from Bellevue. This film’s premiere broadcast will be tonight, June 15, 2009 at 10 pm.

*****


Watching Online

Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, who made “New Muslim Cool,” told me that the public will be able to view her entire film online at the PBS/POV website after the June 23^rd television premiere. I made it a point to ask her since some of the POV films are viewable online while others show only trailers and accompanying materials (which are valuable in their own right, to be sure).

EDIT: (July 7, 2009) Visiting the PBS website today, it may be that online viewing will be available only temporarily (?). At least until July 24th it can be accessed here.

It does not look like “The Mosque in Morgantown” film will be viewable in its entirety online.