Interview (Part 1): Nijla Mu’min
Nijla Mu’min is a young filmmaker who recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for a feature length movie project Jinn, a coming of age story which received support and endorsements from notable people in the film world including Ava DuVernay, Salim Akil, and Franklin Leonard. Here is a description of Jinn:
Jinn is a “sweet & serious” dramedy about a carefree black girl, Summer, whose world is turned upside down when her mother converts to Islam, sending her on a quest for self-definition. It’s a fun, fresh exploration of identity, Islam, millennial culture, and new media. The story is loosely drawn from Nijla’s upbringing and explores religious interpretation and shifting family dynamics.
In addition to Jinn, the script for Noor, another project by Mu’min, has received numerous accolades including Best Screenplay, Urbanworld 2014 and Finalist, Tribeca All-Access 2016. Nijla was selected to workshop her story as part of the 2014 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive.
As a longtime fan of indie films as an outlet for new voices to give expression to stories involving diverse subcultures, I was happy to reach out to Nijla for an email Q&A.
I see from your background, you have ventured into creative expression in a number of different platforms: poetry, photography, short fiction, dance, and film criticism. How did you find your way into filmmaking?
I was always telling stories, whether it was through my early poetry as a pre-teen, or my documentary photography as a junior at UC Berkeley. I recently returned to my father’s home in Oakland and rediscovered a thick binder of poems that I’d written when I was younger. While some of the poems make me laugh with their intentional rhyme patterns and word choice, they also help me understand my own trajectory as an artist. I have always been concerned with the personal, emotional core of life. My first poems were about my own struggles. Filmmaking was really a natural progression for me, because I’d been telling stories through writing and images for years before I became a filmmaker.
Could you name two movies which have influenced you creatively and why?
I saw Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X when I was 10 years old, with my father and siblings, at the historic Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. The theater was packed and my father brought fish sandwiches and raspberry Hansen’s sodas to eat and drink while watching the film. Throughout the movie, the audience cried, clapped, screamed, yelled and responded in ways that I’d never experienced up to that point. I was a black history nerd growing up, always reading biographies about Bessie Coleman, Malcolm X, and Mary Mcleod Bethune to name a few. This film was the living embodiment of some of the books I’d read, and it made me so proud to be African American. It also showed me, at a young age, the power that cinema could have on its audience. I was swept into this world by Denzel’s performance, the music, and Spike Lee’s direction. It remains one of my favorite films, and biopics.
I also really love Head-on, directed by Fatih Akin. It’s a German-Turkish film that I found while browsing Netflix years ago, about two people- a self-destructive, alcoholic widower and an equally self-destructive, free-spirited young woman who agree to an arranged marriage, and in the midst of their differences, actually come to love one another. It’s raw, painful, and warm. These flawed people smile, dance, and cry while trying to let go of their old habits. It’s also about the restoration of Turkish identity and culture into one of the character’s lives, and how this romance rekindles his national identity.
I love history, romance, and family relationships in film. These are elements that continually inform my own screenwriting. and I refer to these films and others for inspiration.
You’re obtained a B.A. from UC Berkeley and have done graduate work in the Howard University MFA Program as well as the dual-degree MFA program at CalArts in both Film Directing and Writing. Two questions. First, how do you feel your formal education has helped you develop as a creative and storyteller? Second, if someone were to ask you, “Given the cost involved, should I consider going to film school or not,” what would you say?
I consider my time at UC Berkeley and Howard to be invaluable to my growth as a writer, critical thinker, and creator. At UC Berkeley, I was really fortunate to have some amazing professors, mentors, and friends who pushed me to question accepted ideologies, to debate current events and issues, and to be unapologetic about my desire for knowledge and social justice. As a mass communications major, I had classes about how to decode and deconstruct the intended messages of popular advertising for Nike and Dove Beauty Products. We studied semiotics, and my professors encouraged us to be media literate, understanding coded news programming, journalistic bias, and their roles in how we consume information.
One of my first film classes was an Ethnic Studies Documentary course, taught by Loni Ding, which was focused on making interventionist media that complicated mainstream ideals and allowed marginalized groups of people to speak their truth. I was also a part of a Poetry collective called Poetry For The People, founded by the late writer and activist June Jordan. Over the course of my undergraduate career, I learned about the many cultural traditions of poetry- Arab poetry, Chicano/ Mexican poetry, and African American poetry. I taught and lectured workshops about personal expression through poetry, and built an alliance of intercultural support and understanding with my fellow writers in this program.
At Howard University, I was immersed in the study of black filmmakers like Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, and Ousmane Sembene. We also watched early American film classics like Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, and Imitation of Life, lauding their depth, but also critiquing their treatments of race, and of black characters, who were often placed in the films to serve the main white protagonist. One of my favorite classes, Third Cinema, was taught by Haile Gerima.
Nijla Mu’min, directing on set
These experiences have definitely impacted the kind of storyteller and filmmaker that I am. I am interested in stories about people and communities that are often maligned, ignored, or misrepresented. I am interested in their internal lives, their secrets, and their laughter.
My thoughts on film school have evolved over the years. There was a point in my life where going to film school was one of the most important things to me. I devoted so much time and energy to submitting my applications, getting rejected, getting accepted, and ultimately learning that film school is really what you make it. It’s a place to discover your voice as a filmmaker, and take advantage of the equipment that is available to you. It’s a chance to build community and relationships with your colleagues and support one another. I attended two film schools- Howard University, before transferring to CalArts, and had two very different experiences in each school.
I do think film school is valuable for increasing your knowledge and skills as a filmmaker, but I also know that you can do that by working on film sets as a production assistant, reading screenwriting books, shadowing directors, or just writing and making short films on your phone or camera. This industry is heavily based on experience, and film school is not required if you have the relevant experience and know how to do the job. I will say that working as a PA on Ava DuVernay’s film Middle of Nowhere, was just as valuable to my education as a film student as going to a class in film school. I got to experience the making of an independent feature film, rather than talk or theorize about it. There’s something special and beautiful about that.
I also think there’s certain things that some film schools can’t really prepare you for- surviving day to day while trying to make films, navigating shady con artists who want to steal your scripts and pressure you to sign contracts, raising money for independent films- these are all things I learned on the ground, sometimes in painful ways. I often look back to my film school experience and wish there was as much emphasis placed on the business of filmmaking, as there was placed on directing and film history.
You have written and directed numerous short films including Deluge and Dream, both of which have won awards and played at festivals. What are some of the benefits of just going out and making short films?
Short films allow you to hone your vision and craft as a director. I always look at my short films as single chapters to a larger, more epic novel that I am creating. Short films also allow you make mistakes, while getting at the distinct qualities that will come to define your style as a filmmaker. When I rewatch some of my short films, I think of things I would’ve done differently, but I am also in awe of the creative risks I took, such as choreographing a scene in which several black mermaids swim through a stream, and confront a teen girl. Watching that scene, I recall how we raced against the setting sun, losing light with each take, as I held back tears and tried with all my might to get the perfect performance from my cast. This short film really challenged me. Those challenges inform my knowledge and growth as I embark on my first feature film.
To read more about Nijla and her movie project Jinn:
How We Raised $27,000 on Kickstarter for a Film About Black Teen Identity, First Love and Islam (Filmmaker)
My Struggle Being a Black Woman Filmmaker Outside White Hollywood (Vice)
Tomorrow in Part 2 of the interview, Nijla goes into detail about her movie Jinn.
UPDATE: Writer-Director Nijla Mu’min Selected for Panavision New Filmmaker Program.