A Jordanian filmmaker and producer are combating stereotypes about Muslims with the assistance of digital actuality movies on Islamic historical past.
“We’ve been producers and filmmakers for over 10 years but we never thought that we will go into entertainment until we were in Disney,” Samah Safi Bayazid informed Anadolu Agency (AA).
Bayazid is co-owner of LightArt Media Productions and Light Art VR, an organization she describes as “for Islamic entertaining digital actuality experiences.”
The thought for VR movies about Islamic tradition got here when she and her husband have been visiting the theme park. “We have been having a lot enjoyable,” she stated.
“Why do not we’ve as Muslims, something enjoyable like this?” she questioned.
“What if we are able to inform our tales and our heritage? And the Islamic historical past in an excellent entertaining method, utilizing innovative expertise, we develop our software program,” she stated.
Bayazid stated her firm has “achieved the purpose of entertaining and nonetheless educating individuals.”
The firm produces movies in eight languages, together with Turkish, has 4 VR movies about Islamic heritage, and is producing a fifth and sixth inside the subsequent yr.
The 33-year-old was in Istanbul to attend a two-day convention hosted by the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM), an Istanbul-based girls’s advocacy group, along with Türkiye’s Family and Social Services Ministry.
The theme of the fifth International Women and Justice Summit was “Cultural codes and women,” with Anadolu Agency serving because the occasion’s world communication associate.
“I’m right here to speak concerning the picture of ladies and the presentation of ladies within the media,” Bayazid informed AA on the sidelines of the summit.
“I’ve labored on this business for over 12 years and dwelling within the U.S. I see how the best way girls, particularly Muslim girls, are being represented within the media immediately impacts how we’re being handled and this typically causes Islamophobia,” she added.
Bayazid cited the significance of “telling our tales as a Muslim producer and filmmaker” and stated she shall be speaking concerning the significance of telling the tales of Muslim characters.
Along together with her husband Muhammad, Bayazid based Light Art VR 5 years in the past. “We determined that we need to produce leisure for Muslim audiences all over the world,” she stated.
They began producing a Virtual Reality computer-generated firm to point out 8k decision movies “that take you again in time 1,400 years in the past, to witness the story of Islam,” she stated.
The director based mostly in Washington additionally mentioned reactions from audiences. “So, we’ve accomplished two totally different reactions as a result of we’ve our Muslim viewers and non-Muslim ones.”
Muslim audiences, she stated, have been “screaming, laughing, crying,” once they watch the corporate’s movies.
Non-Muslim audiences had related reactions however have been shocked to study information about Muslim tradition they didn’t know till watching the movie.
“We did our project in New York just to share our Islamic culture,” she stated. “They liked it they usually stated ‘we did not know all this info as a result of it’s totally informative.”
“For instance, they thought that Islam is a faith of violence. They informed us that earlier than watching our VR experiences they thought that ladies are second-class residents in Islam and they’re managed by males,” she stated.
“It’s one of the reasons to educate people and to tell them about our Islamic heritage and culture, to tell our own story and on our narrative,” said Bayazid. “Because we’re not going let different individuals inform our story the best way they need. It’s our job to inform it the correct method.”
