Building Babel follows a year in the life and work of Sharif El-Gamel, the developer behind New York's "Ground Zero Mosque", otherwise known as Park 51 - a Muslim community center two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.
The film follows Sharif's struggle to build the embattled center against seemingly endless opposition, all the while struggling with his own religion and identity amid intense scrutiny.
Told in observational style, Building Babel is a tale of maturation through adversity. Released to the press in an embryonic stage and during a pivotal election year, Sharif and his "All-American" plans for an Islamic community center were met with a mixture of cautious optimism and unbridled furor. Enter Park 51 as symbol - representing a hope that Sharif's hyphenated Muslim-American identity might someday find solid footing in the fabric of American society.
Building Babel provides a portrait of American identity ten years on from September 11th. Who are Muslims, and who are Americans? Where does the line get drawn and who gets to draw it?
Building Babel (2012) - Official Trailer from Rosewater Pictures on Vimeo.
2 comments:
Hmmm... The gentleman is portrayed as devoted, calm, well balance, sincere, etc. And those who oppose his actions? The brief attention to their behavior in the trailer is completely negative depicting them as harrassing him in person and by phone. Nice use of his grandchildren to sympathetically show that those against him have no problem violating the sanctity of his home. Appears to be a sweet piece of propaganda to me...at least based on just the trailer.
Yeah, it doesn't exactly look like a fair reading of the situation.
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