Directors: Hemal Trivedi, Mohammed Naqvi Producers: Hemal Trivedi, Jonathan Goodman Levitt
Description:
Firebrand
cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is
waging jihad against the Pakistani government with the aim of
imposing Shariah law. His primary weapon is his expanding network of
Islamic seminaries for children as young as four. Among the
Believers follows Aziz's personal quest, and charts the lives of
two of his teenage students who are pawns in his ideological war. His
dream is to impose a strict version of Shariah law throughout the
country, as a model for the world. A flashpoint in Aziz's holy war
took place in 2007, when the government leveled his flagship mosque
to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150
students. With unprecedented access, Among the Believers follows Aziz on his very personal quest to create an Islamic utopia,
during the bloodiest period in Pakistan's modern history. The film
also follows the lives of two teenage students who have attended
madrassas (Islamic seminaries) run by Aziz's Red Mosque network.
Intimate and shocking, Among the Believers offers rare
insights into the ideological battles shaping Pakistan and the Muslim
world.
Biography: Hemal
Trivedi has been a Mumbai and New York City based documentary
film editor/director for over a decade. Her credits include: Outlawed
in Pakistan (Editor, Emmy-2014, PBS-Frontline, Sundance); Saving
Face (Editor, Oscar-2012, Two Emmys-2013, HBO/Channel 4); Shabeena’s Quest (Director/Editor, Witness, Al Jazeera); Flying on One Engine (Editor, SXSW, IDFA); Laughter (Editor, BBC); When the Drum is Beating (Editor, ITVS, Tribeca
2011); and Beyond Mumbai (Director, Camera & Editor, OWN,
2011 Webby nomination). She has produced and edited over fifty
award-winning shorts for Odyssey Networks.
Mohammed
Naqvi Emmy-winning filmmaker Mohammed is also a fellow of the
National Endowment of the Arts and American Film Institute's Project
20:20 program. In addition, his work has received numerous awards
including the Amnesty Human Rights Award, the United Nations
Association Film Festival Grand Jury Award, and has been showcased at
the Museum of Modern Art. Documentary credits include: Shame (Showtime), Pakistan's Hidden Shame (Channel 4), Shabeena's
Quest (Al-Jazeera), and Terror’s Children (Discovery).
Mohammed has produced two narrative feature films, Big River and I Will Avenge You Iago, starring Giancarlo Esposito and Larry
Pine, and recently directed narrative short Happy Things in Sorrow
Times.
