This is Nabil.

Last week, my thirteen year-old sister’s Middle School received a bomb threat. Thankfully, it was just a prank. During my tenure at Loganville High School, we also received bomb threats.  However, my experiences and my sister’s experiences were totally different.  My school got threatened BEFORE 9/11/2001.  My sister’s school got threatened right after the Fort Hood Shootings.  Bomb threats are nothing new to public schools in America.  They’re very serious, but most of the time they’re just pranks to get out of taking tests or what-have-you.  And that’s exactly how I remember them: nonthreatening.  My sister, on the other hand, felt very different about them.

My thirteen-year-old sister was harassed and made-fun-of by many of the other students at her school.  Their first response to the bomb threat? It must have been my sister because she is Arab and Muslim.  A couple of students even approached her directly, calling her a “Muslim Terrorist” and a “Bitch”.  Okay, so maybe the second name is just something kids do – but the first one is very troubling. My sister came home that night, crying her eyes out, because the negative perceptions of Islam have gotten so mainstream and universally accepted that even school children are spreading them. I really wished my sister hadn’t experienced that ridicule, but it’s something that many American Muslims are experiencing.

Colin Ferri recently handed our feature screenplay to one of the head readers at Dreamworks Pictures (nice score, Colin!).  And out of the goodness of his heart, he read our screenplay and gave us his notes.  First thing’s first.  He thought the screenplay was, “a hoot”.  Awesome.  Having our screenplay come off as “funny” and “hilarious” was one of our main goals, and according to the reader, we succeeded. Yay!

The problem? The reader was very concerned that our screenplay wasn’t relevant anymore.  His argument: The United States of America has elected an African-American president with the name, Barack Hussein Obama.  Because the plot of Arab in America relies heavily on Osama changing his name to Samuel – the reader was wondering if having a name like Osama would still be a roadblock. He thought America was becoming more accepting of Arabs and Muslims and that our screenplay addresses a non-issue.

And then I got to thinking…  If things are getting better, then why is my sister being harassed by all the kids in her school when some punk calls in a bomb threat?  Why is my father still running a Middle Eastern Restaurant with his 22 years of Engineering experience?  And why in the hell am I seeing Time Magazine running a cover like this?

Reminds of A Teaser Trailer...

Back in 2006, Colin and I shot the first half of our short film, Arab in America.  There was a scene that was cut from the movie that we used for a Teaser Trailer.  Most of our friends and family who saw the Teaser Trailer, complained that it was too “outlandish and ridiculous” and “Time Magazine would never have a cover like that.”  I’ve included the Teaser Trailer below…

We think Arab in America is still relevant.  Arabs and Muslims are still having a hard time in this country and many are treated like second-class citizens.  And because some people might think that the topic is fading in the background and “getting better” that only emboldens us even more to get this thing made.

Keep checking back for some new updates, including – your very own copy of The Arab in America Pitch Packet! – AND – DVD News! – AND – Even More Arab News!

-Nabil

Thomas (Tommy-Tom) Verrette’s feature film, I Am The Bluebird, is premiering tonight in Atlanta, hosted by the Atlanta Film Festival!  If you guys don’t know who Tom is, he’s a co-writer of the Arab in America feature screenplay!  So if you’re in Atlanta or in St. Petersburg, FL – you can watch I Am The Bluebird!  Colin and I have been watching cuts of this film since 2007, and I can be completely honest with you when I say that it’s really fantastic.  Check out the Atlanta Film Festival & the Sunscreen Film Festival’s websites for ticketing info and directions.  Also, don’t forget to check out iamthebluebird.com!

I AM THE BLUEBIRD – ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL
Friday, April 17th – 7:30pm
Tuesday, April 22nd – 1:00pm

I AM THE BLUEBIRD – SUNSCREEN FILM FESTIVAL
Thursday, April 30th – 9:00pm

-Nabil

(P.S. – Look for Colin Ferri & Nabil Abou-Harb in the “Special Thanks” section of the credits!)

This is Tom.

Hello World.

Tom here. I am one of the writers of Arab In America. Not the short one, the long one. Or the one that’s too long. Whatever. Most of you probably don’t know of me as my involvement with the short was very limited, but I like to think I had some helpful pointers here and there. I suppose that lead me to writing here — on the ‘Making Arab In America‘ blog.

YESTERDAY, Nabil told me he had this idea to do this blog, and so here I am. This is my first blog ever. I have never once thought about starting, writing, participating, reading, loving, hating, obsessing, fantasizing, dreaming, or smearing a blog, so if it is a bit uneven, sue me. (Seriously don’t really, I’m a broke filmmaker too!) Okay! So far, so good. I feel like I can say whatever I want, and it doesn’t matter. So a blog is for venting then? A perfect place for the guys behind Arab In America!

Except for one thing. Where to start?

I am honestly not bitter about any of our close calls, potential buys, and even a few name actors who enjoyed our story but didn’t want to bite. Seriously, who gets that lucky immediately after graduating film school?! It has been one of the most rewarding and informative journeys I have endured in my young twenty-three years. It was fun, and above all, was the kind of thing I want to be doing. That being said, none of us have any intention of giving up. We may move on to other things, and Arab may never get made, but giving up is for losers, getting smart is for us.

I think we’re smart guys. Nabil and Colin were smart enough to know they had a good idea on their hands. They asked for my help, so naturally that’s another check on the smart list. My credibility I suppose lied with my own limited (but existent) feature film knowledge (called I Am The Bluebird for anyone listening). Anyway, so I helped. And we worked together hard and long for many many months — I’m going to skip a year of that process and go right to the ‘Oh-Shit-Houston-We-Have-A-Problem!’ moment — the political climate keeps changing!

It took us smart guys a long time to realize that right!? Now before you tell yourselves, “No shit Sherlock! My dead parakeet’s rotten corpse fifteen inches under the rock in my backyard could’ve called that!?”, it gets a bit more complicated.

See, everyone knows someone with a great movie idea. We were those people to a lot of others. And haven’t you noticed that those movie ideas are almost always films perfectly acclimated for a studio? Doesn’t Arab In America sound like that? It’s the perfect edgy tent-pole comedy! Maybe that’s where we made our mistake. If Akiva Goldsman wrote it, it would’ve been shot before any studio exec green-lit the thing. I’ll sum it up by saying that for unknowns like ourselves with a politically satirical script relevant to TODAY, it proved a lot harder for anyone who had the power to say yes. Don’t worry, I haven’t gotten to the complicated part yet. We got this script (and idea) into many people’s hands who had the power to say yes, believe me. Turns out, when you have a good idea, that wasn’t so hard. It was the time it took to get the thing into those people’s hands that became the stinker.

You get the idea...

A stinker you say!? Imagine a 12 once rib eye cooked to perfection. But somehow it gets misplaced in the middle of the desert and sits in the scorching heat for days. Vultures one by one peck at what was once the divine steak. Their nasty bald heads throw bacteria around like a wet dog. And to top it off, they’ve been enjoying themselves for so long that by the time they leave, there is nothing left but a pile of vulture dung. Yes, that kind of stinker.

I think normally, most aspiring filmmakers would not be so crushed by the amount of time between submitting a script, and it actually getting read. “What’s the problem!? It’s getting read!?” Well, if you have a script about killer monkeys in the jungle and some half-cyborg gorilla who speaks fluent English, lets just say you have a different kind of script. Nabil, Colin, and I spent a great deal of time writing about the current misconceptions and interpretations of the world — from the preposterous and obnoxious to the revealing and inspiring — all while putting our genuine humorous twist on it all for a full blown Arab “comedy of racial proportions!”

Turns out, by the time the guy read it. It was YESTERDAY’S news.

So, here we have the ‘Making Arab In America’ blog. My goals for this thing, while obviously hoping to provide some sort of perspective on the whole affair, is to keep moving forward. We have all decided, not only as the owners of this idea but as members of the next generation, that we all had something that we believed in. As screenwriters, we have the power to say something, to change something, and perhaps one day, make something. Whether its Arab In America or something else, I have no doubt we will get there. TOMORROW is a new day, and no one knows what will happen. Maybe somebody reads this and says, “Fuck it. Here’s four million dollars.”

That’s doubtful, but you never know.

-Tom