FILM SCREENING AND Q&A WITH DIRECTOR

Parvez Sharma is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. He directed and produced the multiple award winning A Jihad for Love, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and opened the prestigious Panorama Dokumente section of the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival.

Following the release A Jihad for Love, a fatwa (religious opinion) condemned him for the sin of apostasy. Reacting to the fatwa and the film, a commentator on a Saudi website posted, “If I could kill him with my own hands, I would. I am sure Allah will take care of that.”

Parvez’s remarkable journey in his new film, A Sinner in Mecca, takes him from his home in New York, the mecca of freedom, to a Mecca that is anything but home, and subsequently back to his birthplace in India. It was the tenth anniversary of September 11th when Parvez reached Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich nation. 

https://youtu.be/o7CugLjIigU

 Doors open at 5:00 PM. The event is FREE and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, SFU Department of Humanities, SFU J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement, SFU The Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures (CCSMSC), SFU School for International Studies, and Salaam Canada

Get all the details here.