So I'd like to start by saying that was such a beautiful film and I felt like I knew him through his family and through his brothers, through through his parents.

I thought you did a really good job at really introducing us to through the people that loved him the most.

So I want to thank you for that.

I want to start at the very beginning, at the inkling.

What inspired you to create this story?

What inspired you about the story and what inspired you to make it into a film.

So, you know, 911 is a day that.

First of all, it's great to see so many of you, so many familiar faces.

911 was a day that definitely impacted me.

I was a dental student at the University of Michigan when 911 happened.

And as you can see, I'm not a dentist.

So 911 certainly altered a lot of things in my life.

And at so, you know, many years later, I moved back to East Lansing in 2011.

Nick has been playing professional football in Italy and had, I guess, retired and he was a quarterback when I went to the Italian bowl and did some great things there.

Anyway, he retired.

He came back and I was involved in real estate.

We were friends for a long time.

We were we went to McDonald Middle School here in East Lansing, East Lansing High School.

So we knew that he was the quarterback of the football team.

I was not anything like a quarterback on a football team.

So we know each other for a long time.

And so he was getting into filmmaking actually.

He made a made was making movies.

He starred in a movie.

So so we had dinner.

My wife and I had dinner.

Suzanne and I had dinner with Nick and his wife, Gaia.

And after the dinner, Suzanne, since December of 2013, Suzanne made a comment.

Suzanne said, We don't know.

We don't hear much about the Muslim victims of 911.

And I thought, it's a good point.

So I sent a text or an email or something to Nick, and he thought he's like, That's a good point.

Maybe we could do a documentary about this.

So we began to look up the stories of the Muslim victims of 911.

And there were many, and the stories were incredible.

I mean, there's there are many stories that obviously were not in this film, like Abdullahi, a Yemeni American who was working in the Marriott Hotel between the Twin Towers, who saved many lives and then lost his life.

And we spoke with one of the survivors, Don Munro, who gave an incredible account of what Abdullahi did.

And there were many other accounts like this.

But Sandman story really stood out and really stood out.

First of all, for me personally, I mean, I'm I'm Egyptian American, not Pakistani-American, but I felt like I could connect with him very easily.

We're both Muslim.

He's the oldest of three brothers.

There were just some said he's just a year older than me when he died.

So I could I could connect.

I could find.

It was easy to to to connect, to relate to him.

And so the story we both agreed, it was very compelling.

And we decided, you know, there are a lot of different ways we could have gone about we could have approached this film.

We decided we're going to approach it as it is.

We're going to present it as it is.

This is how the family's presenting it.

This is how we're going to present it, because the story is incredible on its own and people will interpret it however they want to interpret it, you know.

But I remember in 2016, I flew to New York.

September 11, 2016, I flew to New York to do those many of those interviews.

And there was with us a person named Robin.

Robin Moore, a friend of Nick's who was doing the filming.

And I remember calling Nick and telling Nick, look, I'm not a filmmaker.

I'm not a I'm a boring humanities professor, but this is an incredible story.

And, you know, now I look at it like it's an honor just to attempt to convey the story.

You know, again, I'm not a professional filmmaker, but I just want people to hear the story, to know the story.

That's that's all.

So and that's it's very true of documentary filmmaking.

You're often times, you know, inspired by the story.

So it's really great to hear your connection with someone and that that's what really push you to tell the story.

Nick, what was your sort of experience with 911 and how did that relate to Mohammed's perspective or Mohammed experience and your motivation or inspiration to come on board the project?

Yeah, and I think and I don't know that I've actually you mentioned a lot of this, too, but when you know Mohammed, you may not know this, but when we when I came back and we started kind of dialoging on doing some of this project and looking at it some interfaith things like, you know, Lebanese, Christian, actually Lebanese, Norwegian, Syrian, German, American mixture of all that.

And, you know, obviously, Mohammed, an Egyptian Muslim, we wanted to do some interfaith things together.

And the first thing that as we kind of were, you know, working through some of these things was Mohammed story.

And I think we need to even get back to some of that because your story is one of the things that moved me.

You know, there's more to the the story and kind of what you were going through and what motivations you had when 911 happened.

Because you like you said you were in dental school, it created this.

I mean, as you walked me through it, I don't know if you remember that day, we I think we're in a cafe.

And he was telling me what happened to him, you know, emotionally, you know, you know, all these different things that you went through.

Just it made it all very real to me, this whole conversation.

And then when we learned more about Salman and, you know, the immigrant stories, a big part of my family, my father just was first generation, had some really just beautiful feelings about being an immigrant in this country and, you know, being a part of what, you know, the American dream offered you know, our family, you know, coming from immigrant roots.

And so that resonates immediately when you get to know the Hamdani family and hear Salman story and I mean, I always consider myself patriotic and loving the opportunity here.

But here's somebody that in some odd way more patriotic than me, you know, as you you know, growing up.

I mean, I never I've never thought about wanting to be buried underneath the American flag or being president of the United States when I wouldn't be capable.

But that's another story.

But here are the things that were just important to him, as important to him as his faith, you know, and and being a muslim.

And so these things just draw you in with his story.

And there were so many like you talk about.

I, you know, you see what he did and how he sacrificed himself self to save other people.

It's what you hope you would do in that situation.

I don't know that I would I would probably be one of the people running away from the building.

But these stories, people that sacrifice themselves to save other people, they're their stories that are needed, that need to be told and need to be celebrated.

And that's why I'm here.

And that's what drew me in to what our conversation started with way back when.

So and Craig.

Can you tell us a little bit about your experience or perspective on 911?

And you know, what what about your experience?

I mean, we pulled you towards the project or how did you identify your experience, you know, with the project that they were that they came to you with.

Having read like, hello, how are you doing?

Can you hear me now?

Oh, okay.

There we go.

All right.

Well, 911 and getting involved in this film are separated by a lot of years.

So I would start with when Nick.

Nick approached me actually looking for somebody, they had all this content at the point they came to me.

Nothing had been edited or put together yet.

It was just all these interviews and there was a lot there.

So it was time to kind of suss out the story.

So I was I was very interested in, you know, I think and I think one thing we are missing that we're alluding to, but I think we really need to bring into focus the effect it had on you as a muslim American.

You love America, you love your faith, and you're trying to comprehend how your faith did this to America, if I may put it that way.

And and that was something.

And then it changed the trajectory of your life.

And it and those were the stories.

And I think that's what I remember you coming to us with.

And so that's the connection that I saw for that Muhammad was coming to the to, you know, why he was doing this story.

It's like this is a conflict.

And the mother and at the beginning of this says, I never lost faith in my country, America, and I never lost faith in my faith Islam.

And I to me, that's that kind of juice behind this story.

So that's what attracted me after that.

It was we're all we all have, you know, family.

We all understand family.

We understand loss.

All right.

That story is universal across all cultures.

And and, you know, as a storyteller, I would love to have firsthand accounts of everything that he did.

I would like to know exactly what happened between 745 and, you know, basically six months.

It was a six months later when they discovered his body that it was several months later before they ever got closure.

And we just don't have that.

So the one the two interviews that I was involved in, because we decided we wanted some of that.

We wanted to what was it like down there?

So the kind of the middle area of the with David and Zubair gave us that firsthand account.

But we had nobody who, you know, claimed to have seen him that day or we don't.

We were.

It's only speculation on how he got down there, why he went down there.

But he kicked from 745 in bed to at the at the in the rubble.

I mean, how did that happen?

So and then you're just left dealing with the family and their story.

So, I mean, that's what drew me in again, everything about 911 and all the things around it.

Yes.

But when they when they came to me, the story and I'm looking at it, those were the things that intrigued me as a storyteller and what I wanted to help pull together.

That that is really difficult, that the family, you know, for that there's like a six month gap there.

What was it like to approach the family?

You know, is this something that still sort of haunts them?

You know, of course, the death of their son is always going to be with them.

But that mystery, that that gap or not understanding why he went down there, did you find that that was something that, you know, they still think about and that haunts them in a way?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, they said, well, when I saw them in 2016, they said that every year on 911, it's always a very difficult time for them.

And, you know, Z son's birthday, the brother that was interviewed, his birthday is September 12th and he says, I don't celebrate my birthday anymore.

So that period is always difficult for them.

But as far as the interview goes, I was really taken aback by how strong they were and how ready they were to share these very difficult stories.

Now, one of the brothers was did not want to be interviewed.

And I think, you know, maybe it's fair to say he's a shy person who, you know, did not prefer to me.

He's never done an interview, actually, for for his for his brother, even though the others the mom and and Zeshan, Talat and Zeeshan have done many interviews, but he Adnan does not want to do interviews, but I met him very nice person.

But the other is the other two of them, I mean, really to my mind, the person who I still can't wrap my mind around how strong this person is is Talat Hamdani, the mother.

I still can't wrap my mind around how strong she is, and she's so optimistic.

She's always, you know, she's smiling.

She's doing this interview and she's smiling and she's telling the story.

And I'm I'm like but clearly, she's deeply impacted.

And so you know, I didn't actually have to do much to get them to tell the story.

You know, I of course, I had to reassure them that this is not going to be used for.

I'm not not with what?

Like TMZ or I don't know, whatever.

You know, this is just yeah.

Yeah.

So so once I reassure them, they were very open and ready to share stories and and Zeeshan was, you know, an incredible interview.

And I'm I'm glad there wasn't a camera on me when he was speaking, because when he speaks, I'm just.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you find that there was a process to, you know, building trust with them?

You know, was it, you know, them speaking to you and telling you your story, you know, as a muslim American and as an Arab-American, you know, to producers from the Midwest, you know, did they was there some resistance at first or or did they ease into it right away?

You know, because it takes a lot of trust, you know, for a family to put their image in your hands and you clearly pull that out of them.

What was that like?

I'm going to answer this first.

I'm going to answer this for Muhammad, because I wasn't there and at the interviews and this is something that came up in our our last screening that somebody asked and I it made me, you know, appreciate I didn't have any worries.

But going into something like this with the type of depth and the type of tragedy here, you really didn't go in there with a lot of preparation.

But Muhammad has such a, I think, a way a lot of it in Italian, they say.

Amano I would say that just because I'd lived in Italy and got some Italians in there, I but somebody that just can make somebody at ease and very comfortable to be around.

And so we were very fortunate that he was there with them because I think he built a level of trust for them to tell the story and know that he was somebody that was going to care for the story and and present it correctly.

And so we didn't I don't know that we you know, we kind of went with the idea that we're going to go there and we'll see what happens.

And I don't always want to approach something that way.

You certainly don't go into a football game thinking that many times.

But with him, there was a good amount, a trust that way.

And like you said, he called me and I could tell by his words, Sidney, we have to tell you, but we have to tell this story.

We have to, you know, tell this.

There's a lot that's come out of it.

And the other gentleman that was there calling said the same thing.

And he goes and he goes, I'm just hope I'm catching all of this material so that, you know, we can make it happen and then thankfully, we we met Craig because we just basically took a ton of material and said, Craig, there's a story in there, let tell us how to get there.

And between the two of them, Muhammad and Craig, they did it.

And and, you know, it's a very moving piece.

So.

Yeah, I would I would say.

MUHAMMAD Were you we went and we went to New York after we got a draft together.

I mean, we we had it pretty, pretty close to what you had there might have been earlier and whatnot, but we went and showed thought and Zeeshan and, and that was really well received and the professor was there too and, and they were all very pleased with, with the presentation.

I know.

MUHAMMAD What were your recollections of that?

Yeah, they were very pleased with the film and that was, you know, that was validation for us.

There were there were a couple of the mothers, Alaa Hamdani.

She she did make a couple of comments, a couple of suggestions.

We initially had an epilog where I appear and I kind of tell people what to think at the end.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I have some colleagues who in religious studies they know what that's about.

So so I just was, you know, telling people what to think.

And, and at one point, I even you know, even mentioned, you know, many people.

I made a lot.

I made a statement like a comment, like, you know, many people think of Muslims as the, you know, the aggressors that day.

But there were something like that.

And she said, why would you say that?

And I was like, you know what?

You're right.

Why would I say that?

And we're so far removed now.

We were 22 years now.

Yeah.

Why would I say that?

So, you know, there's a saying that a lot of many Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans and Asian-Americans and many others, you'll hear them saying after 911 in interviews, which is that we felt we were attacked twice on 911 because there was the attack itself.

And then there's a subsequent, you know, hate crimes and discrimination, profiling, etc.. And so, you know, these kinds of stories were kind of at the time, I kind of wish people knew these stories more because it would introduce some nuance and in a lot of the public discourse that was missing.

So the part in the film where the neighborhood turned on them was just riveting.

Did you know that going in or did that come through from the interviews?

You know, they had done some interviews prior to this.

So I had a sense of I had a basic sense of the story, but not without the details.

And, you know, the idea that they would tear down the missing signs and that was new to me.

So there were there was a lot that was new to me.

Yeah.

So let's talk about as a first time filmmaker, what was that like?

You know, it's I love stories like this that the story was so important to you that you became a filmmaker because you wanted to get the story out to the world.

So what was that like for you?

Yeah, well, I needed these too, for sure, because I would have been a mess if it was just me.

No, I.

You know, we needed to.

Of course, I have to say, Nick is the reason we're here, so that's.

I have to giving it credit for that.

And then as far as the story goes, I remember, you know, Craig, the first day we met, you know, one of the first times we met.

So what's the story's spine like?

And like a story?

What what do you mean, story of spine?

And so and Greg kind of helped us, you know, we wanted to put all the other good stuff in the beginning is, you know, you have to let people, you know, you know.

So Craig really helped us kind of organize the film.

And what I learned, it's so tedious to do editing.

That's what I learned.

It is so tedious and I have a lot of respect for editors.

So.

And Craig, what was your role as or excuse me, Nick, what was your role as executive producer?

Did you have to fundraise for the film?

Were you, you know, doing contracts, redoing, doing all the business behind the project?

What was your role?

Yeah.

So luckily with with the talents that we, we have here and again being in the position of where I was as kind of the executive producer, it's a lot like when I played quarterback and you're in a team, you want to be around teammates or even in business or what have you teammates that are better than you.

Okay, so you get them the ball and let them win the games for you.

And so with that metaphor in mind, these two guys, they just took the vision and they they made it happen.

And so from my perspective in business and even when I played for him, I'm not a micromanager.

When you see people that have talent, that have the passion for what they're doing, let them do it.

And that's the approach I took with that side of it.

And I just enjoyed being a part of it.

I enjoyed seeing them work.

I enjoyed even probably more so just being even on.

I wasn't as involved day to day as they were, but just to be a part of telling this story, the story of a hero, that was the best part of it.

So great.

And then Craig, as you know, a non-Muslim non American, did you find that your perspective helped to translate themes or translate certain story elements to a wider audience?

And I mean, it was kind of fun because I like to talk about things and, and, and religion.

I mean, it was it was a, you know, and with the Muslim, you know, Muslim studies professor and and so we had some great discussions around that and we had some great discussions around 911 in general, all the ones you would think you would have.

Right and respectfully and perspective shared and and learning from each other.

And to the extent that it contributed here, like I said, I mean, it really just focused on the human sort story.

And and I think that's so I can't I can't I was trying to think this.

I can't I can't remember anything in particular where I mean, just other than having those discussions in general.

And then if we came to kind of a prickly there's some prickly narrative.

Should we leave this in?

Should we leave it out?

You know, I almost had to go back and look at what we didn't put in to to see.

But I just like the idea of of being able to look at this as a story.

And yes, and anybody can relate to it because everyone has family and has has discovered has had loss.

And what do you do and how do you go on?

I mean, night and day between how the mother and the father dealt with it.

Right.

It was kind of interesting.

We did a shorter version of this because one of the kind of the timing thing didn't quite where we're going to quite get to an hour and we're kind of between a half hour.

And so they wanted a 30 minute cut of it and we kind of cut out Dad's downward spiral.

And I really missed that because I think that that's a part of the story, just how it affected him and and how Zeshan and Talat came together and that part of the family at least got tighter.

And so for me, that was kind of a universal story.

And I don't think we I don't think it was necessary to get into the the the geopolitical aspects of it.

It's much it was almost like the personal was like in some ways was like the geo political, you know, and I thought you all did a really good job at telling us or having us identify with people who may not be our same religion or background or nationality.

But we all understand loss and that really shines through.

So really great job.

So I'd like to open it up now for questions from the audience.

You can pass your questions down and then we can grab those and we'll get to as many as we can.

And in the meantime, I just want to suggest, please, if you can join me with the big round of applause again for the filmmakers and the film, where.

If I may say something while we're waiting, one nice thing about this whole process was getting to know the family right?

And to become kind of like family friends with them.

And, you know, when we invited Talat Hamdani here, Dr. Farha basically got to meet her and then she invited her to a conference for the Muslim mental health conference.

And I got to see her in D.C. and I got to where you saw her.

So it was interesting forming connections with people locally with that family.

It was kind of I just felt like we were joining families to some extent.

So that was a nice part of this whole project, too.

That's great.

Okay, here's our first question.

How long does it take to finish a movie from A to Z and for Mr. Muhammad?

Are you going to do another movie?

How long should it take or.

Yeah, those are two different answers, right?

December 2013 is when Suzanne said someone should make a movie about the Muslim victims of 911, those December of 2013.

So it's been a decade almost.

So, yeah, I don't know what other movies we'll see.

I think these guys have some ideas and I'd love to be a part of them.

But my perspective on this particular film, I mean, and it really you can weigh in on this even more than we can, but it's a winding road.

And when it gets right, it gets right.

And I'd say every, you know, curve in this road led us to make something better into where we got.

So I think.

The one thing I mean, when I joined in, we had all the interviews from New York, the family and whatnot, and we worked with those for a bit and we were working with them and we're like, I need something else here.

And that's when how did tell me about that.

How did we get to David in there?

Yeah.

So the eyewitness accounts so very much.

He's a friend of mine from the University of Michigan days.

By the way, I would be very clear, I'm a Spartan fan.

We've got my resume here.

I'm a sparring fan.

I got to be very clear about that.

But I was a student, University of Michigan.

I was friends with Zubair from University of Michigan, and Zubair was in the towers on 9/11.

Actually, Zubair was at my wedding on July 27, 2001, so I got married a month and a half before 911.

And I remember Zubair saying, Nick was there, and I remember Zubair saying, I'm going to work at the World Trade Center.

And I said, Oh, be careful, because we all remember 1993.

So I mean, I mean, it almost it was it was like almost like not like a joke, which, of course, now it seems weird to say that, but and then of course, he's missing that day and we can't find him.

And he you know, we can't nobody in his family can't reach him on the phone.

And we were worried that day about Zubair.

And finally, he, by the way, as he was escaping, somebody began to hurl racial epithets at him as if he were the terrorist.

And he's he's escaped.

He just survived.

Barely survived.

So anyway, so that story was very compelling to me.

It stood out to me and he's a friend of mine.

So that's I brought it up.

I said, I know somebody who was there.

And and then he knew David because they were together at Morgan Stanley.

And then David's story is quite fascinating because his brother is the first Muslim head football coach.

So, look, there's an interesting story to tell as well.

So that's how we got that's the part of it.

Right?

So so that was we were trying to get something done and we're like and so then we took the time to go do that and now we have to go through all that.

How are we integrating that into the story from there?

I mean, this was a passion project.

So we're we're also doing our day jobs and trying to get this done.

So he's being a professor here.

I'm trying to run a company.

And that was probably more of a reason for delay than anything else.

If if we had just full bore could go on the.

Certainly so yeah.

How long should it take.

How long did it take?

You know, and I do feel like we we finally got it right.

We wanted to do big.

We wanted to get it ready for the 20th.

And and I think things work out for a reason.

And I just feel much better about it being here actually, because I think everybody's now it's so far removed.

I mean, that somebody that where is he.

The digital.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

Or did he feel good.

What a good, what a good, what a good child.

You know, he hasn't even born he was born three years after that.

And the way he was just talking about it is just, you know, to somebody who lived through it and, you know, you're realizing that we've gotten so far.

So I think having stories like this kind of coming, people are ready to kind of take those in now.

And I think I think that's I think everything works out for a reason.

So.

Yeah, a question from that also touched on the same thing asking why, you know, it took nine years for the film came come I think you all are answering that and he also asks why did you choose his childhood picture for the cover?

I mean, that picture is incredible.

Why would you why would you not is there another picture?

I mean, if you have a bunch of pictures to look at and you see that one, it's everything in one picture.

He's actually, I think, looking I mean, his face is oriented towards those towers.

And I think it's oriented to the tower that he died next to.

And I think it just puts everything in perspective.

I think that it's also his brother in the background.

Right?

ZESHAN So, yeah.

And just, you know, from an audience perspective, to me, it also kind of encapsulated his innocence a bit, you know, which I think was something you were trying to preserve with the film that I thought you did really well.

When was Salman's name cleared?

Was it ever cleared?

Yeah, it was.

It was cleared when they found his body and they found it next to like like an emergency aid kit.

And his body was in it, excuse me for saying like 34 parts.

And, and it was obvious, okay.

That he was there to help.

And that's why you had all these big, you know, big politicians at the mosque, you know, because at that point, his name was cleared and then they named the street after him.

And, you know, the mother still fights for recognition and you may have noticed his name is there at the World Trade Center Memorial, but it's there just among everybody else.

It's not in the first responders section.

And she was really upset about that.

She thought he should have some kind of distinction because he was not working there.

He went out of his way to go there.

And he was a police cadet.

So he he was an EMT.

So he had training in helping people.

But so see, that's what's so there there actually there are a lot of things that did not make it into the movie that could have been in the movie.

But we decided to keep it simple and yeah.

That's a really good point.

You know, that he was a you know, he was a civilian, really.

That was, you know, rushing into a building.

Did the police ever apologize to someone's family?

Mm.

I don't know.

What that.

The sequel.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know that there was ever I mean, I mean, you have the police cadets and though the the chief of the police.

Yeah.

They're all there.

So I don't think I suppose that was the.

Yeah I guess you have that.

So I think that's.

Here's a question, do we know the officer in question who could have posted those fliers, you know, saying that he was involved in the attack?

Do they know who the.

No, I don't think we know who that was.

Is that something that they they're trying to actively.

Maybe, maybe.

But I don't you know.

Yeah, I think I mean, so in going back to the mother and just kind of what we're getting to know about her in Mohammed, the point of I don't think we're even sitting here right now without talent getting out and telling her son story and her I mean, I don't know that I've ever met somebody like her, but her story was not out to she wasn't out to do I told you so or you did me wrong or this person did me wrong.

I mean, this is where she talks about how she stayed.

She never gave up on her faith and she never gave up on her and her country.

She was like, I'm going to tell the story of my son, the hero, and I'm going to write his name that way.

And I want him to be honored.

And she did it all.

I mean, he they named the street after him.

She was buried under the flag.

The Bloomberg meeting meeting President Obama.

And she just went with this approach of, I'm going to honor his life as a hero.

And you see, like we talk about the difference, the father, I mean, he was devastated.

He lost kind of faith in everything.

She didn't and I mean, I you meet people in and I least I do meet people in people inspire you.

She that woman inspires me and that's just the way she she went about it.

She was like, I'm not going I don't I'm going to tell my son story.

I'm going to honor him and I'm going to go.

I never detected any sort of like, you know, anger, hate or any.

It was just like she was Jedi, I guess, you know.

But anyways, that's I don't know.

I here's your thoughts on that.

You get to know her better than.

Than I know.

I think what really stood out is I mean, we talked about this and the contrast between the father's reaction and the mother's reaction.

It's really a stark contrast.

And, you know, the mother says, you know, thank God for the 23 years we had with him.

So it was interesting to see that dynamic and to see with the sons, you know, Zeeshan and Justin, we didn't know this didn't come out in the film.

But Zeeshan, I think, has some of his father's anger.

Yeah, but Aidan doesn't I?

Then it's kind of more like his mother in that regard.

So it's interesting to see how the different members of the family have reacted.

And I just think it's interesting from a just a just a, I don't know, philosophical, maybe angle.

I don't know.

And I thought you illustrated that visually really well by, you know, cutting to her beautifully lit face and her smile.

She has such a beautiful, you know, positive disposition.

And I thought you really captured that with her.

And I don't know, we never get to know Salma.

But you see the pictures and you hear the stories about him.

And again, this is another thing where, you know, at least you meet people in people that really love being alive.

So, I mean, just it, you know, you only had 23 years and like you said, she was grateful to have.

But you get this feeling that the guy just loved being alive.

He went to weddings and would dance on.

They would go out, didn't drink, but he just wanted to be around.

People love being with people and he loved being alive.

Which also makes when you lose somebody like that, you know, who just it's makes it, I think even can be more painful and more tragic.

And I think that's one of the things where the father and the brother, you gravitate towards people that have that about them, that they just love being in spite of all the crazy things that happen in the world and in life and all these different things.

So they become kind of like a light for people.

That's right.

Can you talk about the film, how you, the filmmakers built trust with the some of with someone's family?

Did they feel comfortable speaking with you and opening up to you about such personal, difficult matters?

And how did you do it without being invasive or worrying about retraumatizing them?

Yeah, that's a really good question.

In fact, every time I would ask a question, I would feel bad asking the question and I would sometimes I'd have to always have to preface it with, Do you mind if I ask about Blink?

And they say Yes.

Okay.

So then that's the green light to ask about Blink.

Yeah, I just, you know, I just approach it in a very I treated them as if they were my relatives, you know, and I how would I want them to how would I how would I want my relatives to be interviewed?

And I think that's that's all one can do.

And I think if you do that and you're respectful and it was but I have to say, the both the two people you saw are very strong individuals and it didn't take much for them to open up.

So yeah, I would say generally you can tell when people are open and willing and then I just say you go for it.

Great.

And obviously the brother.

No, but the mother and Zeeshan, you know, they definitely wanted to tell their stories.

So in that sense, if you're a young filmmaker and you're going to do this, you if if you're working with somebody who has a story to tell, they want to tell your story.

So if you don't dig in, you're not doing you're doing them a disservice.

If you're if you're not digging in and getting the tough questions and getting the full story out.

So I would say, you know, it may feel aggressive or whatnot, but remember, you, if they have story that they want to tell and it's coming through you, then you have an obligation to get that story as much of it as you can.

Yeah, that's right.

It's the trust and responsibility of the filmmaker.

And I thought, again, you handle it so beautifully.

This is from Hannah.

Professor Kahlil, would you mind sharing parts of the epilog you wanted to include?

Oh, man.

Here we go.

Yeah, I thought it was well done, because, you know, if I.

Haven't, great.

Can you stand up?

I think you're wearing that jean jacket.

Yeah, probably wearing exact same outfit.

No, no, I. I begin by actually, you know.

So, you know what you saw in that.

Oh, no.

Oh, no, that's me now.

So when the epilog to what I say in the epilog is kind of what was written there, that there were many Muslim victims of 911 and that affected the lives of the survivors, even in their families.

I did mention the Robert saw the thing and then I yeah, there was just that in passing comment about how when people think of 911, they tend to think of Muslims as the I forgot what I said, you know, aggressors or perpetrators or something like that.

But there were many Muslim victims of 911 and the mother, I think, rightly corrected me and stopped me.

And I'm happy she did.

So, yeah.

Well, I think also those themes that come through.

Yeah, you know, so yeah.

Why did you title the film American Jedi and do and when did the title come.

It was it at first was it an editing?

I it also comes from an article.

It was in the newspaper.

Was it.

The obituary.

Yeah.

The obituary for the New York Times is all-American, Jerry.

That was his obituary title.

So we just took I mean, we do we removed the all American made it American.

And I mean, he put it on his license plate, Jerry.

And, you know, in the we get a Star Wars fan there.

But in the Star Wars saga, I mean, the Jedi are the ones that are sacrificing themselves to help other people.

You know.

Didn't have a Star Wars shirt on.

And one of those, yeah, it was hard to see.

But in the graduation photos.

So his brother's graduating.

He's wearing Star Wars, The Phantom Menace.

So he would have seen the first of the prequels, but not the next two.

So he had the Phantom Menace prequel.

Sure.

In that in that clip.

Right.

So, I mean, it was just kind of baked in because that was known when I got involved that.

Yeah, it was so it wasn't anything like what we're going to call this and have a big discussion.

He was like, Hey, we're doing this thing.

It's called the American Jedi here.

And we had to make sure we weren't going to be sued by Lucasfilm.

So that was a big we had a big talk with them with the lawsuits and lawyers.

And and apparently there's another film called American Jedi about Star Wars fanatics.

It was made like four years ago or something, five or six years ago.

So.

So, yeah, but we felt like that was it.

We had to do justice to his story and we felt like that was the right title.

So.

So was it always American Jedi or did it kind of final?

Yeah, I.

Think we maybe all American versus American and we.

Didn't have our thoughts on anything else.

I mean, to like again it's here's the story of this man represents kind of all the best sensibilities in America.

You know, the American dream, the immigrant, you know, becoming the best that we hope that this country can be.

Yeah.

You know, he could be an individual.

He did all the different he wanted to do.

And across all, he was able to dig deep into his faith and express his faith, which is the way we hope this country is.

And then also just how he did everything, played football, he sang in the Christian choirs.

He thought it was interesting what to learn about that.

His closest friend, you know, was the Jewish professor.

And just so many different things that an individual should be able to do and explore.

And so that, I think also kind of captured that, too.

We have a comment here.

I would like to make a comment about that.

Hamdani from Dr. FATA.

So thank you so much.

So among all the good decisions you have made in your life, I think two things listening to your life, bright colors.

But like I said, that I got to meet somebody the first time she came here and we just connected instantly because being having that immigrant background and I think Dallas kind of captured what most of us as mother is and parents were feeling like this became a battle for all of us, like I had just arrived to America looking for this American dream and had to face 911, which changed my life to the trajectory to my profession too.

But I worked really stood out to me is that this battle continues, the saga continues for all of us.

Each day since 911, we are fighting to prove ourselves, not terrorists, not under suspicion, and to prove ourselves as patriotic heroes, but with talent.

I think I'm so glad that.

And recently I talked to her, she ran for an office and we had this discussion about where she is in life now.

And this movie speaks to where she is now.

She wants to focus on the positive, the wants to leave a positive, inspirational message.

But she did share with me the six months when she didn't know that if he's alive and the suspicion and the hatred, the rhetoric that they had to fight each and every day and everything she had to do even after.

So they even went to pilgrimage to pray for his life.

And that's when they get the call that they have found this body in so many places.

And and then but she told me, like, how this every day was a big fight.

Getting the street name gets us getting his name on the memorial and how still fights for his name in the right place.

And so I'm so glad that but I did want to tell the crowd and everyone here that it was it is very painful what she the family went through.

She suffered many health issues and and lost her husband.

But in the end, I think this is what she wants to give this.

But all of us is the great American dream and the inspiration that continues within all of us.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you.

You are available for an interview and.

Actually thank you, doxorubicin.

If I may quickly sneak in a quick point Octoberfest at Queens College, they're going to do a of this film at Queens College with the family there, and they're going to unveil a plaque for Sentimental Hamdani.

So we're really happy about that as well.

Not to mention that.

I would like to thank Muhammed and all of you for producing that beautiful view.

We really learned a lot about it, and we have no idea about the sacrifices done during that horrific explosion.

You just heard about it.

But we have no idea about the stories behind it.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Christine.

And then we just have one more question and one more question and a half here.

Well, you answer it a little bit.

Where does the film go next and where else is it being shown?

Any other plans for the film?

Oh, we have had a lot of of questions.

We're beyond the educational format where the film will be accessible.

And recently, after, you know, some of the stuff we've been doing and screenings, we've had some groups reach out to us for some streaming opportunities, which would be I think we'd give this film a good platform and the three of us are going to look into those.

And I will say currently is any MSU faculty or students or staff who can access the MSU library, you can stream the whole film right now.

I wouldn't want to tell you until after the this event, but you can screen the whole film from the MSU Library website, but be warned, the captions are really messed up and I'm trying to fix it with them.

I mean, for Jedi they put Z, I like Z, I, it's really bad.

So I sent them to correct anyway.

Long story, but hopefully they'll fix this soon.

Yeah.

Isn't it fun filmmaking?

And then we have a question here from George IDE for Nick.

Do you love guinea pigs?

Oh.

So my son George has a guinea pig and he loves his guinea pig.

His name is.

Name is Neal.

Do you love do I?

Yes, I love his pig.

But you know, I didn't I'm going to tell George a story about Salman that Mohammed told me that I didn't know on Tuesday.

And it reminded me of you.

George Salman had a you know, this is was eerie because I didn't know this story.

There are a lot of things that you find out later on like Salman's father, the first the immigrant who came to this country.

His name was Saleem.

My grandfather Saleem was the came to this country as a 13 year old orphan immigrant, stowed away on a ship.

But George Mohammed told me a story about Salman had a red bird as a bat.

Right.

So it kind of happened.

The bird passed away and the bird the mother threw the bird in the in the trash, which we have done that to some.

And you can see George's face.

So.

But I think your guinea pig is fine.

No, Neil Armstrong, the guinea pig is just fine.

So.

But Salman would not he just was.

You can't throw my we have to bury this bird properly and we have to put you know, make sure that this.

So he buried the bird properly and took care of it, made sure it was okay.

And George and Marion both similarly have lost pets.

But George was the first one to lose his fish.

And he had to he had to bury that fish.

He was distraught.

And I'm going to tell you, was partially my fault.

We lost the fish, but that's another story.

But he was distraught and he had to bury that fish out in the backyard.

Now, that fish, Midas, was a minus, is buried in our in our backyard still alive.

Also another story but thank you to.

Well, thank you all.

That is all we have time for this evening.

I want to thank our panelists.

Thank you for making such a beautiful and important film and thank you all for joining us tonight for American Story, the Solomon and Hamdani story presented by the Religious Studies Department, Muslim Studies Program and W.K.

are events like this from W.K.

are made possible with support from people like you.

So we want to thank you for those who have donated and have a great night.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.