Naz & Maalik (2015)

Interesting facts

Naz & Maalik is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Jay Dockendorf and starring Curtiss Cook Jr. and Kerwin Johnson Jr. It follows two closeted Muslim teenagers over the course of a summer afternoon, as their secretive behavior and small-time scheming accidentally lead them into the crosshairs of FBI surveillance.

Production

Jay Dockendorf was inspired to write the screenplay for Naz & Maalik after befriending a Muslim man with whom he was sharing a sublet, and interviewing him about the experience of hiding his sexuality from his family. At the same time as Dockendorf began outlining the script, the FBI's program of secret spying on mosques in Brooklyn was coming to light, prompting Dockendorf to incorporate the theme of surveillance into the story.

Once the two leads were cast, the characters continued to evolve, with Dockendorf, Johnson and Cook spending entire days together for three weeks, walking together through the city and running through the characters’ conversations, trajectories, and inner lives.

After raising $37,000 on Kickstarter in 2013 and shooting most of the film over the summer, Dockendorf and his producers, Jacob Albert and Margaret Katcher, received the Tribeca Film Institute IWC Schaffehausen Filmmaker Award on the strength of a rough cut, which was reviewed by a jury chaired by producer Paula Weinstein.

Principal photography for the film occurred over 30 days – beginning on August 21, 2013 – and took place in various neighborhoods around Brooklyn, including Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill, and Crown Heights.

Many of the performances in the film were heavily improvised, as Dockendorf intended to give the film a conversational, comfortable, meandering feel. “Do the Right Thing,” “She's Gotta Have It,” “Paris Is Burning,” and “The Wedding Banquet” have been noted as influences.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.