When Qasim Basir made his 2010 debut feature, “Mooz-lum,” the story of an American Muslim going to college in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Facebook changed the trajectory of his filmmaking career.“It was a very difficult movie to get out,” said Basir.
“It wasn’t about terrorism, [but] it still received a great amount of opposition and hate.” He turned to Facebook, writing individually to his followers and asking for help in building awareness.
Sharing behind-the-scenes footage and telling his personal story, Basir quickly built a community around his “Mooz-lum” Facebook page.“We went straight to the people and built a community of 100,000 from around the world, who were literally writing, ‘We want to see this movie in our city,’” said Basir.
Running contests on the now-defunct Demandit, where followers’ interest dictated where the film screened, Bashir worked with AMC Independent to create his own theatrical release in dozens of cities around the world.
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