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A Sinner in Mecca Parvez Sharma documentary

An openly gay Muslim filmmaker, Parvez Sharma, made a documentary about going on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca while the cameras stayed hidden. That's A Sinner in Mecca, out in 2015. What he was working around: tight limits on filming there, and a country where homosexuality can bring the death penalty. His gear was an iPhone plus cameras snuck in past the restrictions. The subject he's circling is how you square your faith with your sexuality when you're in the middle of Saudi Arabia, and it builds on his earlier A Jihad for Love from 2007. The scope goes wide too: orthodoxy, extremism, sacred sites turned commercial, and the friction between belief, who you are, and where you fit. The New York Times named it a Critics' Pick, and the project later grew into a book. Its own tagline frames it as "A FILM ABOUT FAITH, LOVE AND THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF," and the Times called it "A RARE AND POWERFUL LOOK AT FAITH, IDENTITY AND THE PRICE OF BELONGING." The question underneath all of it: can faith and sexuality coexist when the institutions won't accept both 🏳️‍🌈

1h

Kimon@kimon

Follow

A Sinner in Mecca Parvez Sharma documentary

An openly gay Muslim filmmaker, Parvez Sharma, made a documentary about going on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca while the cameras stayed hidden. That's A Sinner in Mecca, out in 2015. What he was working around: tight limits on filming there, and a country where homosexuality can bring the death penalty. His gear was an iPhone plus cameras snuck in past the restrictions. The subject he's circling is how you square your faith with your sexuality when you're in the middle of Saudi Arabia, and it builds on his earlier A Jihad for Love from 2007. The scope goes wide too: orthodoxy, extremism, sacred sites turned commercial, and the friction between belief, who you are, and where you fit. The New York Times named it a Critics' Pick, and the project later grew into a book. Its own tagline frames it as "A FILM ABOUT FAITH, LOVE AND THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF," and the Times called it "A RARE AND POWERFUL LOOK AT FAITH, IDENTITY AND THE PRICE OF BELONGING." The question underneath all of it: can faith and sexuality coexist when the institutions won't accept both 🏳️‍🌈

1h