Event

Kominas

Kominas
Directed by Marcus Ricci | 69min | India

In 2009, two 25-year-old wannabe filmmakers, Marcus and Rakesh, set out on the road with the Taqwacore punk band, The Kominas, to document exactly what it was like to be living, breathing, and screaming Taqwacore. The articles, textbooks, and Frontline style video-docs had already been written and made, but they were heady. We wanted to know: what does Taqwacore feel like?

We discovered that Taqwacore was a family formed on the road, on tour, in the basements, dive bars, and rock clubs from Cleveland to Chicago to Austin and to Bushwick. There was something more than just Muslim Punks in America! taking place; there was a human story of friendship, masculinity, love, sadness, and fear unfolding in front of our eyes.

Kominas, our rock documentary, is about friendship the friendship between Basim and Shahjehan, the founding members of the band; the friendship between Marcus and Rakesh, the fledgling filmmakers in over their heads; and the friendship formed on stage, in cars, and in the mosh pits with every person that showed up to discover what it meant to be a new kind of American in a country transformed by Iraq, Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib.