Despite Clockwork's attempt to jest while previewing the Council on American-Islamic Relations' “Writing for Hollywood” seminar and pat its own back for getting inserted into the New York Times' coverage of the event for aspiring Muslim screenwriters (as well as some unkind reader comments to our posts), the actual gathering in Los Angeles Tuesday was a “tremendous success,” according to CAIR, the featured speaker and at least one of the 20 aspiring filmmakers and writers.
Calling the seminar “awesome,” Nida Chowdhry said Traitor writer/director and The Day After Tomorrow writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff “was so
insightful and inspirational for young Muslims who are interested in
the film and media industry.”
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“The workshop provided realistic advice
about Hollywood,” Chowdhry added, “and it was a great opportunity to network with other
Muslims who are also aspiring to do what they love and bring something
positive to the industry along the way.”
The
event was held at the Media Shop production company in LA after the
Writers Guild of America-West, which was to host the seminar, backed
off as an official sponsor after members complained about CAIR, which
the Fox News crowd has demonized for years (as did the Bush-era FBI).
Despite
the last minute roadblock, “The tremendous success of Tuesday's event
shows that American Muslims are artists, writers and great
storytellers,” according to CAIR-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda. “We must nurture the talent among our youth and share our story of hope and hard work with the rest of America.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.