American Documentary Filmmaker Impresses Local Film Faculty

Mustafa Davis teaching film students on specialized techniques of film camera to get certain styles for their shot. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Mustafa Davis answering questions from the audience at Urban Village. (U.S. Embassy photo)

Muslim-American filmmaker and photographer Mustafa Davis visited Malaysia from August 26 to September 14, 2012. The program in Malaysia brought him to three states and made possible for him to share the art of documentary filmmaking to several hundred audience members. In his documentary filmmaking workshops, he spoke on his life as a Muslim in America and his world travels and how it has influenced his art. Among the talks and workshop he did in Malaysia, one notable one was with 300 students and faculty from the Faculty of Film, Arts and Theatre at the University of Technology Mara (UiTM). In this workshop he discussed various  techniques and styles in documentary. These talks and workshops inspired many young adults in attendance.  The student group at this university started their own twitter handle called #DocuDavis and a Facebook page called DocuDavis to stay in touch with Mr. Davis and to share ideas about Documentary film making in the United States in general.  Mr. Davis also screened some of his own documentary during his travels in Malaysia. In his talks, Mr. Davis related his views on documentary film, including the obstacles, the niche audience, the business, the problems regarding production, and the solutions he found to overcome them.  Local filmmakers learned substantially about the U.S. film world.