They’d just listened to my talk, about about career paths into the film industry, about improving access for underrepresented groups – how we at the North East BFI Film Academy are working our hardest to ensure that EVERYBODY is included.

 

I ask if anyone has any questions. Young lad, at the front, first hand up – Yes?

“Is it haram?”

 

Now, I’m used to questions about training or about technical equipment; questions about my own career, or whether I know anyone famous. This was a new one. I was totally unprepared.

 

I remembered that “haram” means “forbidden”, but it had never occurred to me before that filmmaking itself could be haram, or many in that room might have the same concern. The question never before entered my mind.

 

“Like bikinis and things”, he added, helpfully, probably seeing my blank face. Maybe some time had passed.

 

“No, nothing like that”, my brain finally kicked in, and I was back on familiar territory. “No, you make the film, you decide what’s in it, and who it’s for. You decide the message. You can make it… halal.”

 

He had been the most engaged student there – contributed brilliantly, all the way through my talk. But I had not for one second of my career genuinely prepared for him; not once honestly thought about him. I had not “seen” him (if that makes sense) in the way I had fully duped myself into believing I had.

 

There I was, speaking to students about how ACT 2 CAM is on a mission to improve access in the film industry for under-represented groups, and all it took was one simple, earnest, crucially important question – and the truth was laid bare. I was a fraud.

“Yes, it can be halal”, I said. A shameful guess at best, if I’m being totally honest with myself. I didn’t know for sure. He was delighted. He would talk to his uncle, reassure him, and apply for the course. He couldn’t have been happier. For him, that was great.

For me, it was not a comfortable drive home. I’m still deeply unsettled. I have been searching online for a while, now, and I still can’t be certain. I want to be certain. Is filmmaking haram?

 

Haram content, that we can deal with – no bikinis and things – if films contain elements explicitly forbidden in Islamic teachings, like explicit sexual scenes, violence, idolatry, then making them or watching them is haram.

 

But what about other things? Music, for example? And what about more subtle stuff? What about the intentions behind making a film, or the impact that film might have on society?

 

I so want filmmaking to be halal for this young man, and for all the students in that class, and all young people everywhere. I want their parents to be able to trust us, and I want their experience with us to be positive, and safe, and meaningful.

 

Thank you for reading. Maybe you can help, or you know someone who can.