Islamic Art Feature: Muslim Heritage film dominates New York Festival Awards

Welcome to the another edition of MuslimMatters.org’s regular Islamic Art feature. If you want to see your work on MM, then either email us your images to art[@]muslimmatters[.]org or submit them to our Flickr group.

This week, I thought I’d share some exciting news about an exhibition that readers based in the UK are no doubt familiar with: 1001 Inventions – a global educational initiative that promotes awareness of a thousand years of scientific and cultural achievements from Muslim civilisation from the 7th century onwards, and how those contributions helped build the foundations of our modern world.

It turns out that a short film produced as part of the exhibition, titled: “Library of Secrets”, has won several international film awards, most recently in New York (scroll down to watch the film):

Muslim Heritage film dominates New York Festival Awards

A short film about the scientific heritage of Muslim civilisation has won NINE awards at the New York Festival, including the prestigious “Best Film” gong. 1001 Inventions and The Library of Secrets, starring Oscar-winning screen legend Sir Ben Kingsley, dominated proceedings at the 53rd annual New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards held on 3rd May 2010, taking away more prizes than any other contender.

As well as taking the most prestigious award of the evening – Grand Winner for Best Film – the thirteen minute Muslim Heritage movie, sponsored by the Abdul Latif Jameel Foundation, also scooped an additional five gold medals and two silver medals.

Reacting to the results, Prof. Salim Al-Hassani, Executive Producer said: “It’s truly humbling to see that our efforts have been recognized in such spectacular fashion by a long-established and internationally respected festival. I hope that these awards help raise awareness of the http://www.phpaide.com/?langue=fr&id=17 work we’re doing within the 1001 Inventions initiative. Our aim is to increase cross-cultural understanding and help people discover a history and culture that we all share, but is still under-appreciated.”

Prof. Al-Hassani elaborates: “We were privileged to have such an accomplished team of professionals working on the film. They really enjoyed bringing to life 1000 years of under-appreciated history. And the popularity of the 1001 Inventions exhibition is down, in no small part, to the exceptional acting and production talent involved in the Library of Secrets film. The Edge Picture Company, which produced the film for us, has achieved something quite amazing as a result.”

The movie was produced by The Edge Picture Company as an introductory film for the 1001 Inventions exhibition that was launched at London’s Science Museum in January 2010 under the sponsorship of the Abdul Latif Jameel Foundation. The landmark exhibition has proved so popular with visitors that its residency at the Museum has been extended by two months until the summer [exhibition ends June 30th, 2010]. Described by critics as London’s most successful new exhibition, it received more than 100,000 visitors in its opening weeks and the Museum’s Director, Prof. Chris Rapley, has described their latest attraction as a “blockbuster”.

And here is the film itself (note: background music).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZDe9DCx7Wk[/youtube]

I’m glad that the exhibition is enjoying such acclaim, masha’Allah. But I can’t wait for the day when Muslims can produce a similar film in which they recount their modern day scientific achievements… insha’Allah. :)