13 August 2008
"A Son's Sacrifice" Director Explains Film's Background, Message
Podcast with director Yoni Brook
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Narrator: A Son’s Sacrifice is the story of a young American Muslim named Imran who struggles to take over his father's halal slaughterhouse in New York City. Filmed on location in Ozone Park, New York, this award-winning film explores the powerful traditions of American Muslim communities. As a result, the film has been a catalyst for dialogue between generations of immigrant communities.
To give us more on the film’s background and message, we were recently joined by the film’s director, Yoni Brook.
Yoni, thanks for joining us today. A Son’s Sacrifice takes a traditional subject into a modern setting, and really gives it a novel interpretation for a lot of viewers. How did you choose this particular subject?
Yoni Brook: I became interested in making a film about a storefront slaughterhouse in New York City when I was attending film school at New York University. My classmate Musa Syeed and I realized there were over 70 live-animal slaughterhouses in New York City, and we became really curious why there were so many.
Both of us had come from immigrant backgrounds. My father immigrated here from Israel, and Musa’s parents immigrated from Kashmir. And so as a Muslim and a Jew we knew the importance of dietary laws and rituals to our respective faiths and cultures. So as we started to research and visit these slaughterhouses, we realized that they weren’t place of death as you would expect or as we expected, but actually the sources of a lot of life rituals and a lot of joy in people’s lives. And we found that there were different slaughterhouses for every community – the Jewish community, the Muslim community from the Middle East, from Asia, immigrants from South and Central America, even Korea and other parts of Asia had their own slaughterhouses.
So what we tried to do was find a story at one of these slaughterhouses that wasn’t about death, but was about life, and finally met a family where the older generation -- the immigrant generation -- was preparing to retire. The father was going to retire, and his son, who had been born in America -- educated in America, and in some ways was assimilated -- had decided to challenge himself by taking over this traditional, more old-world business set here in New York City.
Narrator: During the film’s making you spent a lot of time with local families. What was your relationship like with them and what was their reaction when you first approached them?
Yoni Brook: Actually, a lot of the owners of such slaughterhouses, live-animal markets were very apprehensive about being filmed because there’s a lot of misunderstanding about why such places are important and why rituals like animal sacrifice matter. But, I think because I’m Jewish and Musa’s Muslim, they had more trust that we would show the nuances to the story; we understood why that ritual mattered to them. The reason we were able to make the film is that we spent about a year looking for the right family and then another year with them filming at their business, at their home, sleeping in their basement. We practically moved in with them. To get that trust and access wasn’t a result of our superhuman ability, but the result of the fact that this family really wanted to share their story. They’re really proud of their faith and what they do and how their business helps the community. They were ready to share their story; we were just there to capture it.
Narrator: Where did the film’s title, A Son’s Sacrifice, originate from?
Yoni Brook: So what the film does is it follows the son, Imran, as he tries to convince his father, his community of immigrant Bangladeshis, and ultimately himself that’s he’s able to run the business and take over his father’s live-animal market during one of the holiest holidays of the year for Muslims, which is Eid al-Adha. What we did was follow Imran as he tries to reorganize the business and earn the customers’ trust and earn his father’s trust during the weeks leading up to that holiday. So because the holiday Eid al-Adha tells the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Ismael in the Muslim faith. We use that story as kind of a template to base our story, our modern story, around that biblical, Quranic story. So "a son’s sacrifice” refers both to the present-day sacrifice of Imran in New York City, but also the Quranic story that reverberates from the past for him.
Narrator: Tell us about the making of the film and that process – what were some of the circumstances that you faced during the filming?
Yoni Brook: Even though the film is very short, 27 minutes long, we put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of being at the slaughterhouse and becoming a part of the community. That’s why when we were there for very intimate moments – the holy slaughter, or being inside the family’s living room when they’re having an argument – we didn’t stick out, we didn’t seem like foreigners because we had become a part of that community. Whenever anyone went to this slaughterhouse, they saw us there. So when we were there for very dramatic moments, it was expected. Making independent films is largely an effort of self-motivation and passion for a subject. So we spent a lot of time making partnerships, trying to raise money, so that we could complete the film and distribute the film around the world.
Narrator: The film really conveys the powerful influence of religious tradition in many immigrant communities. It would seem that many viewers who don’t have personal experience with ritual may not realize how important these are in everyday life.
Yoni Brook: Well, that’s one thing that surprises people when they watch our film. There are children all over the film. Children at the slaughterhouse, children are present everywhere. And that’s because families bring their children to see where their food comes from, and I think that’s really important that not only does this ritual involve faith, but it also involves teaching our families, teaching ourselves, that our food does come from animals that are alive that we need to respect. And to me, that’s why I was able to make this film. I’m not a pro-slaughterhouse person, but I am "pro" respecting our food, understanding where our food comes from. And I think the great thing about the slaughterhouse and showing this is the people who go there, who make the extra effort to bring their families there, who don’t want their children to kind-of assimilate; they want their children to know that their food doesn’t come from the supermarket shelf, but comes from animals and from beings that are also created by God.
Narrator: Even though the film is about the Muslim community in America, there seems to be a lot of concepts and emotions that other communities would recognize, regardless of their religion. Are there other themes that you think people might draw from the film?
Yoni Brook: I hope so, I mean I hope people who aren’t part of the Muslim community can look at this film and say hey, that’s me. That’s my family. That could be my parents or my community. Because I think there are a lot of universal themes in the film about father-son relationships, about identity, about what it means to be an American. The main subject of our film is half Muslim, from Bangladesh, and half Puerto Rican. So he’s grappling with those issues of identity. The other theme is when our food arrives on our plates, where did it come from, what’s the journey to that. And when we went to the slaughterhouse, we thought, wow, this is a really old tradition that is somehow staying alive here in America. It’s a piece of the old world brought to the biggest metropolis. But actually, I think it represents the forefront of a trend of people wanting to understand the origins of their food and understand that their food didn’t just arrive on their plate. That it came from a real place, not just from the microwave.
Narrator: So what’s in the future for you? What projects are you working on now?
Yoni Brook: Well, right now Musa and I are co-directing two new projects for public television. One is about clergy students of different faiths. Musa is directing the Muslim portion, and I’m directing the Jewish portion in conjunction with other directors who are following Catholic and Protestant clergy students around the country. So that’s a four-hour project called "The Calling." And the other project we’re co-directing is called "Bronx Princess," and it’s about a young girl in the Bronx, New York City, whose parents are immigrants from Ghana, West Africa. And we followed her back to visit her father, chief, in Ghana, West Africa, as she came to realize some hard truths about growing up as an American and as an African.
Narrator: More on A Son’s Sacrifice, its themes, and its production can found online. Visit sonsacrifice.com
This podcast is produced by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs. Links to other Internet sites or opinions expressed should not be considered an endorsement of other content and views.
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