Naz + Maalik
- Director: Jay Dockendorf
- Writer: Jay Dockendorf
- Producer: Jacob Albert; Margaret Katcher
CGiii Comment
After a few short films, Jay Dockendorf presents his debut feature...he should have made a few more shorts...before embarking on this overly-ambitious project about 'bad' Muslim gay boys.
The weakness lies - solidly - in the writing...
There is an old adage - write what you know - according to his photograph, Dockendorf is neither black, nor teen-aged, nor Muslim (gleaned from an interview)...as to his sexuality (well, he could be a raving-mary...photos don't always denote sexuality)...in other words, the writer knows absolutely nothing about what he is writing about...which becomes apparent in next to no time.
Yes...you can do the research, talk to people...extract their experiences, slap it on a piece of paper, tick all those politically correct boxes, get funding and make a film. The end result is usually a heart-felt, heartless piece of well-intentioned dross that wallows in its own pent-up sense of self-importance...meet Naz + Maalik.
From the opening scene...with the discovery of the used condom (bad gay muslim boy!), to a few minutes later when an undercover FBI agent tries to sell an illegal gun to those bad gay muslim boys...don't worry too much about the laws of entrapment, the acting will have you screaming towards the nearest penitentiary...wailing: let me in...anything...but...this!
And that is all we are going to say about Naz + Maalik (those bad gay muslim boys)...we read a few glowing reviews before we all nestled down to watch what turned out to be a completely different film...to what those glowing reviewers watched.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Two Muslim teens spend their days making money for college hawking goods on the streets of Brooklyn. Young and carefree, and ten years into the War on Terror, they give little thought to how their small-time scheming could get them into trouble. When they catch the eye of an FBI agent and lie about the nature of their relationship, the teens set off a series of events that neither is prepared to face.
Caught between their religion, their true feelings and the misguided beliefs of one agent, the boys must decide between coming clean about their sexuality or being viewed as potential terrorists by the American government.
Jay Dockendorf's provocative debut feature provides an eye-opening and unique twist on the classic coming out story.
Wolfe Releasing
Wolfe Releasing is the oldest distributor in North America to focus solely on LGBTQinclusive content, from its founding in 1985. The company releases independent films that have a focus on telling stories from an LGBTQ perspective. Wolfe has released a large number of inclusive films over the years, but there are a few standouts. Brother to Brother (2004) explores gay life during the Harlem Renaissance through a modern lens, Tomboy (2011) is a French film about a gender nonconforming child, and in 2015, Boy Meets Girl, the story of a trans woman in Kentucky on a quest for love. Last year, Wolfe released the GLAAD Media Award-nominated Naz and Maalik, about a relationship between two black, Muslim teens. Some other notable releases of 2016 were GLAAD Media Award-nominated Those People, which explored a love triangle between three men, and Margarita with a Straw, the story of a bisexual Indian woman with cerebral palsy.
Cast & Characters
Curtiss Cook Jr. as Maalik;
Kerwin Johnson Jr. as Naz;
Annie Grier as Sarah Mickell;
Ashleigh Awusie as Cala;
Anderson Footman as Dan;
Bradley Brian Custer as Undercover Cop;
David M. Farrington as Yuppie;
Nils Riess as Hospital Patient;
James Roach as Bag Man;
K'Sandra Sampson as Naz's mom