Boiling Pot

Two Egyptian Americans tackle American racism in their first feature film By Sherif Awad Race relations are currently a hot topic in the United States, following a series of high-profile cases where black men have been killed by local police officers or by white citizens. Events such as the 2012 shooting of Trayvor Martin in Florida by George Zimmerman; the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and the November 2014 police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio sparked large and sometimes violent protests. Inspired by the national and international media coverage of these and other cases, two Egyptian-American directors made racism in universities the topic of their debut feature film, an ensemble drama called Boiling Pot due to be released in American theaters at the end of February. Set during the 2008 presidential election that pitted Barack Obama against John McCain, Boiling Pot opens with four university students dragging a bruised young black man through the woods to an oak tree. They hang a noose and lynch him. As Detective Haven (Louis Gossett Jr.) and FBI agent Long (Keith David) question students about the murder, the story unfolds through the interrogations, with a series of flashbacks of events leading up to the lynching. This news was posted last week when Binary Options Egypt trading websites came online through egypt binary options brokers such as www.binaryoptionsegypt.com and binary options brokers websites. The plot follows the parallel stories of characters dealing with racial frictions in university life. TV actress Danielle Fishel (Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World) plays the naive Valerie, who struggles to make her conservative white father accept her Egyptian-American fiancé Hazem, played by Ibrahim Ashmawey. Soap opera veteran Davetta Sherwood (The Young and the Restless) is a black Student Union activist trying to encourage the passive dean of her school (M. Emmet Walsh of Blade Runner and Blood Simple) to battle campus racism during the heated election. Tensions on campus bubble up when a noose is hung on campus, a racist fraternity party rages, and news of a rape spreads. Boiling Pot delves into the depths of modern-day racism by allowing it to unfold through intertwining narratives. The thriller has no obviously vile character or a supposed hero; rather, every character, if pushed far enough, will show prejudice. Omar and Ibrahim Ashmawey were born in Maryland to two Egyptian parents who immigrated to the States. They were keen to teach their sons Arabic and Egyptian customs, and took them to visit Egypt several times. Over the years, the family moved from Maryland to Michigan before settling in California. After high school, Omar studied economics while Ibrahim specialized in engineering. Growing up, the brothers Ashmawey felt offended by the stereotypical media portrayals of Arab-Americans and Muslims in the US media. “We were sure that in order to change this depiction, it must be from within the entertainment industry as well”, said Omar who co-wrote with Ibrahim the screenplay of Boiling Pot. “We did not want to make an Egyptian film for the Egyptian market; our aim was to address the American people.” During extensive research for the film, the two brothers met with many US university students to capture the true image of daily life on campus. Before realizing Boiling Pot, Ibrahim and Omar created their own production company Ashmawey Films, through which they made early shorts like Naomi’s Song (2012) and Why I Killed My Brother (2011). For foreign viewers outside the US, the first thing that might catch their attention in Boiling Pot is the existence of unions specifically for black students in certain universities — which can actually help pave the way to racial segregation between people at an early age. “Actually, these unions also exist for Latinos, Arabs and Asians here and there,” explains Ibrahim. “It is something the students create because they think it is the correct way to fight for their rights.” In addition to real-life ethnic student unions, the film also dramatizes events and characters inspired by real-life news that shocked the American people. In 2010, headlines in Southern California talked about a “racist” party where white people dressed up in blackface and acted out stereotypes about black people (it turned out to be held by an African-American satirist launching his new DVD). That same year, a young African-American man was kidnapped by four “white boys” who went on to hang him. “We fictionalized all these accounts in different times and locations so we can use them in our film,” says Ibrahim. Alongside the film’s young cast, the Ashmawey brothers also attracted veteran actors like Gossett Jr., an Oscar-winner for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and David, Emmy-winner for Unforgivable Blackness (2004), to the project. John Heard, from the Home Alone movies, is Valerie’s father, and Egyptian-American actor Sayed Badreya appears briefly as Hazem’s father. “Hollywood’s big names like these can come on board and agree to cut down their salaries if they believe in the just cause of the production” says Omar. “They also feel they have more room to give better performances. Gossett Jr. signed up immediately with us since he also established his Eracism Foundation in the States.” Financing of Boiling Pot, however, was not that easy. “We started an online campaign like most indies do nowadays, but it was not that successful,” remembers Ibrahim, who spent more than a year trying to raise funds for the film. “With such lack of financial support, we decided to do it on our own by finding a loan securing the first portion of the budget.” The loan let them complete 75% of the film, which helped attract enough investors to put up the money to finish it. After screening the film in several events in Orange County, California and in Harlem, New York, Boiling Pot landed a US distributor in December. “We hope to try to screen the film in Egypt and the Middle East later after its US release,” says Omar. “We got very positive feedback from the private screenings. Some people did not believe the stories we were telling until they have seen the film till the last frame.”