Coming to DVD today, Tuesday April 5: AMERICAN JIHADIST
This profile of the controversial militant American Muslim Isa Abdullah Ali by director Mark Claywell premiered at Slamdance 2010, where it claimed the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary. It’s played more than a dozen additional festivals since then.
Ali, an African-American Muslim born Clevin Raphael Holt, grew up in Washington, DC’s ghettos, exposed to violence and racial inequality on a daily basis in what he describes as a “warzone.” His experiences in the US Army made him a Black nationalist and later a convert to Islam. He fought in Lebanon and Bosnia for years to help his fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. Though labeled a “known terrorist” by the US Defense Department, he’s never been charged with a crime and flies from his home and family in Bosnia to the US several times a year without trouble. He makes for a fascinating, if often frustrating subject – his intensity makes him hard to relate to, and he never quite seems to be completely genuine. AMERICAN JIHADIST offers a potent insider look at the complex conditions and background that might predispose an individual to militancy in the name of religion.
what (not) to doc 