In this special event for Birkbeck Arts Week, hosted by Daragh Carville, Sajid Varda of UK Muslim Film (UKMF) and Shaf Choudry, co-founder of the Riz Test, will be exploring issues around Muslim representation in UK film and television and asking how the film and television industries can both challenge damaging stereotypes and promote more authentic and inclusive representation.
The UK Muslim Film Charity (UKMF) exists to advocate, advise and inform the film industry, in order to tackle the often negative portrayals of Muslim people and to champion Muslim representation across the screen industries.
In this special event for Birkbeck Arts Week, we’ll be unveiling industry data on Muslim representation using The Riz Test, inspired by similar tests such as the Bechdel Test and the recently launched BEATS Test, as a way to monitor and measure authentic Muslim representation in film and television.
Shaf Choudry is a career technologist, obsessed with data and loves movies which combined makes him a huge geek. Since co-founding The Riz Test to measure the way Muslims are portrayed in the arts, he and co-founder Dr Sadia Habib have been invited to speak at universities across the country and regularly run workshops. In 2020 Shaf contributed to the collection I Refuse to Condemn where he authored a chapter outlining algorithmic bias.
Sajid Varda is an Actor, Writer, Producer and Broadcaster. Having started in the entertainment industry almost 30 years ago, he has been cast in lead roles for both drama and comedy on primetime British Television. Sajid starred in BBC TV’s Byker Grove as well as in programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. More recently, he produced and starred in an award-winning US comedy feature, as well as the international award winning British short film, The Chop. To address the often-negative portrayal of Muslims on screen, Sajid established a charity – UK Muslim Film (UKMF). He and his team are now working to launch the first ever Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF) in 2021 to showcase creative endeavours from across the world.
How to join this event
This event takes place online. You will receive an email one hour before the start of the event with a link to join. The email will come from messenger@bbk.ac.uk – please check your junk/spam inbox if you have not received the email one hour before the start of the event.