Vancouver comedian searches for answer. Panta Mosleh brings her personal documentary to the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.
n the documentary Pride & Prayer Vancouver multi-hyphenate Panta Mosleh digs into her own life as she tries to come to terms with being both gay and Muslim. Photo by Courtesy of Panta Mosleh /Courtesy of Panta Mosleh
In her documentary Pride & Prayer, Panta Mosleh asks a big question: “Can you be queer and Muslim?”
In the film, the queer and Muslim multihyphenate (filmmaker, writer, producer, actor, comedian) woman opens wide her family’s views on her sexuality, while also presenting the stories and insights from other queer Muslims who know, firsthand, the struggle to square a relationship to God with the religion.
The film will be screening in Vancouver on Nov. 15 at 2:30 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre as part of the 29th Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF), running Nov. 6 to 16.
“It was just more so the fact of finding, ‘Is there a place for me? And is what I am wrong? Is it OK for me to be me?’ ” said Mosleh about embarking on this documentary journey.
Sadly, that sense of connection or acceptance wasn’t the ending she got.
“The flowery ending that I was hoping for is that, yes, it’s OK to be you, and yes, this community accepts you. And yes … there can be queer and Muslim communities, but unfortunately with a documentary, you can’t write the ending. You can’t make it up. And the reality of it is we don’t fit in, and that’s the harsh truth I found out during the making of the documentary,” said Mosleh. “I’ve realized there isn’t a space for me in the community.”
Mosleh, who was born in Iran and has lived in Singapore and Japan and currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Vancouver, will take to the stage after the film screens at the VAFF for a Q&A, something she did when it had its world premiere in September at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF).
It was at that VQFF screening that Mosleh did find a sense of community and saw, firsthand, how her story gave others a voice and a sense of belonging.
