Arij Mikati is the managing director of storytelling and culture change work at Pillars Fund. Her work with her team at Pillars Fund helps to support Muslims who want to tell authentic and provocative stories full of mess, nuance and beauty, looking for infuse the existing landscape of media with fresh ideas and voices. Alongside actor Riz Ahmed, USC Annenberg and Ford Foundation, Pillars Fund recently unveiled their blueprint for Muslim inclusion, which found Muslims  missing or misrepresented in aa study of top grossing films from 2017-2019.  

Alongside Riz Ahmed and his production company Left Handed films, Arij and her team at Pillars Fund have helped create the Pillars Artist Fellowship program, which seeks to empower Muslim writers and directors on their pathways to success, and features an all star advisory committee with names like Mahershala Ali, Hasan Minhaj, Lena Khan and others, a group who have affectionately been dubbed by Riz as the Muslim Avengers.  

We’ll be speaking to Arij about the helping build this initiative and why it’s so important to empower Muslim storytellers.

0:48 – Bassam Tariq is directing the next Blade movie!

5:00 – Logistics of getting a dynamic team for the Pillars Fund

10:30 – How to repair the damage islamophobia in the industry?

17:04 – Was the Riz test a blueprint for the Pillars Fund?

21:28 – difficulties for Muslims to ascend in Hollywood?

24:01 – Hasnain is coming to the party with his butterbeer. Lack of resources/funding for Muslim filmmakers to progress forward.

30:16 – Muslim art community is so special!

32:36 – Criteria for individuals to submit to the Pillars Fund grants.

37:29 – The importance of good Muslim representation and how important is that you the public psyche.

43:03 – Relationship between spirituality and your art craft?

45:55 – Arij’s piece of advice to upcoming and new Muslim Filmmakers.