The Festival du nouveau cinema runs from October 7th-18th in Montreal, presenting more than 250 Canadian, Quebecois and International films, video, performance, multimedia work and interactive installation!  And at the Festival is the World Premiere of the Muslim-Punk documentary Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam!  Don't miss this special event.  Here is the catalog description:

Taqwacore: The Birth of Islam Punk
dir. by Omar Majeed | Canada | 2009 | 80 min. | couleur | English (s.t. French)
Tonight (October 8th) and October 10th

Fun, cool, and extremely punk. Taqwacore (from taqwa, or piety, and core, as in hard) acknowledges a music scene inspired by Michael Muhammad Knight’s 2003 novel. It’s an entirely fictional work that became a phenom for a generation. Sufis with Mohawk haircuts, riot grrrls in burqas, Indonesian skater boys, Shi’a skinheads, mullahs from another planet… the plotters of youth rebellion are there to be heard among North American Muslims. By joining the rebellion—against traditionalist segments of their own communities, against the clichés laid on them from the outside— they send a non-specific “fuck you” out to the world… and Islamic Punk is born.

EyeSteelFilm’s latest documentary, after RiP: a Remix Manifesto and Up the Yangtze, is an entertaining trip with a fresh approach, featuring The Kominas and other taqwacore bands on a U.S. tour. The fun peaks when they crash the ISNA Convention, North America’s biggest Islamic event. Good on them! It’s not easy being punk in a culture where playing music is a crime and women aren’t allowed to sing. | Julien Fonfrède

Tonight's screening to be followed by a concert by The Kominas and performances by Radwan Moumneh et DJ Bundi, at the Festival Headquarters.

Please join EyeSteelFilm in celebrating the World Premiere of the Muslim- Punk documentary Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam. Featuring live performances from Boston-stani Punjabi punk rockers, The Kominas, along with an opening performance from Montreal’s own Radwan Moumneh (Pas Chic Chic, Jerusalem In My Heart). Video installation by the filmmaker, Omar Majeed and a night of Rai, Qawaali, Arabic and Bollywood dance grooves from DJs Bundi (Oliver Alary) and Radwan Moumneh. A Punk- Islam bazaar and Sufi Musical Meditation room round it all out - creating a night of mayhem and mysticism. Co-presented with Homeless Nation (www.homelessnation.org), a website created by and for Canada’s homeless. Omard Majeed, EyeSteelFilm

http://www.eyesteelfilm.com/
http://www.taqwacore.com/

Below... a clip of The Kominas' band members debating the Koran and punk music with the Imam of a local mosque in Lowell.