Sounds of Faith is a unique media and educational outreach project focusing on the commonalities in the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The three-part documentary film and its accompanying outreach program will focus on how humans are connected to God through sound, and will foster a deeper understanding of the strong ties between the three religions. We hope these insights into this shared heritage of sound will create channels for dialogue, mutual understanding, and peace.
In the three Abrahamic faiths, sound occupies a primary role, reaching out and connecting where the printed word does not. From Jewish cantillation to Christian hymnody and Qurâranic recitation, sound is deeply integrated into religion, communicating social messages and our understanding of the essence of the divine. Sound unites people of faith by providing them with a tonal frame of reference which appears every bit as effective in creating and maintaining religious identity as the written text.
The intrinsic connection between faith and music and sound is largely unexplored. Books, magazines, and television programs have focused on the written and spoken aspects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam with scant attention to the role of music and sound. At the same time, surveys of sacred music do not explain its central role within and between these religious traditions.
SOUNDS OF FAITH fills the gap between sacred written traditions and secular music surveys by illustrating how sound functions as one of the key building blocks of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Religious sound links the past with the present, gathering and directing spiritual emotions, and evoking a sacred presence as does no other medium.
Within the documentary series and associated educational materials, SOUNDS OF FAITH provides a powerful conduit for cross-cultural communication and understanding among traditions, while adding new scholarship to the current dialogue on faith and religion in the United States today.
SOUNDS OF FAITH will offer an understanding of the meaning and function of ritual sounds and how they have linked religions throughout history and can continue to bridge geographic and cultural distances today. SOUNDS OF FAITH will bring traditions together, making connections among the three faiths that provide a bridge to our common humanity. The project also adds a new dimension to understanding the written meaning of religion and offers viewers the opportunity to more deeply explore the sounds of their own faiths.
Sounds of Faith is currently in pre-production; filming will commence around the globe starting this summer (2008). The series and its educational materials will launch in 2009. Harran Productions Foundation is currently raising $1.5 million to support the 3-hour national production and its educational components.
Amara Mian
Shakeela Z. Hassan is a founding member of Harran Productions Foundation. Dr. Hassan has promoted unity, understanding, and respect within the Muslim American community and between the Muslim community and Americans of other faiths for many years in a variety of positions. After retiring from the University of Chicago as Associate Professor Emeritus, this commitment led to her involvement in interfaith educational films.
For three years, Dr. Hassan served as the National Fundraising Chairperson for Unity Productions Foundation, where she was responsible for raising the funds needed to produce the documentary film, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. In this role, she traveled to Muslim communities in more than 30 states in a grassroots fundraising effort that raised more than $3 million. The documentary, aimed at improving the image and perception of Islam in the United States, aired on Public Broadcasting Stations across the nation on December 18, 2002.
Dr. Hassan has worked with upcoming and established documentary filmmakers to provide assistance, encouragement, and guidance in film development, production, and fundraising.
In addition to her many years of service in the community affairs of the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park, Illinois, where she developed programs that promote interfaith understanding and education, she is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Chicago Theological Seminary; the External Advisory Board of the International Human Rights Law Institute; the National Board of the Bernardin Center of the Catholic Theological Union; the Board of Directors of Hands of Peace; and the Advisory Board of The Lake Institute of Faith and Giving of the Philanthropy Institute of the University of Indiana.
Bill Kurtis has been earning the respect of viewers, colleagues and competitors in television journalism for more than thirty years. He has created a body of work that is virtually unparalleled in the field of broadcasting.
As co-anchor of the CBS Morning News he was often the first person to interview the world's newsmakers. He explored documentaries on subjects from organ transplants to airline safety.
As a foreign correspondent, he traveled to many of the world's hot spots: the fall of Saigon, the sectarian war in Northern Ireland, the breakup of Rhodesia, the plight of the black rhino in Zimbabwe, the Charles Manson trial. His in-depth reporting led him to breaking stories on the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans and the existence of Amerasian children.
In 1990, Bill Kurtis founded Kurtis Productions. He has since created a singular presence on cable television as one of American's most prolific documentarians and presenters.
Mr. Kurtis and Kurtis Productions have received many awards including: the William Allen White Foundation Citation from the University of Kansas; Excellence in Journalism Award from the International Press Center, Chicago; Peter Lisagor Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; The Genesis Award from The Ark Trust; The Western Heritage Award; the J. Sterling Morton Award (highest honor) from the National Arbor Day Foundation; CAMPI, the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Male Media Personality of the Decade; Overseas Press Club Award for International Reporting Demonstrating Concern for Humanity; the Broadcast Advertising Club of Chicago's Person of the Year; the UNICEF World of Children Award; NATAS-Chicago/Midwest Chapter Silver Circle Award for 25 years of merit in television journalism, Jesse Owens Humanitarian Award. Bill Kurtis has received over 20 Emmy Awards from the Chicago Chapter of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.