Photo courtesy Muslimahsguidetomarriage.com
Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 in Pasadena will be showing Aminah Bakeer Abdul-Jabbaar’s 2018 movie “Muslimah’s Guide to Marriage,” a romantic-comedy film that tells the story of a 30-year-old Black Muslim woman who embarks on a frantic quest to save her failing marriage in seven days.
“Muslimah’s Guide to Marriage” is showing on Thursday, July 22, starting at 7:30 p.m. This is a one-night-only showing.
Producer Kenyatta Bakeer, the director’s sister, said the film follows a line similar to the popular TV sitcom,“I Love Lucy.” The movie was on the film festival circuit from 2018 to the time that the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and has received rave reviews since then. The main character is Muslimah Mohammed, a counselor at a local high school who was going through a divorce.
“And so in Islam, how divorces go is that you take a period of three months to try to reconcile with your husband and vice versa, and so there’s a lot of antics that go on,” the film has a lot of twists and turns, and surprises, Bakeer said.
Ebony Perry, who first appeared in “The Crumbles” in 2012, plays Muslimah in the film which also stars Kimberly Bailey, Glenn Plummer, and LaRita Shelby, among others, like All American actor, Kareem Grimes.
Bakeer, a child development professor and educator, said the film was her sister’s first feature film.
“She’s done lots of documentaries,and my father is the executive producer and he did a film based off of his book Crips,” she continued.
Their father, Donald Bakeer, wrote the script for the movie. He also authored the novel “Crips” from which the movie “South Central” (1992) was adapted, and co-authored the screenplay. That movie received wide critical acclaim as a film, and was. It peaked at No. 6 at the box office, making $1.4 million, and today is considered a hood cult classic.
“Two of the actors from that movie, which was almost 30 years ago, are in this film as well. Glenn Plummer and LaRita Shelby played the father and the stepmother,” Bakeer said.
Moviegoers may also watch “Muslimah’s Guide to Marriage” at Cinemax Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza 15 and XD in Los Angeles from July 16 to 22. The movie has also been streaming on Laemmle Virtual Cinema during the past two months.
“Muslimah’s Guide to Marriage” was also shown at the 26th Pan African Film Festival in 2018 and won the Audience Award for the Most Popular Movie.
To get tickets for the July 22 showing, visit www.laemmle.com/film/muslimahs-guide-marriage.
