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Meet The Gay Muslim Filmmaker Who Secretly Filmed His Pilgrimage To Mecca

Meet The Gay Muslim Filmmaker Who Secretly Filmed His Pilgrimage To Mecca
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HuffPost Queer Voices Editor

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"I call it the Saudi selfie film," Indian-born, New York–based filmmaker and LGBT activist Parvez Sharma tells me. We're at Sheffield Doc/Fest talking about his new film, A Sinner in Mecca, ahead of its European premiere.

Shot secretly, mainly using an iPhone, his highly personal documentary is one of few visual accounts of the hajj—the holy pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims undertake once in their lives (as long as they're physically and financially able)—because it's forbidden to film there.

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