Interview with Jed Rothstein, director of Heavy Metal Islam

"God does not forbid music," a character states in Heavy Metal Islam. But, of course, many governments do forbid heavy metal. This documentary takes a look at the surprising story of how a music invented for disaffected youths in the West has taken hold in the Middle East. Heavy Metal Islam is not a concert film, but it will use music to help tell stories of young people in the Muslim world who do not fit sterotypes (suicide bomper/burka-clad woman) and who share many of the same hopes and dreams as kids in the West. The filmmakers wish to shatter the common belief that angry young Muslims have only one outlet - violence - and show viewers that grace can appear "in the strangest of places."