Educational Media Reviews Online

Hudson, NY is home to a large Bangladeshi Muslim community that immigrated to the United States in the 1990s for new opportunities for their families. This documentary follows six Gen-Z students from this community who are moving on from their senior year of high school to college as first-generation college students. As the young people age on screen, they explore their identities in many complex ways. Some of them explore their connection to their religion and expectations from their families and older generations, while others stray away from tradition and form relationships that would be considered forbidden. Throughout the narratives, the students’ perspectives on life changes as well as how they view the world. Particularly, the 2016 election plays a big role in how they navigate the world with a president who spews anti-Muslim rhetoric. The narrative is very compelling and draws you into the students’ worlds without sugarcoating their experiences.

The strength of this documentary is showing the multitude of perspectives of a group of young people who were raised in a Muslim community with similar beliefs and how they evolve as people as time goes on. It is easy to become invested in their lives as a viewer and it draws out a lot of questions as the student’s lives are very layered between their desires, their family, and their religious upbringings. A weakness of the film is that not all the students get equal representation. There is a notable absence of a student named Farzana in the film, to the point where her presence felt a bit out of place when she did show up. This is overall a small complaint for an otherwise well-produced documentary. The film is recommended for programs in a variety of subject matter including anthropology, education, politics, sociology, and religion.

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