Filmmaker Looking for Participants for Mannequin Challenge in Chicago

CHICAGO, Il. - Last week, Mohamed Nazar was sitting in a coffee shop with his friend, creating scenarios for a mannequin challenge he is filming on Nov. 26 in Chicago. It was in that moment that his friend received a hateful message on her Facebook feed. It was ageist and racist and xenophobic.

"I was with one of my friends who I was writing scenarios with," Nazar said. "This guy was like: 'go back to your country' - some total stranger who saw something on her page about a protest she had been to or something."

It was a real-life illustration for what Nazar is hoping his mannequin challenge will do.

Nazar is filming The American Dream mannequin challenge beginning at 9:30 a.m, Nov. 26 at Grant Park in Chicago. Participants are asked to meet at the Millenium Monument. Any changes will be posted to the Facebook event page.

"The biggest thing for me is the power of media and film and how it impacts people," he said. "As an artist, as a filmmaker, I want to impact people in a positive way because I can."

The inspiration for filming his own mannequin challenge came when he watched "Black Lives Matter mannequin challenge" and was moved by the piece.

He felt like the use of film and art to move people, to make a political statement, was combined with a trending topic and that choice meant a larger audience.

It was like a different door was being opened on the conversation," he said. "I feel like they were able to reach a pool of people that they maybe did not have access to before."

Nazar was born in Iraq. And, despite his name, he is not Muslim. However, people presume he is all the time.

"Twice yesterday, people asked me if I was Muslim," he said. "It was totally random.

"It’s super surreal. Just being in a position where your name gives off that you would be a certain way but you are not."

Nazar is a veteran, having served in the United States military in Afghanistan. He will graduate from Columbia College in Chicago in December.

And despite being quite secure in who he is, he finds that others are not as readily available to accept him.

"I feel like there is a disappointment that you are not meeting their stereotypes," he said. "With a lot of other Arab people, I find myself disconnected being gay and not being Muslm.

"But in white America, I don’t fit in because I am brown."

His American Dream mannequin challenge is named as such because he sees the conflict in what people call the American Dream.

"I just thought the irony of it.," he said. "So many people come to America for opportunity.

"Growing up, my room was a walk-in closet. "It's just kind of like opening up a box of chocolates and realizing there are no chocolates in it."

What Nazar is hoping will happen on Saturday is that a large variety of people will come to Grant Park and he can create a mannequin challenge that will change perceptions and make a difference.

He wants people to come to the filming as they would in their everyday lives.

"If you are Muslim and you wear a hijab, come out wearing that," he said. "We want people to represent who they are, be true to themselves."

The scenarios he has planned for the story told in filming will be current and political.

"Essentially we want to represent the different minority groups that are being attacked throughout this (presidential) campaign," he said.

In an ideal world, Nazar would like to see his work have a direct effect on the Electoral College vote on Dec. 19. To that end, he expects the final project to be released within a week of filming.