Hamtramck, USA
“Hamtramck, USA neither whitewashes the Muslim experience nor demonizes it.”
Title: Hamtramck, USA (2020)
Directors: Razi Jafri 👨🏽🇮🇳🇺🇸 and Justin Feltman 👨🏼🇺🇸
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 2.75/5
I was hooked the moment I read the logline for Hamtramck, USA: “A documentary film exploring life and democracy in America's first Muslim majority city.” The wording spurs so many questions: How did such a demographic shift happen? Did existing residents push back, and how are local leaders juggling their different constituents?
Unfortunately, none of these broader questions ever find purchase in the documentary, which was meant to have its world premiere at since-cancelled SXSW, earlier this month. First-time directors Razi Jafri and Justin Feltman clearly exhibit passion for sharing the city of Hamtramck with the wider world, as the film spends ample b-roll on supersized murals of girls in hijab, Polish residents dressed in traditional folk costume, or hand painted signs in Arabic that all lovingly set the scene. However, they hew too closely to their chosen narrative of the Hamtramck primary and general elections of 2017, studying a single tree within a forest of richer material.
Driven by campaign footage, the film largely follows candidates as they knock on doors or make stump speeches at local events. The simple portrait of a small Midwestern town—albeit one that’s deeply diverse—does keep a viewer engaged thanks to charming subjects and a quiet sense of humor, communicated through deliberate edits that retain long silences or deliciously awkward moments.
But ultimately, I was disappointed that Jafri and Feltman never widened the story’s aperture. Universal issues and American anxieties manifest in Hamtramck’s trajectory of rapid change, from a bastion of white Polish immigrants to its current Muslim majority status. And while acknowledgments of xenophobia do make hesitant cameos, arriving briefly in candidates’ speeches that mention Trump’s travel ban or in the full-throated complaint from an older white woman about the broadcasted call to prayer, the powder keg that must surely lie beneath the surface never even heats to room temperature onscreen. Instead, moments that could spark wider conversation quickly cut away to more sanitized travails on the campaign trail.
Maybe Hamtramck really is just that special, and the feel-good messages should be taken at face value. “Everyone just gets along. It’s like a melting pot,” says a young volunteer for Asm Rahman’s mayoral campaign, while a white woman shares, “Both of my daughters are with Arabic guys and I get along, like, with everybody.” But without more interviews from said residents, both within and outside the Muslim community that the film focuses on, I can’t help but wonder what Hamtramck, USA might have revealed given a look behind the curtain.
Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
As the incumbent seeking reelection, Mayor Karen Majewski commands much of the documentary’s footage. Elected as the first woman mayor of Hamtramck in 2005, she’s shown to be progressive and well-liked as audiences watch her make nice with a variety of ethnic communities, including those who share her own Polish heritage.
However, all the other candidates we tag along with are men. Crowd shots also lean majority male, due to events like mens’ outdoor group prayer or a gala dinner where politicians in dapper suits vastly outnumber women like Majewski. But thanks to her central position within the film, Hamtramck, USA never feels unbalanced. Rather, it quietly captures the ongoing predominance of men in politics and the separation of men and women in religious Islamic spaces.
Race: 5/5
Jafri and Feltman devote their efforts to following communities of color, as seen through the electioneering of Iraqi city council candidate Fadel Al-Marsoumi, and through Asm Rahman, a Bangladeshi mayoral candidate. In addition, activist Abraham Aiyash, a son of Yemeni immigrants, lends a healthy dose of energy to the documentary as he counsels his friend Al-Marsoumi during the long campaign process.
While it feels immersive to embed within these groups sans exposition, with no interjected voiceovers or title cards to designate event locations, I do wish the documentary had supplied a bit more context to help outsiders like myself understand the intersection of nationalities taking place onscreen. Borrowed news segments give some background, sharing how 20% of Hamtramck residents are Bangladeshi, 20% are Yemeni, and another 15% hail from other Muslim identities. But after a brief introduction, viewers are left to infer cultural ties themselves as candidates swirl among white and brown communities, with the occasional appearance of Black residents who appear in communal areas, like fairgrounds or parades where folks of all races happily coexist.
Immersive world-building is all well and good for a narrative movie. But for a documentary that presumably aims to educate, some more handholding wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Bonus for Religion: +1.00
I never quite grasped an understanding of whether I was watching Bangladeshi, Yemeni, Iraqi, or a mix of more nationalities during the documentary’s many Muslim gatherings, but what remained clear was the way Islam holds an integral role in the Hamtramck community, bringing people together through group prayer, Ramadan fasts, or the celebrations of Eid. Meanwhile, cultural markers like women wearing hijab or casual greetings of as-salam alaykom felt gratifyingly normalized, providing a much-needed example of Islam in media that neither whitewashes the Muslim experience nor demonizes it.
Bonus for Age: +0.50
Majewski mentions her age during the film, stating that she’s 62 years old and that Hamtramck would benefit from the energy and passion of younger political candidates. Given that seniors are underrepresented in media—especially women, who only make up about a quarter of onscreen roles for seniors—it feels welcome to follow Majewski as she traverses the streets of Hamtramck.
Mediaversity Grade: A- 4.42/5
Councilmember Ian Perrotta summarizes the documentary when he bids farewell to outgoing colleague, Mohammed Hassan: “We may have had our differences at times, but it’s always been a pleasure serving with you.”
Like Perrotta, Hamtramck, USA hints at friction but rises above the fray, preferring to amplify the good. And while these moments of unity do feel heartwarming, the film never drums up enough courage to go behind the facade of polite smiles, where things get simultaneously messier, but infinitely more interesting.
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