Stranger/Sister

The United States is experiencing a surge in hate crimes as a tide of white supremacy gathers momentum nationwide with Muslim and Jewish communities particularly at risk. Stranger/Sister is the story of two ordinary women, one Muslim and one Jewish, who dare to believe they can join hands to stop the wave of hate.

Overcoming a long history of distrust between their two religions, they build a movement that turns strangers into sisters, challenging our assumptions about how to fight hate in America. Following women from the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom chapters in Austin, Chicago, and across the nation, the Sisters build a powerful network of hope in a time of chaos and hate, challenging our assumptions about how to fight hate in America and perhaps around the world.

The film documents the community organizations' conversations, strategies, and planning to address an ever-changing array of pressing concerns. Through a practice that centers self-reflection, dialogue, and intersectionality, the groups embrace the spectrum of cultural, ethnic, national, and racial experiences within them as the key to their strength and success. By building bridges through shared values and common experiences seen from the outside of the majority, the seeds for collaboration towards the greater good are planted.

Now, with horrific violence unfolding in the Middle East, the bonds of Sisterhood are being tested, but that is why the core values of the movement are essential and provide a model for courage and engagement to communities everywhere.

The full 11-page guide will be emailed following your order of the film.

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FILMMAKERS' STATEMENT: "When Transform Films and Odyssey Impact released our recent film, it was with the goal of amplifying the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom's powerful work to build relationships across differences in order to combat hate.

The bonds of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom are indeed being tested, but that is why we — as filmmakers and the Sisterhood themselves — all believe that the core values of the movement are even more essential and can provide a model for courage and engagement to communities everywhere."