The Film | Brother Yusuf
Moonchild is a feature length documentary in production sharing the untold, sixty-year musical journey of jazz pianist, composer, and mentor Yusuf Salim. Known by many as Brother Yu, Salim’s musical career is rooted in the rich legacy of Baltimore’s jazz history. He transforms and inspires many musicians and music lovers even after his death in Durham, North Carolina in 2008. Yusuf’s story is brought to life through the use of music, archival footage and stills, interviews, and contemporary jazz performances. Brother Yusuf’s journey unfolds on Baltimore’s famed Pennsylvania Avenue during the heydays of the Jazz era. A brotherly bond shared with Baltimore childhood friend, Ken Murray, later to become Southern civil rights leader, Imam Kenneth Muhammad, leads Yusuf down to Durham, North Carolina.
In his adopted home, Yusuf’s dedication to jazz and teaching others birthed a vibrant music community in the heart of North Carolina which rippled across the region. The film features over twenty interviews from a multi-generational cast of musicians who were taken under Yusuf’s wing, many who went on to have successful international careers. Interviews also include members of his family in Baltimore and friends in the Durham and Raleigh Black Muslim community, all speaking to the vital legacy Yusuf left in their lives, across North Carolina, and beyond. This self-titled Moonchild, for so many years humbly planted seeds of love, optimism, creativity, and self-acceptance. The many gifts he left behind offers lessons of hope, transformation and empowerment within Black American, Muslim and jazz history.
We are completing final production work for the film during the Summer and Fall of 2023. We began post-production in August 2023 and are continuing archival research. Our film team has launched a fundraising campaign to raise needed resources to share Yusuf’s timely story with the widest possible audience.
Exciting news!
Moonchild received a $100K Matching Donation through Sept 2024
LEARN MORE AND DONATE TODAY
“It looks like my profession is human relations. I just happen to play a little piano.”