Specificity over stereotype
People are not simple stand-ins, they are complex story books. Start with origin and discover the nucleus.
Filmmaker · artist · bridge-builder
Stories witha pulse.Spaces with a soul.
I’m Aakef Khan. I make films about belief, identity, and lives that do not fit neatly within a single label. I also build creative encounters that help Muslim and Jewish communities move from distance to relationship.
NEW JERSEY / NEW YORKAVAILABLE FOR COLLABORATION
Regardless of medium,I change the conversation
Choose a lens
The work changes shape, but the instinct remains the same.
01 / 03Film × encounter
Make the frame wider.
I make culture through story, and I make space for people to meet before they agree. Both practices begin with the same discipline: look closer.
Selected work & credits
On the slate
Narrative and documentary work that is rooted in specificity. No community is a monolith.
01Documentary series · PBS Digital StudiosAmerican Muslims: A History RevealedProduction and research on a series recovering Muslim histories that have long been part of the American story.2023—2402Short narrativeIt’s a Small Tainted WorldShifa searches for a way to connect with her grandfather—if her mind can accept what connection asks of her.2024—2503Faith · folklore · horrorRuqyaA short film examining ruqya, a little-seen healing and exorcistic practice within Islamic tradition.202404Short film · Production departmentPreciousOn-set production experience supporting an independent short from the practical center of the filmmaking process.2024
I'm interested in narratives that tackle the complicated. I don't want to regurgitate what we already know about the world - show me something new.
Case study · Community art
By the light of the same moon.
Open Archways brought fifteen Muslim and Jewish artists together, not simply to submit work, but to know one another before the exhibit even opened.
Co-curated with Hannah Finkelshteyn at the Bowery Art Collective, the exhibition used a shared lunar calendar as an entry point: concrete enough to gather around, spacious enough to hold difference.
Read the Forward profile15Muslim & Jewish artists
02Communities in encounter
01Moon that we share
How to change the room
De-polarization is not a slogan, it's a sequence.
The goal is not an instant consensus. It is to lower the barrier to a relationship. Then let the the relationship carry the honest conversations.
01
Meet before making
Artists enter in as people, not positions. The first task is familiarity: names, practices, jokes, histories, traumas, joys, panics and pancakes.
Working principles
Connecting the movie set to the public square
Filmmaking and community bridging both ask for thoughtful attention, strong trust, carefully organized structure, and the courage to seek the complicated truth when the neat answer would be easier.
Art before argument
A shared object of attention can level the playing field and reduce social dysfunction.
Curiosity with structure and discipline
Pleasant encounters are designed: who enters the space, how they meet, and what they make.
Remaining in the room
Discomfort is not failure. It's the first sign that something real is happening.
Rutgers · Mason Gross BFA FilmmakingPBS Digital Studios project credit2026 Courage Project honoree
The next room
Bring me in when the room is complicated.
Film production, creative development, curatorial work, interfaith programming, speaking, and collaborations that need both conviction and care.
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IMDb profile