Specificity over symbol
People are not stand-ins for an issue. Start with the particular life.
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
Two practicesOne way of looking
Choose a lens
The work changes shape. The instinct stays.
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, documentary, and production work rooted in specificity—especially where faith and culture are often treated as shorthand.
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 stories that let faith be lived—complicated, embodied, funny, frightening, ordinary—not merely explained.
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 we already share
How the room changes
De-polarization is a sequence, not a slogan.
The goal is not instant consensus. It is to lower the barrier to relationship, then let relationship carry more honest conversation.
01
Meet before making
Artists enter as people, not positions. The first task is familiarity: names, practices, jokes, histories, and enough trust to stay curious.
Working principles
What connects the set and the room
Filmmaking and bridge-building both ask for attention, trust, structure, and the courage to stay present when a neat answer would be easier.
Art before argument
A shared object of attention can open doors that direct debate keeps shut.
Curiosity with structure
Good encounters are designed: who enters, how they meet, and what they make.
Stay in the room
Discomfort is not failure. It can be 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