As-salamu alaykum. We're happy to feature inspiring stories of Muslim creatives from around the world. From filmmaking to poetry to news reporting, each of these creatives are putting their unique spin to storytelling and showing the world what it means to own your narrative.
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Creative of the Week: Tawsif Akber and Khon Studios
Meet Tawsif Akber, a professional photographer and filmmaker based out of NYC. His love for photography, filmmaking, and storytelling has taken him through a journey that led him to produce, direct, and premiere his short film, Nishirdaak - that took him 2 years of work, 15 months of production, 15 years of dreaming, and 130 people to celebrate on June 13th.
What’s the story behind your creative journey? Tell us how you got started, and what moment made you realize this was your calling?
My father was heavily interested in cameras in his young adult life, and he had one of the first camcorders in Bangladesh. He documented everything in our lives with it. His videos of me growing up start with me grasping for the camera when I could barely walk all the way until I was 10 and you hear “Abbu can I use the camera” relentlessly in the background. I would use my first flip phone to record small skateboarding clips and make short skits with my friends. From that I used an old camcorder to make YouTube skits in middle school followed by film classes in high school.
I continued making silly skits with my friends in our spare time all throughout college and into my adult life too. Throughout all the years I would draw out scenes, and I was constantly scribbling small stories in the margins of my notebooks. Somehow it all turned into making a movie which we presented to a sold out audience.
I don’t have a moment where I realized it was my calling. I wasn’t exactly conscious when I decided it. I think of it as picking up where my dad left off.
How does your cultural or faith background influence your work? We’d love to hear about the unique perspective you bring to your art.
I believe that my culture and faith are intertwined with my work. No matter what I make, those factors will be a voice that is recognizable across my projects. My latest projects have all leaned heavily into Bengali culture through photography, fashion, and film making. The short film we completed references obscure Bengali folklore and frames the themes through a familiar and modern lens.
I believe that Bengali art is underrepresented in the mainstream. I want to lead a charge to get our stories out to humanize us rather than focus on our traumas.
As for my faith, I believe things changed when I would phrase my goals with an Inshallah at the end and when they would finish or the plans fell through, I’d involuntarily say Alhamdulillah. This change in my speaking not only reinforced my faith, but it carries my faith into my work. To create at this level is a luxury and to that all I can say is Alhamdulillah.
What’s a project you’re especially proud of, and why? Walk us through the creative process and why it holds a special place in your heart.
It would be easy to say my short film because it’s the biggest project I have finished, but that’s not the case. I filmed a PSA for Asiyah Women’s Center. The goal was to spread awareness that help exists, and the PSA accomplished that. The video humanized the statistic. I used a subway because it’s a sight we’re all used to filled with familiar sounds. The car goes from 16 women in a car loudly conversating, laughing, and saying their goodbyes. “1 in 4 women are survivors of domestic violence” reads across the train info screen. When the train stops and 12 women exit the train and 4 remain. The ominous silence of the train is broken by the subway info update ding. That directs the attention of the 4 remaining women who look directly into the camera and the view to the scrolling text “If you need help, the next stop is” and ending on the contact page for the center. This was the first project in my life that impacted people far outside my inner circle and made an actual difference.
Video link:
https://www.instagram.com/
If you could collaborate with any artist (living or historical) from the Muslim or ethnic diaspora, who would it be and why?
I would love to collaborate with Satyajit Ray. His storytelling, music, and framing are beautiful. His work is a testament to timeless filmmaking. I’d want him to mentor me so I can learn how to craft stories from him. His films transcend Bengali audiences and have created stories that the world can relate to. I want to tell stories that shows our experiences within community, culture, and faith as deeply relatable human experiences rather than just specific to Bengalis. Satyajit Ray’s use of music is also something I admire. My music production is a weak point in my film making and that guidance would be a gap in my skill to improve on. My hypothetical collaboration would be a story that analyzes how our Bengali roots impact our experience and Bengali Americans using simple emotions that we can all relate to.
What’s one misconception about your art form or your community that you’d like to challenge? What do you wish more people understood?
My art form is horror, and one misconception is that all horror is corny and full of jump scares. I believe the opposite. Horror has always been fascinating because my mother would watch the Syfy channel (Formerly SciFi) which would frequently show science fiction and horror films. That coupled with my love of horror video games lead me to dive deeper into why horror sticks with us. Silent Hill 2 was a deeply influential game for me because of the externalization of the characters guilt made the monsters scarier. Using his inner turmoil, grief, guilt, and shame as the design elements for the monsters aided in the staying power of the horror. The themes plus the sound design created a nonstop sense of tension and dread that gripped me for the entire run time of the game. This leans into my goals with future horror projects. I want to interpret folklore ghosts as symbols for the real human issues we face on a day to day. Horror lets me make monsters out of the feelings we want to hide and forget.
How can our community support your work and stay connected with you?
My main studio page is Khon_studios where I post most of my short films. My youtube is @KhonStudios as well where I will be posting my first ever short film Nishirdaak later this summer. As for upcoming projects, I wanted to take the next year to practive small scale story telling under 2 minutes to sharpen gaps in my skills. Some of those skills include pacing, sound design, sound recording/mixing, and lighting with color. Although I will not be working on a large scale project for at least another year, I do have an idea already in the drafts that I look forward to implementing.
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Until next time,
The Kufi Productions Team
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