Sofian Khan
Introduction (2-3 lines)
Sofian is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of Capital K Pictures. He directed, produced and shot The Interpreters, a feature-length documentary following Afghan and Iraqi interpreters being targeted for their work helping American forces that made its broadcast premiere on the 2019 season of PBS Independent Lens. His episode of the PBS American Masters series In The Making (2021), co-directed with Joseph Patel, received a Webby Award and an NAACP Image nomination. In 2022, Sofian directed an episode of the new series Takeout With Lisa Ling on HBOMax and produced An Act of Worship under the Capital K Pictures banner, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and broadcasted on PBS' POV series. He was one of DOCNYC’s 40 Under 40 in 2019 and a Sundance Producing Fellow in 2019-2020. His short work has appeared on Field of Vision, The Atlantic, TOPIC, Al Jazeera and NBC Digital.
Sofian Khan is an Emmy-nominated, Webby Award-winning director/producer and founder of Capital K Pictures. He is a 2016 MacArthur Documentary Grant recipient for The Interpreters (2019), a feature-length doc following Afghan and Iraqi interpreters who worked hand-in-hand with US forces and are now struggling to find safety in the aftermath of war. The film was completed with support from ITVS, the Tribeca Institute and Firelight Media, and was released on the 2019-2020 season of PBS’ Independent Lens series, nominated in 2020 for an Emmy in the News & Documentary category.
Most recently, Sofian directed & produced the ‘Land of Rivers’ episode of HBOMax’s Takeout with Lisa Ling (2022), a new food & culture series hosted by journalist and TV personality Lisa Ling.
Sofian’s first feature, The Dickumentary (2014) — a definitive history of the penis from its evolution millions of years ago to today — was acquired by Breaking Glass Pictures after making its festival premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival. His second feature, Gaucho del Norte (2015), co-directed and produced with Andrés Caballero, was made with support from the Jerome Foundation and follows South American shepherds recruited to work in the American west on three-year contracts. It premiered at the 2015 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and later aired on PBS’ America ReFramed series the same year.
Sofian produced An Act of Worship (2022) under the Capital K Pictures banner, a feature documentary following up on a short by the same title he co-directed with Nausheen Dadabhoy for Laura Poitras’ Field of Vision series about the 2017 travel ban. The feature received support from Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative, Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg, Firelight Media, Perspective Fund and Made in NY, among others. It premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and broadcasted on the 35th season of PBS’ POV series. He also produced Khalik Allah’s film I Walk on Water (2020), made with support from Cinereach and the Rotterdam Film Festival, which premiered at True/False in the US and internationally at CPH:DOX, currently being distributed by Grasshopper Films in the US.
Sofian co-directed a short documentary with Joseph Patel about Bangladeshi-born, Queens-raised rapper Anik Khan. Street Level: Annie Khan (2020) was produced by Firelight Media and released as part of the Masters in The Making series from PBS American Masters. The series received an NAACP Image Awards nomination and won a 2021 Webby Award.
Sofian is a 2019-2020 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow, and was included on the 2019 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 list. He is a member of New Day Films and the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Journalism School. His short work has appeared on Field of Vision, The Fader, Al Jazeera, NBC Digital, American Masters, TOPIC and The Atlantic Selects, and his 2018 short documentary Do We Belong? (2018) was shortlisted for an IDA Award. He is currently developing a number of nonfiction and narrative projects under the Capital K Pictures banner, including the feature documentary Karachi Sky.
