VOn a parched August afternoon in Los Angeles, Lena Khan peruses the aisles of Hand Prop Room, a company that supplies stage props for major Hollywood movies such as The Aviator and The Departed. From faux meat carcasses to bronze Thai Buddhas, the shelves are stuffed with gizmos, gadgets, and curiosities that help make the magic of cinema. Wearing a pale green head scarf and a demure beige cardigan, Khan discovers and unsheathes a two-foot long ninja sword with a mischievous look on her round, pale face. “This will work,” she says. Though she defies expectations of what a filmmaker should look like — she is young, female, devoutly Muslim, and Indian American — the 24-year-old film school graduate writes and directs music videos and short films, as well as commercials for a restaurant called Crave. (In one ad, a ninja throws whirling samosas). Khan won $5,000 for “Bassem is Trying”, a one-minute short that humorously demonstrates how a Muslim-American man tries to fit in — for instance, by blasting hip-hop music on his car radio. Her three-minute short “A Land Called Paradise”, essentially a music video set to a song of the same name by Muslim country singer Kareem Salama, won a $20,000 grand prize from One Nation, a Muslim advocacy group that sponsored the film. Khan directed dozens of men and women of diverse backgrounds to hold up handwritten signs that express messages they want the world to know about them as Muslim Americans. The statements are as whimsical as “I, too, shop at Victoria's Secret,” and as serious as “My sister died on September 11.” One of the judges for the 2007 One Nation competition, former professional basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, gave “A Land Called Paradise” high marks for its “beautiful cinematic language,” while journalist Mariane Pearl commended the film “for its freshness and sense of humor while addressing vital emotions felt by the Muslim population and the rest of us.” Pulling off “A Land Called Paradise” was a major effort, Khan recalled. The project started with a question: “If you could say something to everybody in the world who is not Muslim, what would you say?” “I sent out e-mails; I went to mosques; I used every major Muslim Listserv I could think of,” she said. The first response Khan received was “Islam inhibits my suicidal thoughts.” “That's when I knew that this was the video I was going to do,” she said. “I wouldn't have thought of that. I was trying to fix the representations of Muslims, but I don't think I can speak for all of them. And this was my first clue. I got 2,500 responses, collected them, narrowed them down, and made the video.” Since the video's launch, Khan has received hundreds of e-mails from people who say the video has made them cry, inspired them to open a discussion about Islam with their families, or broken down walls built by stereotypes. The video also opened professional doors for Khan, such as a meeting with the documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. “If I hadn't entered the contest, I'd be at the same place as I was before,” said Khan, a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) film school. Khan became interested in cinema as a form of social activism, which she considers an important tenet of her faith. Because she is about to get married, she was expected to accept a diamond engagement ring. “I didn't want to have anything to do with the diamond industry, the blood diamonds. It's just really bad,” Khan said. “My parents are like, ‘Why are you being so lame? Just go buy a diamond. It's not that big a deal.' But I do think it's a big deal. It's a test to see if you can sacrifice your own things for other people.” She chose a big moissanite ring instead. As an undergraduate majoring in political science and history at UCLA, Khan noticed that students would become interested in genocides such as those in Rwanda and Darfur only if they saw a movie about the topic or if an actor publicized the cause. She also was tired of seeing Hollywood films such as “The Siege” and “Black Hawk Down” use images to connect terrorism to ritual ablutions and the call to prayer. “I wanted to make movies about social issues because it seems like movies are the best way to tell a story — that's when people really listen and relate to people who are going through those things,” Khan said. She went on to get a master of arts degree in film at UCLA. In addition to her ninja commercials, her future projects include a set of commercials about the presidential election and another music video for Salama. Lena Khan's videos can be seen on YouTube.com.
