SOHEL RAHMAN
Filmmaker ● Writer ● Scholar ● Institutional Film Distributor
That journey gave birth to something new. Recognising that documentary film finds its most resonant audience not in multiplexes but in lecture halls and cultural institutions, Sohel developed an alternative academic distribution model — and now helps other independent filmmakers bring their work into universities, museums, and institutions worldwide.
He has lectured and screened his films at Yale, UCLA, NYU, UC Berkeley, Durham, the University of Amsterdam, and dozens more. He has collaborated with the British Museum, spoken at international conferences from Honolulu to Bangkok, and conducted masterclasses across Europe, Asia, and North America.
He is currently directing After The Last Sky — an intimate documentary about his wife’s battle with cancer — and Autopsy of a Genocide, his ongoing reckoning with the Rohingya crisis.
Fluent in Bengali, English, and Portuguese, Sohel moves between continents and languages, always listening for the stories that have nowhere else to go.
Sohel Rahman makes films about people the world has learned to look away from. An award-winning International filmmaker, scholar, and researcher, his films travel to the edges of human experience — into Rohingya refugee camps, onto Portuguese fruit farms, through the restless streets of Dhaka — and return with stories that linger long after the screen goes dark.
Sohel is the founder and CEO of two film companies: DocMela, which specialises in distributing documentary films to academic and cultural institutions worldwide, and Vila Do Cinema, a production company dedicated to socially engaged cinema.
Trained across three European cities through the DocNomads European Joint Masters in Documentary Film Directing (Budapest, Brussels, Lisbon), Sohel’s practice is built on deep immersion, ethnographic curiosity, and an unwavering belief in the dignity of his subjects. His film The Ice Cream Sellers — a portrait of the Rohingya genocide seen through the eyes of children — won the Best Feature Documentary at the South Asian Film Festival in Montreal and the Audience Choice Award at Tasveer in Seattle, before travelling to over 50 universities, museums, and institutions across the world.
Sohel Rahman · Director, Writer, Cinematographer
Films & filmography
Sohel Rahman · Educator, Filmmaker, Researcher
Masterclasses & lectures
Masterclass subjects
Sohel Rahman · Filmmaker, Distributor, Advocate
Screening & distribution
How it began
Through the worldwide tour of The Ice Cream Sellers, Sohel developed a pioneering model for bringing independent documentary film directly into the academic world — bypassing commercial circuits to reach the audiences who engage most deeply.
The distribution model
Partner institution types
Helping your film travel further
Are you an independent filmmaker or producer? Sohel shares this distribution expertise — helping others navigate and access the academic world as a meaningful alternative to the festival circuit.