DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER · DIRECTOR · PRODUCER
Documentary
films that look
beyond the
headlines.
Aysha Arif is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker drawn to stories of power, identity, and the people history leaves out.
Working across investigative, historical, and character-driven documentary, she brings an independent perspective to stories that challenge familiar narratives and reveal the human lives beneath them.
Director of The Madams of DC | Four 2026 Capital Emmy nominations
FEATURED DOCUMENTARY
The Madams of DC
2025 · Documentary · 39 minutes
Washington is a city built on power. But not all of its power brokers occupied public office.
Spanning more than a century, The Madams of DC reveals the remarkable, complicated lives of three women who operated within the capital’s underground economy- and what their stories tell us about gender, race, influence, and respectability in America.
Four Capital Emmy nominations
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Missing Mamta
Feature Documentary · In Development
A young Nepali mother disappears in Northern Virginia. As her story crosses borders, a community confronts loss, uncertainty, and the struggle to preserve the identity of a woman beyond the circumstances of her disappearance.
Designing for What Comes Next
Documentary Short · In Post-Production
After loss and displacement, who gets to shape what comes next? A film exploring the relationship between landscape, belonging, recovery, and the future of our shared spaces.
In the Field
Behind the Scenes · Selected Productions
A look behind the camera: documentary production, field interviews, and the people and places that inform the work.
THE FILMMAKER
Stories begin with people.
Aysha’s work combines a journalist’s instinct for investigation with a filmmaker’s attention to character, atmosphere, and emotional detail.
Whether revisiting overlooked history or documenting events still unfolding, her approach begins with the people whose experiences illuminate something larger about the world around them.
RECOGNITION
Four nominations. One documentary.
The Madams of DC was nominated in four categories at the 2026 Capital Emmy Awards, recognizing its historical storytelling, writing, editing, and sound.
COLLABORATE
Every compelling documentary begins with a conversation.
For producing partnerships, documentary commissions, screenings, and creative collaborations: