Mother and Son Graduate from Toronto Film School Together
Published on May 6th, 2014. Last updated April 20th, 2023.
When her son Chengaiz Khan was born Rabia Khan naturally had to put some things on hold, including her post secondary education. She told herself that when he went to school, she would go to school.
It may seem a bit contrived now, but Rabia said forgot about that promise to herself until 22 years later when her son came home with a pamphlet for the Toronto Film School.
On May 2, both Chengaiz, 22, and Rabia, 46, both donned a hard earned graduation gown and crossed the stage at the Toronto Centre for the Arts to receive their respective diplomas.
“I kept trying to run around the corner to take photographs of Chengaiz, not realizing I was in a gown and all the audience members must have wondered what I was doing,” Rabia said.
Originally from Dubai, Chengaiz was studying physics at a university here in Ontario when, upon his mothers urging he decided to alter his path.
“As much as I like physics and the scientific process, I felt like I was a more creative individual,” Chengaiz said.
His mother suggested he leave university and try his hand at film school.
“He was miserable,” Rabia recalled. “He wanted to make films.”
Chengaiz decided to attend the Toronto Film School (TFS) because he wanted to dive right into making films.
“We loved TFS because we wanted him to have a completely different experience than what he had in university which made him miserable,” Rabia said. “I wanted him to be working hands on and seeing the product actually come to life, which is what TFS did.”
Then, one day after Chengaiz had started the Film Production program at Toronto Film School he came home with a pamphlet for the Writing for Film and Television program, which he gave to his mother.
“I had just moved (to Toronto) and had been here for about six months,” Rabia said. “And he said, ‘You should do this writing program.’”
Rabia is a novelist, whose book Ghosts was published in 2004, and she said she wanted to get back into writing. She decided to take the Toronto Film School program as her son had suggested, which landed mother and son in the halls of the Yonge and Dundas campus at the same time.
“There was obviously that whole mom and son dynamic that was awkward at first because she would come up to me in the corridor and give me a big hug, which was embarrassing,” Chengaiz said.
“Then all my peers started to call him ‘baby’ because I would call him ‘baby’,” Rabia said with a laugh.
But, mother and son settled into their simultaneous-education and ended up making three films together at the Toronto Film School.
“We didn’t have the intention to work together, I was writing and he was doing his thing, but we found working together to be a wonderful experience,” Rabia said.
Both mother and son said they, in a manner of speaking, work telepathically.
“If she is trying to communicate some sort of emotion with regards to the writing, I can visualize that from a director’s standpoint,” Chengaiz said.
Of the films they worked on together, the one that they concentrated a lot of energy on is called Zachary’s Quest. It is a seven minute short film about a man who loses his job, loses loved ones and ends up in a state of depression and trying to piece his life back together.
Rabia wrote the film and Chengaiz directed and edited it. The pair has submitted the film to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The pair is hopeful the film will be accepted to the festival, but regardless, they intend to continue to work together.
“I’m not going to be sitting at home waiting for him to call me,” Rabia said with a laugh. “I will just see him on set.”
