Biography

Safi Rauf was born and raised in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, where his passion for cameras and storytelling first took root. With a handy-cam and a Sony Cybershot, he became the de facto cinematographer and photographer for his entire village, capturing weddings, holidays, you name it. At 17, Safi immigrated to the United States, and after high school, he joined the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command as a linguist in Afghanistan. There his fluency in six languages became a crucial asset in hundreds of operations with the Special Operations Task Force (Delta Force) from 2012 to 2016.

After JSOC, Safi joined the Navy Reserves as a corpsman while pursuing a pre-med degree at Georgetown University. Driven by his humanitarian commitment, Safi returned to Afghanistan in 2021, helping evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghans and American nationals. While conducting aid work in Afghanistan in December 2021, Safi was taken hostage by the Taliban and held as a captive for 105 days. Safi was released in April 2022 and upon returning to the states, decided to shift his focus to amplifying the stories and causes that mattered the most. This has led Safi to fully embrace his passion for storytelling through the camera.

Upon Safi's release, he was commissioned by Theater Aspen to create a play based on his story, which received The Solo Flights Project Advancement Fund award. While foraying into narrative cinematography in addition to non-fiction, Safi is currently(2025) developing his debut feature film with the support of the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive, for which he was selected as 2025 Sundance Institute Fellow. Over the past three years, Safi has served as a cinematographer and associate producer on four documentaries, including "A Man with Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole," which was featured at The Sundance Film Festival, The Hamptons International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and more. Additionally, Safi's worked as a cinematographer and editor for Marathon Digital capturing behind-the-scenes content for Broadway hits like "Hamilton" and "Hadestown,".
- IMDb mini biography by: Beyond the Barricade Productions