Jem Cohen (born 1962) is an Afghan-born American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats and collaborations with musicians.

Cohen’s feature-length films include Museum Hours, Counting, Chain, Benjamin Smoke, Instrument, and World Without End (No Reported Incidents). Shorts include Lost Book Found, Little Flags, and Anne Truitt – Working. His films are in the collections of NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Jewish Museum, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, and Melbourne’s Screen Gallery. They have been broadcast by PBS, Arte, and the Sundance Channel. He’s had retrospectives at Harvard Film Archive, London’s Whitechapel Gallery, Indielisboa, BAFICI, Oberhausen, Gijon, and Punto de Vista Film Festivals.

Cohen has worked extensively with musicians including Patti Smith, Fugazi, Terry Riley, R.E.M., Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Xylouris White, DJ Rupture, the Ex, Elliott Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Matana Roberts, Jessica Moss, Jonathan Richman, T.Griffin/Catherine McRae, White Magic, and the Orpheus Orchestra with Gil Shaham, and has collaborated with writers Luc Sante and Sam Stephenson, and graphic artist Ben Katchor.

He is a Guggenheim, Alpert, and Rockefeller Fellow. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital Foundation, SJ Weiler Fund, the Jerome Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Awards include the Independent Spirit Award and the San Francisco Film Society’s Persistence of Vision Award. Cohen has had multiple residencies at the Macdowell Colony and Yaddo.

He has taught at SUNY Purchase, International Center of Photography, and Rutgers University and currently teaches at The New School. Working with Picture New York and the New York Civil Liberties Union, Cohen was extensively involved in overturning proposed restrictions on street photography and filming in New York City.