By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Zaki, who wrote, directed and produced the 19-minute film, will introduce it at 8 p.m. at 55 Nicholas Road.

“Being a Framingham resident for eight years, it’s an honor to show my movie in my hometown,” he said from his Tripp Street studio. Zaki owns RA Vision Productions, a digital film production company in Framingham which transfers videos to the Internet.

Zaki co-wrote “Just Your Average Arab” which he co-produced with Chris Smalley.

Shot in Framingham last year, Zaki’s movie finds dark humor in the war on terror when several Arab-Americans take private lessons to help them “look more American” to avoid post-9/11 stereotypes.

Their efforts go sadly awry when an FBI stakeout mistakes their “Arab-American Survival Guide” classroom for a terrorist cell.

Zaki said the film satirizes widespread fears about terrorism by showing law-abiding Arab-Americans trying to disguise their origins.

His film won the Audience Award at the seventh annual Boston Comedy & Film Festival this fall.

He credited the award to viewers’ appreciation the film exploded stereotypes in a humorous way.

Amazing Things Executive Director Michael Moran said he wanted to showcase Zaki’s film because it was “funny and insightful.”

“I thought it was perfectly appropriate for these times,” he said.

Before Zaki’s film, Jim Connell’s animated short about political intrigue, “Saul Goodman,” will show at 7:30 p.m.

Since its release, Zaki has shown his film at several colleges including Boston University, Bridgewater State College, Emerson College and Deerfield Academy.

He was heartened by an Emerson student who said the film made her question her media-inspired biases about Arabs as oil-rich sheiks or terrorists.

“Her reaction reinforced for me that I was doing the right thing,” said Zaki. “There’s no avenue today for young people to learn about Arabic culture when all they see is this madness and craziness” in the Middle East.

Since finishing his movie, Zaki is raising funds for a more ambitious project, “Santa Claus in Baghdad,” a coming-of-age drama about a girl living in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Zaki hopes his film “builds bridges” that increase tolerance between different cultures at a time of heightened Middle East tensions.

“It’s more important now than ever to see this movie. It touches on our fears of the Arab world and Arab people,” he said. “I try to use comedy to break down tensions.”