Photos of Saund are on exhibition at the Smithsonian too.
NEW YORK: This year’s iteration of the Sikh International Film Festival, set to take place this Friday and Saturday in Manhattan, will feature a lineup of seven short films, seven short documentaries, and a feature-length film entitled Empty Inside.
The opening night film will be Dalip Singh Saund: His Life, His Legacy, an hour-long documentary profile of the historic Sikh man who became the first Asian, Indian, and Sikh American in history to be elected to the US Congress.
Born in 1899, Saund immigrated to the US to pursue higher education, eventually settling in California. In 1956, he was elected to represent the state’s 29th Congressional District, which he did from 1957-1963.
Saund is featured prominently in the Smithsonian’s “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” exhibit, in which a full wall is given to a famous picture of Saund chatting with then-Congressmen (and future Presidents) John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Dalip Singh Saund: His Life, His Legacy is written and directed by E. Samantha Chang, and is described as “the inspiring story of an ethical and passionate man who rose above prejudice and racism during one of this Nation’s most challenging times, all the while living the American Dream.”
The festival’s closing film, which is also its sole feature-length motion picture, is Empty Inside, a film produced in Australia and is directed by Satdeep Singh. The film is about drug addiction, aims to analyze the cause of addiction in dramatic fashion by examining “the emptiness which prevails inside all of us despite having everything on our side.”
Short films and documentaries will be screened on Saturday, prior to the evening showing of Empty Inside. The short films this year are: Rab da Vaasta, Message from Satwant Kaur, Kush, Kirpa, Baggage, One Day, and Onkar. The short documentaries are: Kaur, A Sacred Journey, Niam, Wrinkles of Life, Raw Conversations, and The Last Killing.
Friday’s activities will take place at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center, and will also include a half-hour lecture by Fakir Sayed Aijazuddin, an “internationally recognized author and art historian,” who will be honored at the festival, too. Saturday’s screenings will occur at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
The Sikh International Film Festival is an event put on by the Sikh Art & Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to “creating awareness of and pride in the diversity, culture and history of the Sikhs, as well as the contributions of Sikhs in American society.” It was founded in 2007, and has been hosting the Film Festival since 2007.
2 Comments
Stop calling Indians “Asians”. Indians are not members of the Asian race.
What do mean? Are they from Coolie’s race?