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DEFENDING SIKH IDENTITY
***WINNER,
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT***
San Diego Asian Film Festival
Eureka! International Film Festival
Dallas Asian Short Film Festival
***OFFICIAL SELECTION***
Hawaii International Film Festival
Newport Beach International Film Festival
AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs Film Festival
San Francisco International Asian American International Film Festival
New York Asian American International Film Festival
VC
Los Angeles Asian American International Film Festival
Year
of Production: 2005
Running Time: 12 minutes
Shooting Format: DV
DASTAAR: DEFENDING SIKH IDENTITY presents the struggle of
the Sikh American community against discrimination and violence
caused by ignorance of an essential symbol of the Sikh faith
-- the dastaar , or turban.
The
documentary begins by observing the simple, quiet act of putting
on the dastaar, a daily ritual imbued with the Sikh values
of honor, discipline and faith. The solemnity of this ritual
contrasts with recent incidents of violence and discrimination
against Sikhs due to the wearing of the dastaar , which all
Sikh men are required to wear at all times in public. Such
incidents include the vicious attack on Gurcharan Singh and
Rajinder Singh Khalsa by five men after being accused of being
terrorists, two NYPD officers who left the force after refusing
the order to remove their dastaars while on duty, and a subway
operator who wore his dastaar for 20 years until being recently
ordered to remove his dastaar.
Even though Sikhs have no relationship with the terrorist
networks of the Middle East, they are often mistaken as terrorists
due to their wearing turbans. The film explores how images
in the media fuel the association of the turban with terrorism,
leading to the widespread discrimination against Sikhs. The
film also shows the efforts made by the Sikh community to
counter this discrimination through a combination of community
activism, legal action, legislation and education.
Presented by Third World Newsreel
Produced and Directed by Kevin Lee
Associate Producer: Josh Weisbrot
Editor: Helen Yum
Production made possible through the support of
Third World Newsreel (J.T. Takagi, Series Producer)
Ravinder S. Gulati.
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