Global Sikh Film Festival Coming to India Soon

January 6, 2007

Author: Gurmukh Singh

Source: Financial Express

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=150986

LOS ANGELES, JAN 6 : The Spinning Wheel Film Festival (SWFF), which was born in Toronto four years ago and today has editions in several major North America cities, is all set to land in India.

Says the festival founder T Sher Singh, noted Toronto-based writer-lawyer: “We have known that in view of our goals and objectives all roads lead us to India. There is keen interest in New Delhi as well as in Chandigarh and Amritsar to host the event.”

New Delhi is where SWFF is likely to land first. Says Singh: “Khushwant Singh has agreed to guide the festival as it takes shape in India. We are aiming for a gala opening by the end of 2007.”

The SWFF was launched as a showcase exclusively for films about Sikh themes. “The community felt that the time had come to stop relying on others to tell our stories. In the post-9/11 world, that need only got magnified,” says Sher Singh.

He adds: “In 2003, my good friend Torontonian Birinder Singh Ahluwalia and I decided to start the festival to encourage people from both within and outside the community to make films for and about Sikhs.” The first edition of SWFF was held over three days at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on mid-October in 2003. It was an instant success.

“Our attendees,” says Singh, “are a mix of Sikhs and non-Sikhs of all backgrounds, and they come from all over the world. Large contingents turn up every year from England, India, the US and Canada. There’s demand that we replicate the festival in other parts of the world, which we are now in the process of doing through SWFF International.”