Writer-Director R. Paul Dhillon’s Documentary Moe Sihota: Feared And Desired To Be Shown At Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival
VANCOUVER –Bollywood legend Gulshan Grover will attend the opening night of the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival (VISAFF) to present his new film appropriately titled BADMAN on Friday, November 25.
Grover will attend the opening night festivities with some high powered VIP guests from Vancouver and abroad, including reception preceding the film.
Award-winning journalist (editor of the LINK) and filmmaker R. Paul Dhillon will also be in attendance on opening night. Dhillon’s own film MOE SIHOTA: Feared And Desired will also make it’s Canadian premiere at the 6th Festival in a Gala screening on Sunday, November 27 at 11:30 am at the SFU downtown campus theatre.
The film, produced by writer-director Dhillon and his MMM Films, is an intimate look at the Golden Boy of Indo-Canadian/BC politics – the ground-breaking Moe Sihota, the first ever South Asian-Sikh Canadian MLA and Cabinet Minister, who is one of the most colourful, intelligent and progressive politicians the province of British Columbia has ever seen.
Munmohan Singh “Moe” Sihota was born February 18, 1955 in Duncan, British Columbia and attended St. George’s Boys School, Vancouver, on scholarship. He earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of British Columbia in 1977, was awarded a scholarship to Warwick School of Economics, London, 1981 and a law degree from the University of Victoria in 1982.
He was a social worker in White Rock in 1978-9 and an attorney in Esquimalt in 1984 before becoming a politician. He was elected as an Alderman in his native Esquimalt on his way to becoming the first South Asian-Punjabi Sikh MLA in BC under his New Democrat Party (NDP) in 1986. It was an historical event for the proud Sikh pioneer community and he forever became known as the Golden Boy of politics.
He made further history when he became the first South-Asian-Sikh Canadian to be appointed cabinet minister outside India. While his achievements are part of the community’s rich collective legacy in Canada, Moe wasn’t without his flaws and towards the end of his and his party’s reign – he had a habit of getting into trouble and his outspoken, blunt approach to the issues didn’t help.
The film explores more of his achievements and dwells less on his short-comings but over all presents his story as it deserves to be told: mostly from Moe’s point of view.
“Moe Sihota is a man who shined brightly as our community cemented our reputation in this province and country as an important ethnic community and he deserve the recognition for hard work and dedication to improving the social, cultural and political fabric of our collective identity,” said Dhillon, who has written, produced and directed over two dozen documentaries and television shows as well as the feature 9/11 themed film Sweet Amerika, starring Bollywood veteran Gulshan Grover.
He has just completed filming his second feature the Desi romantic comedy The Fusion Generation starring Hollywood actress Sitara Hewitt and accomplished theatre actor-comedian Munish Sharma. Grover also is featured in a key role as the pioneering lumber mogul Sam Sahota in TFG.
Dhillon’s music series Bhangralicous and his highly successful documentary on Bhangra music titled The Bhangra Generation, have aired nationally on OMNI Television and has enjoyed a very long and successful run across Canada.
“VISAFF is a forward thinking storytelling festival and we have been supporting work that goes beyond the Bollywood screen for many years. Year after year, the Festival pursues new ways to support artists and introduce more people to original, authentic South Asian storytelling,” stated VISAFF Co-Producers, Jessie Lehail and Mannu Sandhu.
“The 2016 lineup delivers an array of compelling shorts, documentaries and feature films, broadening the ongoing debate of identity with new perspectives from Canadian and global filmmakers.We are sincerely appreciative of the generous support from our sponsors, community and media partners.”
The festival will also host the Canadian Premiere, of acclaimed movie, Mah-e-Mir, a coming-of-age poetic journey of a young anarchist whose denouncement of tradition creates the sufferings of love, separation, and poverty, driving him to madness and the discovery of 18th century ‘god of poetry’ Meer Taqi Meer.
Other films includes Moor is a story discovering the meaning of loyalty – to one’s land, one’s family and one’s principles and Indian Gujarati thriller drama film, Wrong Side Rajuinspired by a real-life hit and run case which happened in Ahmedabad in 2013.
The festival closes with biopic documentary of famed ghazal maestro, Jagjit Sing in Kagaaz Ki Kasti. With 50 years of singing, 500 plus ghazals, and over 5,000 concerts, this film will resound loud and clear.
VISAFF 2016 includes more than eight feature films and close to 20 shorts and documentaries, an opening gala, a festival workshop on film distribution.
For sponsorship, please call 604-880-3463 or email [email protected].
For more info on all the films and the festival, please check out www.visaff.ca
