VANCOUVER – Award-winning journalist (editor of the LINK) and filmmaker R. Paul Dhillon’s MOE SIHOTA: Feared And Desired, which made it’s western Canadian premiere at the 6th annual Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival (VISAFF) in a Gala morning screening last Sunday at the SFU downtown campus theatre, received a great response from the audience as well as media coverage of the film on the pioneering Sikh-Indo-Canadian politician Moe Sihota.
There was print and online write-up in the Surrey NOW newspaper as well as in the Georgia Straight Newspaper. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) also sent cameras to the Sunday screening to interview writer-director Dhillon and the audience response, which was excellent as the audience really enjoyed the colourful portrait of Sihota’s personal and political life.
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.
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.
