By: Simrit Kukreja
During last summer, Nishkam TV held a Virtual Filmmaking camp for kids, in which kids were taught the basics of filmmaking. Six teams participated in this camp, four teams were from Florida, one team from California, and one team from Boston. Each team used the skills they learned in the workshop to create a short film about values and beliefs taught in Sikhism. Two of those six films – The Vaccine and Turbanator are now in post-production stage. They are being edited and will be released soon. This summer, Nishkam TV has also been collaborating with SALDEF (Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) on a documentary. Read below to find out more about these productions.
The Vaccine
The Vaccine is a short film which was produced in the Virtual Filmmaking camp by Boston team., Boston Sikh Warriors productions. The Vaccine depicts the story of a family that goes through the difficult times during the pandemic and how they apply the values taught in Sikhi to help them get through these tough times.
In the film, the mom of a family tests positive for Covid-19, which causes the entire family to face the harsh realities of the pandemic.
Turbanator
Turbanator is another short film which was produced in the Virtual Filmmaking camp by the Florida team, Hurricane Khalsa Productions. Turbanator, as the term explains itself, is about the Turban. The Sikh ideology depicted in this film, primarily focuses on the turban, five kakkaars and their importance in the Sikh culture. The film begins with a Sikh family living in an area where other American families live with their kids. This film is about the challenges this family face due to their belief and appearance.
SALDEF (The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) 2021 SikhLEAD Program
SALDEF collaborated with Nishkam TV to create a video on COVID relief efforts executed by Sikhs around and across the world to be presented at the Parliament of World Religions Conference on Oct 17th, 2021. The project team consists of 3 students each from Nishkam TV’s content and production team with 9 Summer Interns from SikhLead program, 3 Nishkam TV advisors, mentor Harbaldeep Singh, SALDEF’s program director Sharan Kaur Singh and executive director Kiran Gill are part of the production of the documentary. The film will be split into 3 acts, the first being information about Covid, the second focusing on the Sikhi aspects, and the last, highlighting the contributions by Sikhs around the world during COVID pandemic. The documentary will showcase the COVID SEVA Sikhs have done throughout the pandemic.
