Festival Schedule

In 1940s Vancouver, a South Asian woman defies public backlash and confronts a city council meeting to fight for her right to purchase a home in a white neighborhood.

Though their numbers are relatively small in the United States, Sikhs are a vibrant, resilient community who have made significant contributions to American life. This documentary uses footage from one of Sikhism's principal festivals to explain the faith's major tenets and the historical events that, over the past century, brought Sikhs from India to the United States, offering a well-rounded picture of who Sikhs are and why they call America home.

Gurneet is pregnant and hoping for a boy so she can fulfill her duty as a wife and continue the family name. Already the mother of two daughters, she learns she's having another girl, and is immediately pressured by her mother-in-law to get rid of it. Gurneet struggles with her decision as she's reminded by her husband, her culture, and society of the importance of having a boy.

Mina, a 40-year-old deaf woman, lives a quiet, meticulous life with her young son, until she spots her 25-year-old neighbor preparing to take his own life. Unable to hear or speak, she races against time with nothing but a plan and a container of food, hoping to delay his decision long enough to get help. Told with urgency and poetic restraint, Zona Cesarini unfolds in real time, its title borrowed from a football term for the decisive moments when hope seems lost, but change is still possible.

A gripping psychological drama that follows a British family's struggle to manage the repercussions of a traumatic past, when one morning the monstrous memories come swarming back.

For centuries, the female voice has often remained in the background of Gurbani Kirtan, but GAAVANI: Her Journey Home follows 31 women on a landmark tour from California to Punjab's historic Gurdwaras, where they share Kirtan in its original classical forms for the first time in Sikh history. Through breathtaking visuals and soul-stirring soundscapes, the film reveals these women as vital carriers of wisdom, faith, and strength, bringing 556 years of heritage into vivid contemporary focus.

Mother Kili follows an extraordinary group of Sikh women who come together to summit Mount Kilimanjaro as the first all-South-Asian female team to attempt the climb. What begins as a physical challenge becomes a profound journey of identity, healing, and reclamation, a celebration of courage, community, and the unbreakable bonds that shape us. It is not just a summit story. It is a story of rising.

Amandeep Kaur was born in Ludhiana. She got married at 24 and arrived in Italy in 2010, in Soriano nel Cimino, near Viterbo. Nobody spoke English. She learned Italian. There was no gurdwara in Viterbo. They went to Terni for a few years, then established one here, and in 2016 bought the place. She started kirtan right away. Last year they started Gurmukhi lessons for the second generation. Now Italy is her home. She sees herself doing kirtan, helping her daughter, and doing seva for people who do not speak Italian.

In this hybrid documentary, the ghost of Vidyawati Devi haunts the banks of the river Sutlej in Punjab, the same river where her ashes were immersed in 1975, and where her son, the young revolutionary Bhagat Singh, was secretly disposed of after his execution by the British Raj. The Mother, The Sons, and The Holy River is a journey to the heart of the Sutlej and its banks, merging reality with fiction, past, folktale, history, and memory into an unfolding narrative.

The film tells the story of Peter Singh and Nino Kaur, a South Delhi couple who have transformed their house into one of the cleanest-air homes in the country. With over 15,000 plants, solar power, rainwater harvesting, and natural construction techniques, they maintain an indoor AQI of just 10–15 even when the city outside is choking with pollution. Built as a healing sanctuary after Neno’s battle with cancer, their home is a living example of how care for the environment can also care for the people within it.

This documentary captures the energy and spirit of Bruin Bhangra, the student-led Bhangra team at the University of California, Los Angeles. Set within the broader context of Sikh Student Associations (SSA) across North American campuses, the film explores how Bhangra has evolved beyond dance-becoming a powerful expression of identity, community, and belonging for Sikh and Punjabi youth.

Disgraced and disowned, a defiant village inventor gets one last shot at redemption when a royal crash sparks a class war, forcing him to race not just for glory, but for justice.

Kesar's path intertwines with a mystical Fakir during a profound 40-day pilgrimage. Amidst spiritual awakening, the boy navigates the tender complexities of adolescent love shadowed by the pain of parting.

Spirit of the Game follows former cricketer Raj Ghai as he shares his lifelong passion for cricket with a new generation of young players in Southern California. Through coaching and mentorship, Ghai is helping grow the sport in America while passing forward the discipline, community, and spirit at the heart of the game.