Surrey, British Columbia – Canadian indie documentary heading to Frameline in San Francisco, having a double festival premiere at KASHISH and MIFF in Mumbai, and picks up a major award at the UK Asian Film Festival in London.
FRAMELINE IN SAN FRANCISCO
Local Surrey film director Vinay Giridhar’s debut feature indie documentary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, is an official selection at Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival which is entering its 46th year. Frameline is billed as the longest-running, largest, and most widely recognized queer film exhibition event in the world, with an annual attendance of around 80,000.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows is screening on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at 11 am PST at the Roxie Theatre at 3117 16th Street in San Francisco. Director Vinay Giridhar, producer and cast Alex Sangha, and cast Jaspal Sangha will be flying down to San Francisco for the screening for a live question and answer with the audience. At Frameline, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, is eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The film will also be part of Frameline’s Pride Encore Streaming window from June 24th to 30th. Telefilm Canada is partially paying to send the cast and crew to San Francisco to attend Frameline in person.
DOUBLE FESTIVAL PREMIERE IN MUMBAI AT KASHISH AND MIFF
In addition, Emergence: Out of the Shadows is on its way to the film and entertainment capital of India at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival which is entering its 13th year. KASHISH is considered South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival and one of the largest pride events in all of India. Emergence: Out of the Shadows is one of only five films that is going to screen in the Documentary Features Competition Section. KASHISH 2022 is being held physically from June 1st to 5th at Liberty Cinema in Mumbai, and online from June 3rd to 12th on Shift 72.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows has also been selected in the International Competition Section, in the category of Documentary Film at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). MIFF is one of the oldest and much sought-after competitive festivals for documentary, short fiction, and animation films in South Asia. MIFF has been running for an amazing 32 years.
The screening of films will be held from May 30 to June 4, 2022, in Films Division Complex in Mumbai, India.
EMERGENCE WINS MAJOR AWARD AT UK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
The documentary just had its London and England premiere on May 6, 2022, at the UK Asian Film Festival (UKAFF) which is the oldest South Asian film festival in the world outside of India where it picked up one of the major awards of the festival at the Closing Night on May 15, 2022, for the Best Film Award for Championing Change. “We had some really amazing films running in the competition for the award, but your film was a standout and unanimously loved by the UKAFF Jury” states Dr. Toyeba Mushtaq, Project Manager, UK Asian Film Festival.
Furthermore, each year the UK Asian Film Festival has a workshop called the Emerging Curators Lab where the three best films from that year’s festival are screened to help students understand how to curate a film. The three films compete for the Emerging Curators Award. One of the films chosen for this year’s workshop was Emergence: Out of Shadows.
In addition, BFI Player streamed Emergence: Out of Shadows from May 4th to May 15th so that people around the United Kingdom can watch it. They have just selected 3 films out of the 32 films that were screened at the UK Asian Film Festival and Emergence: Out of the Shadows is one among them. The BFI is a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK’s lead organization for film and the moving image.
“As an emerging BIPOC filmmaker, I am so grateful that my film is being embraced by some of the biggest LGBTQ+ and South Asian film festivals in the world. I made Emergence: Out of the Shadows to educate the South Asian and broader community and break down barriers so no kids are disowned because of their sexuality. I want to give hope and spread a message that we must all love one another and be kind,” states the film’s director and editor Vinay Giridhar.
Thank you to Frameline, KASHISH, MIFF, the UK Asian Film Festival, and over 37 other festivals for shining a light on our stories and giving our little grassroots indie film a chance. Emergence: Out of the Shadows had a shoestring budget and is really a community project. Many organizations, supporters, and partners largely from Surrey and Vancouver, and other parts of British Columbia came on board to finance the documentary. We are so grateful that our film is finding an audience and having an impact around the world,” states producer and cast Alex Sangha.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows has been picked up for broadcast television by TVO, Knowledge Network, and OUTtv in Canada, and by Moving Images Distribution of Vancouver for the Canadian educational market.
OFFICIAL TRAILER
The official trailer is approaching 18K views!
OFFICIAL WEBSITE HAS POSTERS AND STILL PHOTOS
SYNOPSIS
For Kayden, Jag, and Amar, awakening to and expressing their sexuality within conservative South Asian families was a lonely and terrifying experience. Denial, shame, and despair haunted their youths, even threatening their lives. Yet, they’ve emerged. In the gripping feature documentary Emergence: Out of the Shadows, the disparate journeys of Kayden, Jag, and Amar candidly converge around a shared sense of compassion and healing as they bravely convey their often heart-wrenching stories. Confronted with tradition and taboo in their Punjabi Sikh cultures, resisting silence, Jag’s parents and Amar’s mother choose love over rejection, offering courage and inspiration to individuals and communities struggling with acceptance. Tender, thoughtful and teary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows asserts a potent and transformative voice in support of marginalized queer youth and their families.
NEW ONE MINUTE CLIPS FROM THE DOCUMENTARY
MEET JAG
MEET AMAR
MEET KAYDEN
MEDIA CONTACT
Alex Sangha
Producer of Emergence: Out of the Shadows
Founder of Sher Vancouver
WEBSITE LINKS
FRAMELINE
UK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL CHAMPIONING CHANGE AWARD
KASHISH
MIFF