Film about Sikh awareness made by non-SIkhs

Within six months after its official release, the film MISTAKEN IDENTITY won three first prize awards (The Golden Lion Award for best documentary), The Remi Statuette for "creative excellence" competing with 4,500 entries and the NYIIFV Festival's (debut director for documentary) at American Film Festivals.With the announcement of the "global media event" in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA., screenings were held across the USA (over 33 States completed); Canada (Ottawa's House of Commons; etc.,), and now the film will move across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean to have its India premiere on Doordarshan TV, after the successful screenings in across the major cities in the United Kingdom where large communities of Sikh reside.

Vinanti Sarkar

The film is but "a drop in the ocean" ­ about one ethnic community while promoting the identity of over 500,000 British Sikhs. MISTAKEN IDENTITY is the first film (six part series) produced by two non-Sikh women, who have been producing dramatic culturally diversified films to inform and educate North Americans.

Hosted by 22-year old Host Amanda Gesine (who conceived the idea of the TV program) the one hour film shows how she discovers her Sikh neighbors five days after 9/11.

Amanda Gesine was the inspiration behind Mistaken Identity. A 22-year-old student at Georgetown University, Amanda passed away in a tragic accident on 14 June 2002.

Never having had a Sikh friend in school or college, she saw how American Sikhs were immediately, racially profiled, verbally abused and physically assaulted simply because they wore turbans and beards and mistaken for terrorists.

A white girl, sheltered like so much of the mainstream populations in North America and the UK, she existed behind the whitepicket fence, which separate "the others". As the Youth of the new millennium, she immediately saw the light at the end of the tunnel and sought to break new grounds in promoting films of cultural diversity to mainstream populations, because she felt they are more relevant now than ever, especially as her favourite class at Georgetown University (Washington DC) was "cultural diversity."

The film demystifies the enigma of Sikhs (first ethnic group filmed) and shares the hopes and desires of people from all walks of life who seek to close ranks against bigotry and hate, and take a united stand against terrorism which results from fear and ignorance. It focuses directly on the concerns of multicultural diversity and tries to educate people about new strange immigrants "and asks for tolerance, respect and understanding of next door neighbors."

The film is Amanda Gesine's legacy to the world as she had a freak accident, after spending ten months of her young life working on completing the film. It is her contribution to inform and educate … by sharing her own efforts of distancing ignorance and fear about fellow neighbours … Visit www.cultural-diversity.co.uk where you can review 3-4 min of the film on streaming video …

Sponsored by UK's Jean Bartlett, Managing Director of The Bag Lady www.bagladyit.com in Cardiff, Wales. For more information contact: Ms Nims Sarkar, Managing Director, Celebrating Cultural Diversity (CCD), 59 Vicarage Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 0SR Tel: 0121-427-5991 Email: Producer/Director vsarkar1@earthlink.net for availability of DVD.

Frontline comments: RIP AMANDA, the work you did for the Sikh Community will never be forgotten God Bless Your Soul!