Religious Docs: Who Needs Them? Sheffield Doc/Fest

On Tuesday the 9th of June, I attended a panel discussion called “Religious Docs: Who Needs Them?" at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. The panel was put together by the Sandford St Martin Trust and an audio recording of the session can be heard here. On the panel was Abdul-Rehman Malik from Insight Film Festival, Martin Davidson from the BBC and Peter Well from CTVC. Roger Bolton from Sandford St Martin and BBC Radio 4's Feedback show chaired the panel.

As a filmmaker I recently finished the film 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival' about a Sikh festival, so naturally I was intrigued by the event.

It was a lively discussion between the panelists with various topics covered from TV shows,  media and religious topics overlapping. Martin Davidson had a chance to address the recent Daily Mail headlines about the BBC dropping religion from its remit. He insisted it wasn't. 

I was there as a filmmaker and to ask first hand what the BBC was doing to address the lack of programming that was available about minority religions.. So at 49 minutes and 29 seconds I had the following exchange.  

DS: I'm a filmmaker making Sikh documentaries and I've tried to engage with the different broadcasters over the years, and failed. The issue that I have at the moment is that my community is rarely represented on the screen and also other minority religions aren't really represented. What are you guys actually doing to engage with my community and other minority religions.

Roger: Can I just ask you, are you a documentary filmmaker who happens to be a Sikh or a Sikh documentary maker?

DS: Both. I address other subjects as well, but I feel as though the lack of content coming from broadcasters needs to be addressed. If they're not going to do it, other people need to step up and start creating content.

Roger: I don’t know what percentage of the population is Sikh, is it one percent or something like that?

Martin: I hear that. The two obvious answers again, as a floor not a ceiling, would be at the BBC1 we cover festivals in rotation and Sikh festivals would fall into that.

Secondly the Sunday morning programs we do, the discussion programs Sunday Morning Live and the Big Question series will often have Sikh panellists who are involved in the debates. To go a step beyond that, we're into the world of the usual documentary criteria which is: is the element of Sikh life in Britain or anywhere in the world that you want a light shone on, is the light you're shining on it going to offer enough that is compelling to a wider audience? It will be a requirement that it speaks to certainly Sikhs but it speaks again, the broadcast question again the conversation we would have the straight forward one we would have with anyone pitching a documentary which is 'Whats the story here?' 'Whats the case that you're making for why it needs to be commissioned?' and 'What is compelling enough about it as an idea to justify displacing all the other ideas and competition?'

DS: What I find interesting about that is, I as a person of colour can connect with different stories, lots of different stories that aren't a direct representation of me and that just seems like a bit of a cheap response.

Roger: Are you driven primary by the belief that there are things about the Sikh community which have not been explained to the wider world or are you simply saying 'I am a Sikh documentary maker who wants to make documentaries about a wide range of things but I'm penalised because I'm a Sikh. Which one, both?

DS: An element of both. What I see is, we have Christian documentaries, Jewish documentaries, Muslim documentaries and rightly so but beyond that we don't really have any other types of documentaries or programming for example 'In the footsteps of...' whichever faith. We don’t have anything beyond the three main religions. I watch other documentaries and I would be willing to watch any other documentaries and I find it a slightly dissatisfying that the response...

Roger: Can I speak to Peter about this. I think...

Martin: Let me give you one example of a project that we are actively considering. This is one of the things I was responsible for last year with a lot of our coverage marking the anniversary of the first world war, so Im talking to two Indian filmmakers who want to do a big film for probably either 2016 or 17, which is going to be taking a whole body of Sikh letters home, written by Indian soldiers who arrive, well first of all in Mesopotamia on the western front. Whose letters and experiences when they get back to India would trigger some of the early days of what would become the independence movement. We will do that, and one of the ideas of that will be the music and the reading of the letters will be done in the original language. So thats something. Why does that interest me, not at all because I thought 'good, that’s another faith community I can now forget about'. What interested me about that was exactly what I was saying by way of criteria. The body of letters. The experience at the heart of that story is really compelling and interesting and role after the first world war, of those men going back to their villages I thought was really really interesting historically. Now thats historical, now you may go 'that’s fine but it’s still dodging the issue of contemporary world'. My answer to that would be it is true, there is something compelling actually about the documentary filmmaker who can get into a closed world. We do find that absolutely interesting. I'm thinking of that great film about the Jewish community, what was it Volvo City? Got in there and I'm not a great student of the finer nuances of orthodox Judaism but I was absolutely riveted to see that that world, because I've seen members of that community. I've seen them in everyday life, and now you mentioned I have no idea what kind of home and social life that involves, so thats a big coup. So yes, what you shouldnt do in the same way the rhetoric I've used if the stories big up, I realise a lot of peoples eyes and glaze over at that answer but more productively I would say if you can bring 'I have got access to a Sikh community that will involve sequences because I have the trust of people I am filming, never been on Birtish television before. It's amazing that is a really powerful documentary calling card, because we are fascinated by peoples worlds. Sikhs are visible, you do, like a lot of communities peak curiosity. What are your lives like? What is a Sikh view of the world? How does that community  work?

Roger: Abdul wants to come in.


Abdul: I grew up in Canada, in west Toronto where there’s a big Sikh community and there was a lot of coverage and program making around Sikhs because Sikhs were considered dangerous around the 1980s. “Become a dangerous community” in inverted commas and you get noticed. That's the crass reality of commissioning. But with my Insight hat on, we should talk because I think for small festivals like us it’s a golden opportunity for us to program strands and bring in diverse voices and also the internal diversity within faith communities and talk about them in a way broadcasters won’t be able to and to be genuine and authentic because they won’t be able to because of their size and their limitations of their size.

It was an interesting experience and I'm sure I'll write about it all further at some point in the future.

I hope the BBC and others actually start making documentaries about Sikhs and other minority religions. We watch TV too and it's about time we had some representation. 


You can see a trailer for the Sikh documentary I've been working on called 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten festival' by clicking here.

To buy the documentary on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

Contemplation through the fields

For the exhibition currently running in Bradford at Kala Sangam, we selected over 20 photographs and commissioned two pieces of art to share the Hola Mahalla experience. Jag Lall is one of three artists whose art forms part of the exhibition. The other two artists are Dhanjal Art and Moninder Singh. Eventually we hope to bring you further interviews with everyone involved with the project.

Jag Lall visited the exhibition during the Bradford Literature Festival in May and we got the following filmed interview with him. We also have a further more detailed written interview with him below.

Q Introduce yourself?

My name is Jag Lall and I'm a free spirited artist.

Q Describe the different type of art that you produce?

My main two things are canvas paintings and graphic novels, comic book art. With my canvas paintings I say they're free spirited because they're very much my own personal expression, personal narrative. They're thought provoking, they're unique. You won't find my paintings, the imagery elsewhere because they're that unique, I give different and modern twists to contemporary images. and just try to give different meanings to my paintings as well. They're all acrylic based, I like to work quite large as well; very brisk, expressive brush strokes, thats definitely my signature look I think in my paintings. 

My graphic novels, they also kind of have a social commentary edge. I think its really important to me that art can make a difference and the whole use of imagery and narrative blended together for me works really well and I think allows me to give the messages that I want to the world. 

Q Which ones are examples with a modern twist? 

The one I did on Maharaja Duleep Singh, the painting I did of him where one wrist was tied to a British flag and one wrist was tied to the India flag. For me, just reading his story I didn't want to just copy a portrait that was done before. When I was reading about his story I kind of felt he was torn and tied between both countries and in a lot of ways I kind of feel like that as a British Asian if I'm honest living in England. Its like you know, motherland might be India but whats really home for me as well? So thats my own expression and own narrative I wanted to bring to the piece as well. 

In terms of a contemporary social definition, that painting has really resonated with people as well, especially British Asians. Our generation I think really feel like that, a lot of us feel quite torn between both. 

Q What was the piece that you were commissioned to do for the Hola Mahalla exhibition?

The piece I did for the Hola Mahalla exhibition is called 'Contemplation Through the Fields'. Originally I saw a photograph and if Im honest its one of the first few photographs I saw in my life which I looked at and thought I have to paint this. It had an emotion which really resonated with me; because when I think of Hola Mahalla I think of… well noise. I think of noise, I think of energy, vibrance, colour, and the photograph was quite subdued but it was almost like a shot in time, it had a stillness to it that really struck with me. It was very much opposite to what I would think of Hola Mahalla. So when I saw that I thought  "I had to paint it" and just try to recreate that emotion but in my own art, brushstroke expressive style. 

Original photograph for Contemplation Through the Fields

Original photograph for Contemplation Through the Fields

When I create all my paintings, as I mentioned Im quite expressive, so a lot of times I will quite literally splatter paint onto the canvas. A lot of drips, thats actually how I start my artwork, it's drips of colour, and splashes of colour.

In a way a lot of my paintings are like a sculpture and I try to work my way through it. You can kind of see that actually in the painting as well, if you look you can see the drips flowing through the canvas and its juts kind of my own signature work and emotion for me. There's a lot of energy to the painting, thats one thing I was really happy with the painting. Its got a stillness to it, with the boy leaning on the horse. Them two are quite still, but when you kind of look into it the brushstrokes are really fast and brisk. In a way it really captures the energy of Hola Mahalla without losing its stillness.

Q How long did it take?

Generally I take 10 to 12 hours doing a canvas painting but with this painting I felt it happened a lot quicker, so I'd say 8 to 9 hours tops I was able to finish this off.

I like to do a lot of sketch thumbnails before I start my main paintings. Obviously since this was already a photograph, that was in a way my thumbnail sketch. However I did make a mistake because I was so in love with the photograph. To begin with I just recreated that kind of composition and when I stepped back from the painting I noticed the boy on the horse were too much to the right and there was too much space to the left. The composition and the size of the painting, the size I was working at, the dimensions were slightly different to what was in the photograph, it wasn't working out. When I was about 40% finished, I completely scrapped the whole painting; did a couple of sketches; and shifted the whole thing to the right and also added a man on a horse behind and just switched the layout and composition to make sure it worked the way I needed it to. 

Q How does it fit within the exhibition 

That was one thing I was really curious to find, does it fit? Sometimes what I find with my art, because its so brisk and expressive it doesn't fit, but I think it really does fit, because a lot of the photography is really colourful as well. And obviously that painting has a lot of colour in it as well. It fits kind of seamlessly, it also blends in well with the other artwork as well as the photography.


Jag Lall's commissioned piece Contemplation Through the Fields can be seen as part of the Hola Mahalla exhibition at Kala Sangam, in Bradford throughout June.  If you're interested in purchasing the original canvas painting of Contemplation Through the Fields click here to register your interest.

You can see more of Jag Lall's artwork at www.jaglallart.com 

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

Commissioned artist JAG LALL visits the Hola Mahalla exhibition

Jag Lall made it to the Hola Mahalla exhibition currently running at Kala Sangam in Bradford over the weekend.

Jag was commissioned to produce the following piece of Art for the exhibition based on a photograph I took at Hola Mahalla.

You can order the prints of it by clicking here.

Whilst he was in Bradford I managed to film an interview with him that I will be sharing soon. Jag was here as part of the Bradford Literature Festival that we currently have running in the city. It's really positive to see events like this come to our city and good exposure for the exhibition as it broadens the audience beyond Bradford.

Jag had produced some art for a book of poems by Sir Mohammad Iqbal (1877-1938) that had been translated from Urdu to English. I was intrigued to discover that the Sir Mohammad Iqbal has composed a poem called 'Nanak' about the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. I'll be doing a bit of research on this and hope to share some information soon.

I also managed to get a few pictures with Jag.

I'll be sharing the filmed interview with him in a few days.

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

The exhibition can be seen at Kala Sangam, Bradford click here for more information. 

Thanks

D

 

 

Hola Mahalla Exhibition run extended to 30 June 2015

We got confirmation today that the exhibition 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival' has been extended to the end of June, which is brilliant news for the project. We'll eventually have three months showcasing the exhibition, which features Sikh imagery centred on Hola Mahalla, in a gallery space, in the city centre of Bradford.

It also gives those of you that haven't seen the exhibition already the chance to check it out.

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We're hoping to add a few more pieces over the coming days, so please do pay the exhibition a visit whilst it's on.

The launch on the 18 April was a great success and you can watch the video of the day below.

You can also see some of the photos from the launch by clicking here.

We managed to film the exhibition going up and you can see that process with our GoPro exhibition video below.

 


You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

A big thank you to the Kala Sangam team for their support and faith in the project. 

Thanks

D

GoPro Timelapse of Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival - Exhibition Preparation

When the exhibition was being put up, we decided to film the whole process. We've got a few videos filmed around the exhibition preparation and the first we're sharing was filmed using a GoPro camera. It looks pretty cool and can be seen below. We had it on the floor, in one of the corners to begin with and then moved it around. It's an interesting camera to have and one I will be experimenting more with on shoots going forward.

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It is a small camera and kind of disappears into the background. I think on the next shoot I'll try to utilise how small it is. It's so small I nearly left it there at the end of the shoot.

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

A big thank you to Matt from Kala Sangam for getting the exhibition on the wall and letting me film the process.

Thanks

D