Last November, a few members of Excelsior club were invited onto the set of a movie to help out behind the scenes alongside our partners from Kidsplay Foundation. It was an exciting opportunity to be part of a film industry project because to date, the Canadian entertainment and film industry have not been very inclusive. We are a country made up of immigrants from all across the globe so all of our stories should be represented in the media as we all now live in Canada together. However, it's not always obvious how interconnected we all are. The short film "Promises" helps to show how our histories intertwine in profound ways. It features a re-enactment of a battle that took place in Italy during WW2 in which Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army are portrayed fighting side-by-side with Canadians against the Nazis, as they did historically during the Italian Campaign in 1943-1944. The film also touches on the story of the Punjabi troops that fought alongside Canadians in WW1.
Actually more than 1.3 million South Asians served in WW1 and over 2.5 million in WW2. The majority of these combatants hailed from the Punjab region of India- specifically from the ancestral lands of those Indo-Canadian pioneers that settled Canada as British Subjects at the onset of the 20th Century. Punjabi soldiers fought alongside their Canadian brothers-in-arms as fellow British citizens (Canadian nationality was enacted in 1947) under one flag and a common Crown, yet their contributions to our democracy and freedoms go overlooked in classrooms, media, and in Remembrance. Indus Media Foundation, the producer of the film, seeks to address this deficit in awareness through "Promises." Being on the film set at the invitation of Indus Media Foundation was an exciting opportunity where we helped out behind the scenes to set up tents and keep the catering, sanitizing, security, wardrobe packing and clean up aspects of the shoot running smoothly. It was an exhausting day but at least we didn't have to fill sandbags for the war scenes as our counterpart volunteers had to do on the film set in the Okanagan the week before! Over all it was an incredible experience and the excelsior club is honoured to have been part of it. More information about the movie can be found here : www.Promises.Movie Comments are closed.
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