The Widow Colony

There is a very good interview with Harpreet Kaur of Sach Production who is responsible for the making of The Widow Colony on the Sikh Network News website.

From the interview:

The Widow Colony’ is a seventy-three-minute film that documents personal stories of women, in their own words, of what happened in November 1984, and how they have been surviving since then. The film takes an in-depth look into the lives of the widows of the Sikh men who were killed in the massacre. It unearths the sad and deplorable condition of most of these widows and their children living in the widow colonies of Delhi. It reveals their suffering, their battle for justice and their struggle for survival in India.

The final product is a gut-wrenching tale of what has become of the survivors of the 1984 pogroms against the Sikhs of New Delhi.

Along with the testimonies of the widows, supplemented with imagery of the killings and the destruction that followed after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the film conveys the intensity of the tragedy that occurred twenty-one years ago.

I’ve written previously about The Widow Colony and how the 13 minute freely available preview was show in London’s Trafalgar Sq in November 2005 on a giant screen at the end of Sikhs in the Square event. Despite the pouring rain and everybody wanting to get home after a long tiring day there was complete silence and stunned looks as the sangat and the general public heard the tearful stories of the Widows of 1984.

According to the website The DVD of the Widow Colony will not be available until November 2006 but there have been a number of screenings and more are planned. There are more details on the project available on the Sikh Research Institute website.

While I’m on the subject I’ll take this opportunity to inform the UK Sangat of the upcoming June 4th Remembrance March & Freedom Rally. You can see more details on the Campaign84

website. I know the sevadaars for this project are very busy behind the scenes and they expect to update their site with further information in the near future. Please book this datein your diary now and lets see the wider international Sikh community organising around the world on the 22nd anniversary of the 1984 June attacks. More details soon.

http://solarider.org/blog/

1 comment:

Anjali Kaur said...

Saw this film and think it's one that every Sikh should see. As well as every person of Indian Origin. This must never happen again.