Newsletter, November 19, 2005

[Divided We Fall]

Here's the Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath newsletter – our fifth installment! Where have we been, you ask? Missing us? We've been Busy busy busy! Read below...

Yale Law School
Full Story: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/dean-of-yale-law-school.html
and http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/covering.html

The last time you heard from us, we were continuing our production adventures in New York City.  Well, we packed up the van and headed north to the revered Yale Law School, where we talked to the dean Dean Harold Koh and Professor Kenji Yoshino. Dean Koh's expertise includes civil rights, and he spoke to us about the restriction of rights during times of war. Professor Yoshino addressed assimilation and how institutions in America "incentivize" assimilation, reward people for dropping parts of their cultural identity in order to be part of the mainstream.

Racial Profiling and James Oddo
Full Story: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/racial-profiling -and-james-oddo.html

Our trip in New York over, we started the drive down to Washington DC. But before we did that, we stopped in Staten Island to interview New York City Councilmember James Oddo.  He supports a measure that would remove racial profiling restrictions for the NYPD when searching people on the subway. This came in response to this summer's London train bombings. He proposes that random searches are useless, and officers should not have to face suspension if they search people who fit the profile and behavior of a terrorist.   New York print and television media has criticized him as an advocate of racial profiling. Despite our apprehensions, we wanted to hear his point of view even if we didn't necessarily agree with him. 

Impassioned and thoughtful, Oddo made it clear that he had his own reservations but in the end, felt it necessary to give up some freedoms to make his city safer for everyone.  He has decided to support this measure in order to prevent another 9/11.   It was important for us to hear the Councilmember's rationale.  Rather than demonize people with views different from ours, we're aiming to open a space for real dialogue and understanding, so that people can make up their own minds about important debates like this. 

Afterward, we drove down the New Jersey Turnpike, from the City that Never Sleeps, to the City That Takes a Long Time to Get Things Done (unofficial title).

Below the Beltway
Full Story: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/best-and-worst-of-america.html

Ahh, Washington. You can smell Bureaucracy in the air...

First, we revisited Sher Singh. Sher was interviewed by Valarie Kaur four years earlier. The day after Sept. 11, Sher was pulled off of a New York bound train in Rhode Island by 50 to 100 police officers in riot gear. Someone had reported him as "looking suspicious." His face was shown on national news for days as the first suspected terrorist. Four years later, he holds no ill will, all charges were dropped, and the city of Providence apologized. He was very gracious and forgiving. 

We continued our Washington tour with a round of experts. First was Deepa Iyer at South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT).  She talked to us about the history of discrimination against South Asians that pre-dates Sept. 11 and her experience as a former attorney at the Department of Justice in its Civil Rights division.

Defending Democracy
Full story: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/in-defense-of-democracy.html

Clifford May, President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, discussed his support of "terrorist profiling," not racial profiling. An advocate of the War on Terror and the Patriot Act, he explained to us that restriction of immigration and some profiling will strengthen America's resistance to terrorism.

After we heard May's rationale for terrorist profiling, we talked with Muneer Ahmad at American University Law School, who described the construction of a new racial category after 9/11: "terrorist-looking." This broad category includes anyone who is "Muslim-looking", including Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, South Asians in general, and all people whose faces are associated with the Enemy.

We also discussed why society's responses to past hate crimes, including the murders of James Byrd and Matthew Sheppard, were different from the response to the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi and the eighteen other people who were murdered in alleged hate crimes in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Muneer was our final interviewee.  As we were setting up, someone on our crew said to him, "We've been looking forward to talking to you for a long time!"

Yes, it's true, we concluded our principal photography with Muneer and the next day was our last day of production, filming Washington, DC in the rain.  Our last stop was the Capitol Building .

Valarie Kaur, who began the journey to make this film four years ago, filmed the last frame of footage just as she had videotaped the first. And then did a shameless Dance of Joy: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/08/last-day-of-production.html

Once again, we were able to exploit the good nature and of our families and friends. Many thanks to Tonse Raju and Vidya Raju (also the production's top investors) who donated their home to our crew and let us turn their basement into a makeshift studio. Thanks to Manu Raju and Archana Mehta for finding a suitable place for our dinner wrap party in DuPont Circle.

Spinning Wheel Film Festival
Full story: http://valariekaur.blogspot .com/2005/10/spinning-wheel-film-festival.html

After Washington, we wrapped up and headed back to Los Angeles for a fun-filled marathon of editing and post production. And it was, indeed, quite a marathon.

In a little more than thirty days, Valarie, director Sharat Raju and editor Scott Rosenblatt pulled together a full-length, two-hour-plus rough cut of the film. No small feat, considering they had to create a coherent story out of 130 hours worth of footage collected over four years!

And they managed to cobble this rough version together to show it to actual living people. Valarie and Sharat presented the "work-in-progress" rough cut to the Spinning Wheel Film Festival in Toronto with a chance for the audience to provide feedback to help improve the final film.

The Spinning Wheel Festival a holds a unique place in the history of Divided We Fall. Two years ago, Sharat showed his short film American Made at the first-ever Spinning Wheel – a festival devoted to Sikh films, filmmakers and stories. At the festival, Sharat saw Valarie's work-in-progress documentary, featuring gritty and raw interview footage recorded in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The two joined forces to bring these stories to the big screen, and Divided We Fall was born. 

Now, two years later, Sharat and Valarie returned with the "first draft" of the film, hot off the presses, so to speak. And we just barely made it, too – Sharat missed two flights trying to finish editing with Scott.

If you are on this list and were able to join us in Toronto, we would like to extend warm thanks for your input and assistance in helping improve the film. Judge and Dolly Brar, Valarie's parents, were there so support us.   And Sanjeev Brar showed up to the festival to surprise his sister. Also, thank you to Kulvir and Birender Gill, T. Sher Singh, Mandeep Singh Rayat , and everyone at Spinning Wheel. The film would certainly not exist if it wasn't for this festival.

We have listened to and read all the comments to help improve the film. It was a wonderful screening and we would like to thank everyone – your input has shown us new ways of looking and analyzing the film so we can make it as solid as we possibly can. 

And thank you all for enduring our on-the-road tales as we have endured them. Now, our tales should focus on the progress of the film, screenings, and festivals. We hope there are many; we know there will be at least some. But first, we have to finish putting the film together. Your help has been invaluable.

In the News
Full story: http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2005/09/east-valley-tribune.html

Despite not actually having a finished project, we have already received a fair amount of press. On the week of Sept. 11, 2005, the East Valley Tribune in Phoenix did a story on the anniversary of Balbir Singh Sodhi who was murdered in Mesa four years earlier. The story featured an extensive report on Divided We Fall and its progress.

Also, for those of you in the Indian community, you may have seen the large article on the front page of India West newspaper's entertainment section about this very documentary. It literally took up an entire page. Yikes.

Imagine what'll happen if we actually had a finished film... We're working on it!

What's Next?

We still need your help. As this is a grass-roots community based effort, we want you to be a part of the film. If you could share any of the following, that would be wonderful:

Sikh images, either footage or still photography or graphics (for use in the film).
TV footage (if you recorded Sept. 11 news coverage back then, or anything helpful).
Sikh artwork (also to be used in the film, the history of Sikhism)

And of course, funds. We need $10,000 immediately to finish our current stage of production. Any amount will help. Larger amounts will be considered investments and you can participate in getting a share of the film. If you are interested, please contact director Sharat Raju: Sha...@dwf-film.com.

A heartfelt, truly heartfelt thanks to some of our staff who have helped (and continue to help) so much along the way and on the road: Tracy Wells, our magnificent communications director who also joined the crew in New York and Washington; all our research assistants who have sent Valarie info on all our interviewees, as well as Jessica Jenkins our director of research. Without them, we wouldn't have had a film, or interviews, or anything. Thank you, extended staff...

And of course no amount of appropriate thanks can be given to cinematographer Matt Blute, camera assistant Don Presley, and producer Marcus Cano – tirelessly working for less than they are worth.

As for Divided We Fall – we have already started applying to various major film festivals which we will not name for fear of jinxing ourselves. As we continue to edit and refine the film, we will eventually try to infiltrate the festival circuit. With your support – verbal, monetary, spiritual and otherwise – we will be to get the word out so people can become a part of this unique film experience.

We bid you farewell, until next time...


DIVIDED WE FALL: AMERICANS IN THE AFTERMATH
Produced and Directed by Sharat Raju (sha...@dwf-film.com )
Produced, Written and Created by Valarie Kaur ( val...@dwf-film.com)
Visit www.dwf-film.com and valariekaur.blogspot.com .

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