SikhNet Youth Film Festival – Finish Line

I have been having problems with my internet connection at home for the past few days so haven’t been able to post anything on the blog, however I have been quite busy at the office! A few weeks ago I was feeling a bit dissapointed regarding the SikhNet Youth Film Festival. All of us at SikhNet put in a lot of time and effort to promote and encourage youth to get involved and make a video and we had only received a few submissions. My wife just kept telling me…to wait till the end….wait till the end..and she was so right.

The deadline for submitting a video is tonight (Aug 31st) and it seems like everyone is waiting till the last MINUTE to submit their video! Everyone must have been procastinating till they HAD to get busy with their poroject. Just last night we got about nine video submissions! It’s really exciting to review the videos and see the time and effort that everyone put into their videos. There is quite a variety and submissions from all over the world.

Right now I am in the process of editing and processing them to get them ready for display online. I am hoping to post them up tommorow…but we’ll see how things go.

The Judges for the competition will be people who have background in acting/creating films/documentaries,etc. None of us at the SikhNet office will be official judges. So far our confirmed judges are Waris Ahluwalia who was an actor in the American movie: "Inside Man" (A Spike Lee Movie with Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster and others) and "The Life Aquatic" with Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, and others). We also will have Ish Amitoj Kaur who produced the film "Kambdi Kalaai" and Our third Judge is Sartaj Dhami (Dasmesh Pictures) who has produced many great independent  videos promoting Sikhi. We might have a few more judges…but I am still working out the details.

I’m pretty excited and looking forward to sharing all the videos and creative talent that so man Sikh Youth have put into the SikhNet Youth Online Film Festival.

More to come in the next day or so! Back to work….

8 Responses to “SikhNet Youth Film Festival – Finish Line”

1. Prabhu Singh says:

   August 31, 2006 at 2:39 pm

   After the judging, the sangat could vote online for which one is their favorite. maybe?

   I want to vote for Gurumustuk as a judge. Gurumustuk Singh Ji you are the guy who inspires so many Sikhs (including myself) to share what we have/know/experience with others. Your efforts brought together the people and inspiration for these projects.

   That’s cool that you got Waris Ji to participate. If I met him I’d like to say that I enjoyed the ‘Inside Man,’ and hope that he continues to be successful. I feel like that one scene from ‘Inside Man’ did more for awareness of our community than so many other efforts. The other efforts are greatly appreciated, but that was surely one of the most widely seen efforts towards educating the populace about Sikhs. Props to Spike Lee too.

2. Gurumustuk Singh says:

   August 31, 2006 at 3:51 pm

   Haha… yeah…..I have friends who submitted the video…and I am too involved in all the videos and festival…so figured it would be best to get third party people who haven’t yet seen the videos to judge. If there is a tie breaker or something like that maybe I’ll make the choice. We’ll see.

   Many people have suggested having ratings… but that is very prone to rigging since it can be a matter of who get’s the most people to vote for their video. Also…I want to ensure that things stay positive and people encourage the participants. Most of them have never done anything like this and don’t have any background in doing film/videos…so one cannot expect them to all be “Professional”. I don’t want someone to feel bad because their video got rated “one star”.

   Everyone is a winner…just because they took the time and made the effort!

3. Harmeet says:

   August 31, 2006 at 4:07 pm

   Nicely said Gurmastak, I would like to purpose to you though that ratings and community votes would not be a bad thing. If someone is to improve they must really know how their video was. Its sometimes not bad to get one star to that you strive for better next time. Rest I am sure you guys have done the disscussions and are doing a great job with these sorts of competitions. I wish you the very best and keep up the great work!

4. Paneet says:

   August 31, 2006 at 5:59 pm

   Yay! I’ve been waiting to see the entries, I’m very excited about this. I have to say that this whole competition was a really great idea, and I’m so glad it worked out.

   Well, until tommorow then! (I hope they’re up tommorow!)

5. Gurkirpal says:

   September 1, 2006 at 6:14 am

   Gurumustuk

   bir ji just wondering how many videos you recieve for Sikhnet Film Festival

6. SikhSpeak says:

   September 1, 2006 at 1:49 pm

   Gurfateh JI!

   Whats the URI to see all the video enteries on SikhNet, I found it last time, can’t seem to now….

   Look forward to the winner…

7. Gurumustuk Singh says:

   September 1, 2006 at 1:52 pm

   SikhSpeek: We will be featuring some of the videos later on today. Check the SikhNet home page later on…and I’ll post info on my blog too.

8. SikhSpeak says:

   September 2, 2006 at 3:29 am

   Thanks…Lil Ol Impatient ME! (“.)