Animated Short Film Interview ”AMERICAN SIKH” with Director/Producer Vishavjit Singh and Director Ryan Westra

Director/Producer Vishavjit Singh is an illustrator, writer, performance artist, diversity speaker and creator of Sikhtoons.com. He got his spark for cartooning in the post 9/11 tragedy when Americans with turbaned and bearded countenance became targets of hate crimes. 

For the past few years Vishavjit has been traveling across the U.S. with his Sikh Captain America persona, a Sikh man equipped with his turban and beard — fighting against bigotry, intolerance and perceptions of what an American should look like.

The short film, American Sikh will receive its world premiere at the OSCAR-qualifying Tribeca Film Festival. The film was created in partnership with Singh as the producer and Los Angeles-based director Ryan Westra.

Director Ryan Westra has been fortunate to capture many powerful and important stories. He’s traveled rural Punjab capturing undocumented stories of a Sikh genocide, documented the struggle of native peoples against oil companies in Montana.

He followed the HIV/AIDS outreach work of an NGO in Mozambique, edited an HBO feature documentary on reproductive rights, to name a few, and has had minor roles on Netflix and HBO series that deal with wrongful conviction and bringing cult leaders to justice. 

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