KDocsFF hosts 2SLGBTQIA+ documentary screening with KPU muralist in residence
Film subject Jag Nagra hosted a post-screening Q-and-A and brought viewers to the site of her new mural on the Surrey campus
Emergence: Out of the Shadows covers the experience of three queer South Asians, including Punjabi visual artist Jag Nagra. (Nyamat Singh/Diego Minor Martínez)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s social justice film festival, KDocsFF, screened Sher Films’ acclaimed 2SLGBTQIA+ documentary on Jan. 28 at the Surrey campus.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows follows the life of KPU Muralist-in-Residence and queer Punjabi visual artist Jag Nagra, as well as Kayden Bhangu and Alex (Amar) Sangha.
The screening at KPU focused on Nagra’s story and how she navigated her queer identity in a South Asian household.
The documentary, which was released in 2021, is directed by Surrey-based film director Vinay Giridhar and produced by Sangha, who is also the founder of Sher Pride.
Sher Films is Sangha’s production company and a division of Sher Pride, formerly Sher Vancouver, an organization that provides arts, cultural, and social services to the queer South Asian community in Metro Vancouver.
Worldwide, the film has been screened at more than 50 festivals, including the British Academy Film Award, Canadian Screen Award, and Oscar Award-qualifying festivals.
Emergence: Out of the Shadows is also a permanent part of the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive within the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley.
It includes subtitles and synopsis in English, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, and Portuguese.
After the film’s screening, Nagra answered questions from the audience.
She says the process of making the film was cathartic and that she was relieved to share her story along with her family.
“If my parents had gone to all these people and said, ‘My kids are gay, find a doctor to fix them,’ [and] had that narrative, that’s what other people would feed into,” Nagra says, adding that her parents have been supportive and accepting of her and her family.
“If my parents are proud of us, what is anybody going to say?”
Nagra says she has met many queer people in the South Asian community and hopes the film helps at least one child or family navigate this part of their identity.
“When the [film] idea came up, we just felt ready.”
Nagra would often find it hard to relive her childhood moments while watching the film in the beginning and would join in screenings during the panel discussion portions.
At this screening, however, Nagra was in the audience. She says watching the film makes her feel grateful for her parents, who she is very close to.
“A lot of people I’ve met, their parents don’t even acknowledge that they’re gay — even if they have a partner, they don’t acknowledge it,” Nagra said in the film.
Also in the documentary, Nagra expressed that seeing other queer people of colour coming together at the Vancouver Pride Parade through Sher Pride was life changing for her.
“It was the first time I had seen anybody celebrating being gay.”
After the Q-and-A, Nagra took attendees for a site visit of her mural in the Cedar commons area on the KPU Surrey campus.
The mural, commissioned by the Office of the Provost, KPU’s Faculty of Arts, KDocsFF, Sher Pride, and an Irving K. Barber grant, will be unveiled during a ceremony on Feb. 12 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.
