This documentary uses animation and archival imagery to bring to life our history. This story is of a darker moment in Canadian history – when racist regulations were rampant in our country. Bonfire and Historica felt that representation was paramount on this project, reaching out to the Sikh community to collaborate with the very talented Paneet Singh and Angela Aujla. As a writer, Paneet brought his beautiful and distinct voice to this script and as an artist, Angela’s tactile and transformative art leaps right off the screen.

Working with Angela, we identified moments in the script that would best be brought to life by her style of repurposing archival materials, or creating something new where archival was not available. We began by visualizing each scene, sketching out how it would come together. Angela then de-constructed her sketches by creating separate layers of colour-treated black and white cutout archives, objects, textures and original illustrations. We scanned her IRL art into After Effects, item by item, and re-composited the scenes digitally. Each of her tactile elements were then animated, building and bringing to life these new iterations of moments in time.

Credits
Writer: Paneet Singh
Illustrator: Angela Aujla
Director, Creative Direction: Graeme Mathieson
Producers: Caitie Drewery, Steve Lang
Narrator: Reza Dahya