By Vishavjit Singh - The competition is a rare attempt to expose and support artistic talent among Sikhs in the absence of any institutional support.

I love films, but have never attended a film festival. I love writing, but since I put my fingers on a touchpad to start creating Sikhtoons 4 years ago, writing has taken a backseat. All that changed this past weekend. I was invited to attend the 4th Spinning Wheel Film Festival in Toronto and display some of the most popular Sikhtoons at the festival.

I arrived in Toronto on the opening day of the festival. As I drove into downtown Toronto all I saw was glassy high rises and condos nestled here and there with structures from the past. Isabel Badel Theatre on the University of Toronto campus was the venue for the festival. The entries for the Spinning Wheel Arts Competition graced the halls of the theatre. Black and white photographs of hand held shastars, paintings of Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur, grandmother holding a child among other entries introduced the latent artistic talent within the Sikh community.

A sitar-sarod jugalbandi commenced the festival followed by a Scottish Sikh comedian, in his Scottish lungi, introducing a movie about him 'Hardeep Does Race'. The movie explored the identity of a Dastaar-wearing olive-skinned man in a predominantly Anglo-Saxon nation. The stage was set for the next 27 movies that screened during the next 2 days.

The first night at the festival came to a gustatory end with servings of rajma, saag, stuffed baingan and not so hot makki-di-roti. For dessert I had an amazing revelation from the past. I was introduced to a Singh in a multi-color patterned Dastaar. We exchanged introductions and the Singh asked me where I was from. I said New York and he said before that. We kept going back in time until we stopped at first grade in Guru Harkrishan Public School, New Delhi, 30 years ago. I can't remember my own face in first grade and this Singh who had only shared the first grade with me before moving to another school remembered me well by my face. I was stunned as he blurted out names of other kids I went to school with. What a serving of photographic memory. The festival was already turning out to be a memorable experience.

Saturday started as a cold crisp day with the first session featuring Kambdi Kalaai by Ish Amitoj Kaur. The movie revolves around the challenges faced by the Sikh Diaspora but could apply to the identity crisis in the land of the Gurus as well. The movie is an earnest attempt at preserving the Sikh identity. Seminars exploring inspiration and raag in film filled up the breaks between the next two sessions of films.

As moviegoers had chance to explore the arts on display I met an admirer of Sikhtoons who applauded me on exploring controversial topics like 1984. I asked him if 9/11 was controversial. The answer was no. Then why is exploring the 1984 genocide of Sikhs controversial?

I joined the film 'Harmony' midway as it followed a funny devout Canadian Sikh who discovered a simple need to explain Gurbani to young Sikhs in English. As his podgy fingers tap on the harmonica the calm serene Sikh shares his love of Gurbani where ever he goes. Warrior Saints by Kevin Lee is a work in progress that explores the journey of a victim of a hate crime in New York City rediscovering the Sikh values of grace and courage. The last session on Saturday was the treat of the day featuring the 10 minute long 'Jeeta Jatt' parodying the stereotypical Punjabi films with loud speaking Punjabi hero confronting an equally loud speaking anti-hero.

The last day of the festival brought warmer temperatures and I hitched a quick taxi ride to scale atop the iconic CN tower. After gracing a birds-eye view of Toronto I was back at the festival. I had the opportunity to meet many Canadian fans of Sikhtoons and one journalist from an Indian newspaper who was not very amused at my work. He asked about me being in Delhi during the genocide of 1984 and what I thought about Manmohan Singh being a Prime Minister of India. I told him the Prime Minister was intelligent, hard working and honest man who worked for the party responsible for the 1984 genocide of Sikhs. His apology for the 1984 genocide was like a German Jew apologizing for the holocaust. The Indian journalist walked away with a smirk on his face.

The afternoon session featured the only professional story teller in the Sikh panth. Roop Singh from the United Kingdom is blessed with a rare gift of connecting with young children and not so young ones like myself and by semantic osmosis sharing kernels of Sikh values. His live act had the full house in rapt attention.

The second to last session featured diverse films showcasing Toronto's tabla king Gurpreet Singh, a psychiatrist exploring the paradoxes within the self, the Sikh martial art of Gatka, Americans not knowing jack about Sikhs and documentary on the latest sports star in the United Kingdom, Mudhsuden 'Monty' Singh.

The festival came to a tearful close with the screening of the award winning documentary 'Widow Colony' taking an in-depth look at the lives of widows of the Sikh men burnt alive in the anti-Sikh pogroms in 1984. As a survivor of the 1984 genocide and witness to police guided mobs unleashing murderous rage at Sikhs, the film brought tears to my eyes. The brainchild of the husband wife team of Harpreet Kaur and Manmeet Singh the documentary is as much an indictment of the Indian state's crimes against humanity as the abandonment of the victims by the Sikh community at large. As the 22nd anniversary of the 1984 genocide approaches with most Sikhs turning a blind eye, the words of a widow scream loud and clear, 'this won't be the last time for such killings'.

The festival left a feeling of creative and purposeful energy for participants coming from Canada, United States, United Kingdom and beyond. The festival is a 100 percent voluntary effort of a couple dozen young and vibrant Sikhs from Toronto area who put on the most professional event anywhere in the Sikh nation. I am looking forward to next year’s festival.

Note: The author is the creator of Sikhtoons.com.