The “Project S” program was launched over ten years ago to address the lack of exposure to Sikhs in the mainstream media.
Through “Project S” Chapman University undergraduate/graduate film students travel abroad to film five to eight Sikh-themed films. “Project S” is a two-semester course. The summer semester is focused on pre-production and on-site filming and the fall semester involves postproduction. The courses are taught by Chapman faculty and provide the students with course credit. It is a very unique program—no other university has anything like it. The classes have previously gone to Thailand, Malawi, the UK, and Australia. The latest class traveled to France where they made five films. The films include topics such as an activist who fights against a French law that bans the wearing of religious symbols; a French man who was raised Catholic and converted to Sikhism; the story of a Sikh family who fled Punjab for France after the attack of 1984; and the first elected Sikh in France.
These films were premiered at our virtual Sikhlens: Sikh Arts & Film Festival 2020.