US Public TV Stations To Beam Docu On Guru Nanak

The first-ever English documentary on Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, will be seen all over America during the Christmas holidays.

From December 23 to 25, World Channel through public TV stations will show this film during prime time in all time zones in the country targeting 80 percent of the United States. There will be 97 primetime airings in 68 cities and 151 airings total in 86 cities, the National Sikh Campaign said in a statement.

Film directors Jerry Krell and Adam Krell of Auteur Productions spent 10 months to produce the film on Guru Nanak coinciding the 550th birth-anniversary of the Guru last year.

The film was shot in India, Pakistan and various parts of United States. Besides narrating the Guru’s history and key points of his teachings, the documentary features such prominent Sikh luminaries ranging from Grammy nominee Snatam Kaur, to the first Sikh mayor in the US, Mayor Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken New Jersey, to show how his positive legacy continues.

Gerald Krell said, “I feel privileged to work on this film and it was a great learning experience for me and my team. We feel that the world need to know about Guru Nanak who was ahead of his times. The documentary will serve as a worldwide educational outreach catalyst for community, dialogue and interfaith understanding.”

National Sikh Campaign has supported the making of this documentary. Recent polls by NSC have shown that there is total ignorance about Guru Nanak in the Western world. Shawn Ghuman, the co-founder of NSC, said, “This film which interweaves the story of Guru Nanak’s life, and how his spiritual legacy is carried out by outstanding Sikh Americans in science, medicine, arts, and public service, will no doubt create much-needed awareness about him.”

The film has received major awards at various film festivals which include the ‘Best Director’ ‘Best International Documentary’ and ‘Best Cinematography ‘ award.

Gurwin Singh Ahuja, Co-Founder and Executive Director of NSC expressed excitement at this national broadcast and said, “Although Guru Nanak founded the fifth-largest religion in the world, Americans and the western world know little about him. We are very confident that his message and this film will be received very positively all over America.”

Amritpal Singh, Chair of NSC, “This is perhaps the greatest exposure about Guru Nanak and we are very pleased that this will help in dispelling some of the misunderstandings about Sikhs and Sikhism.”

Dr. Rajwant Singh, Founder of EcoSikh, said, “Guru Nanak’s ideas of equality for all, gender empowerment, service to others and devotion to the environment are more needed than ever. The world is divided in so many ways. This is why this film can play a major role in spreading his positive message.”

This film will reach 71 million households and will potentially reach 170 million people.

They also interviewed authors like Dr. Nikky Guninder Kaur, Mark Juergensmeyer, Ambassador Ahmed Akbar, Ambassador Navtej Sarna, Robert Thurman, Bishop John Chane and Kamla Kapur. (ANI)