February 2009

A panel discussion is followed, featuring director Baljit Sangra, Jagdeep and Sukh from the film, as well as social workers, community leaders, and police. This special forum will be a rare opportunity for the public to obtain a deeper understanding of the gang violence. We wish through open and constructive dialogue among different groups of the community, this event will bring new perspectives to this issue and helps to find solutions for the future.

Warrior Boyz (Director: Daljit Sangra / NFB / 2008 / 43 min 28 s / English)

To date, more than a hundred young men from the South Asian community have died in gang-related violence in Metro Vancouver. Gangs are a reality of urban life, yet behind the body count and the headlines, a far different battle is being waged. Educators and parents are taking action against gang violence.  This new documentary for the first time takes an unflinching look at the root causes of gang violence, and offers real solutions and a hard-fought hope for the future.

The film follows three young people in Surrey. She gives voices to them, letting them tell the struggling stories of their own.

A grade ten drop-out and ex-con, Jagdeep carries the reminders of his gang experience mapped across his body in the form of bullet wounds and machete scars. A steady pattern of escalation pulled him deeper into the criminal underworld until he says, “I guarantee it…I was gonna be dead.” His experience is a stark rejoinder to fifteen-year-old Tanvir, a slender teenager, whose life is a free fall of violence and alienation. Eighteen-year-old Vicky, who is struggling to graduate from high school, refuses to even talk about his past for fear of retaliation.

By stripping away the definition to figure out the reasoning behind it, we learn from the film that the gang fulfills an important need…the need for identity. In a world where memory and tradition are fading—replaced with suburban strip malls and fast food joints, where identity, social cohesion, goals, or a feeling of community is missing, a person will seek it out wherever they can.

 Behind the body count and the headline news stories, a far different battle is being waged. People on the front lines of gang violence, educators and parents are taking action. Sukh Rai, vice principal at a major Surrey secondary school, says kids are “looking for connections in the wrong areas, with the wrong people.” To puncture the bad-boy fantasy of gang life, he organizes slide shows of crime scenes that show the grim reality of bodies, blood and senseless death.

About the Filmmaker  

Filmmaker Baljit Sangra is a graduate of the UBC Film Program. She has worked as a director-producer for a number of different programs, including the arts and entertainment series VIVA! for City TV and Channel M. 

 For the contact of Baljit Sangra, please call 604-837-2976.

For more information about Warrior Boyz or to order DVD, please visit www.nfb.ca/warriorboyz.