We're Not Strangers
Satpal Singh Sidhu traces the 1907 Bellingham riots, when a mob drove Punjabi mill workers out of town. A century later, neighbors still called the Sikhs strangers.
- Year
- 2013
- Runtime
- 15 min
- Director
- SPENCER CREIGH
- Executive Producer
- Satinder "Bicky" Singh
- Produced By
- Sikhlens, CUR RENT DISTRICT
- Location
- USA
Synopsis
Satpal Singh Sidhu came from Punjab to Canada in 1979. Land in Whatcom County was far cheaper, but Sikhs were not crossing to live in Bellingham. A small note in the Bellingham Herald sent him looking for the anniversary of the riots.
The film says at least 200 Punjabis worked in Bellingham's mills around 1906 and 1907. A mob gathered. Police kept the workers in the City Hall basement. By morning they had left town to save their lives.
In 2007 the city marked September 4 as a day of healing. Sidhu says about 2,500 Sikhs live in Whatcom County now, and Sikh farmers grow almost half the county's berries. When a neighbor called them strangers, he answered that they are not strangers.
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Film Credits
- Director
- SPENCER CREIGH
- Executive Producer
- Satinder "Bicky" Singh
- Producer
- SPENCER CREIGH, SATPAL SIDHU
- Produced By
- Sikhlens, CUR RENT DISTRICT
- Writer
- SPENCER CREIGH
- Editor
- Stephen Erdman
- Cinematography
- MICHAEL BARTH
- Music
- Trevor Doherty
- Sound
- NEIL KOPEREK
- Film Location
- Bellingham, Washington
- Runtime
- 15 min
- Festival Screenings
- Sikhlens Arts and Film Festivals
- Cast
- SATPAL SIDHU, DR. PAUL ENGLESBERG, GURPREET SINGH, SPENCER CREIGH, INDERJIT SINGH, ANDREJ SINGH, STUDENTS OF MR. STEVE LAWRENCE