Through animation, meet the Sikh Captain America
Embracing his true identity as an American, Vishavjit Singh, a cartoonist took on a distinct persona.
A sneak-peak of the “American Sikh” film that tells the story of Sikh Captain America, writer and cartoonist Vishavjit Singh. (Image Courtesy of Vishavjit Singh).
His skinny-fit Captain America suit includes a long, warrior-style beard and a beautifully tied turban around his head. He steps outside the cab near Fifth Avenue, close to Central Park. Vishavjit Singh, Sikh Captain America and a cartoonist go around New York City provoking people into thinking differently about superheroes and the Sikh community.
But behind the Sikh Captain America persona is a story of seeking acceptance in an intolerant world and the upcoming animated film ‘American Sikh’ follows his journey of accepting his own identity.
Due to the lack of representation and the statistically small global population of Sikhs as a whole, the vast majority of Americans and the world at large know almost nothing about Sikhs. Lack of knowledge is not only an education and awareness issue but historically is the root of many issues such as xenophobia, intolerance, racism, and violent hate crimes.
As Vishavjit, now 50, walks around in his Sikh Captain America costume, fellow Americans respond with stares and verbal attacks.
“I'm passionate about using storytelling to get people to reflect and talk about difficult topics like bias, racism, and prejudice,” he said, sitting in his home gazing at his webcam.
This was not something Vishavjit planned out. It started with a Sikh Captain America illustration he created as a cartoonist.
Fiona Aboud, an NYC-based photographer saw the poster at a comic show and asked him to dress up as Captain America. He refused and it took her a year to convince him to dress up as Sikh Captain America.
Their collective motivation was to counter the stereotypical narratives about what it means to be American and broadly short-circuit the whole notion of judging people based on shallow perceptions.
Vishavjit worked for an IT company 15 miles north of New York City. One day as part of his routine, he watched the news online before going to work to see what was happening in the world. When he witnessed the plane crash into one of the buildings, he remembered it to be Yahoo News.
Several hours later, CNN was on a television in the cafeteria and people gathered around to watch what was happening. The first tower had fallen. The second tower was falling.
It took only minutes for people within the same organization to give him strange looks, as if he was the one responsible. In the morning, when Vashavjit and his brother drove to work on the highway, people flipped them off. Many would roll down their windows and scream at them.
“We felt so uncomfortable.”
“When I was walking out on the streets, didn't matter, adults, men, and women, white, black, Hispanic, people, in general, gave us strange locks,” he took a deep breath and said, “I was called Osama Bin Laden countless times by people from all walks of life.”
Unfortunately, he grew accustomed to that because it never stopped for weeks, months, and years.
“I was reminded every day in America that somehow I am not American.”
It was a very difficult time for Vishavjit. He said, “I was lucky I did not get physically assaulted. My wife was a few years later physically assaulted. I have friends who've been punched who've been driven off highways.”
Rayan Westra, a Los Angeles-based director and cinematographer who specializes in documentary and commercial content, came up with the concept of capturing Vishavjit's life story.
Vishavjit was born in Washington D.C. but his parents decided to move back to India when he was just a kid. He went to a Sikh school where other kids looked like him.
“At school, it felt like home… but out on the streets, people teased me a lot. Wearing glasses was not a thing back then.”
It was so prominent that it had a profound impact on him and he started to question his self-identity. Singh took off his turban and beard and gave up his Sikh identity while in college after experiencing bullying and stereotyping when he moved back to the U.S. from India.
Vishavjit had a profound impact on the 1984 Sikh Genocide. Since a lot of my family is from Punjab. He remembered that he was saved because his family lived in a government-owned complex.
In 2014 there were three cinematographers one of them being Ryan who travelled from California to New York to Vishavjit’s house to show Americans the story of the Sikh Captain America.
“For three days they just followed me. I dressed up as Captain America and we were going up and down New York talking to people. They orchestrated how I would walk around and talk to people and shatter stereotypes.”
They made a 10-minute documentary called “Red, White and Beard” and posted it on YouTube in 2015 as an educational tool. Ryan approached Vishavjit in late 2018 and started working on a concept to make a short animated film showcasing Vishavjit’s whole life.
“We created the storyboard, interviewed a lot of animators and we decided to go for top-notch animation as it will be the very first film in America focusing on a Sikh.”
They needed money for the whole project to come to life so they made a crowdfunding solution using Kickstarter to get sufficient funding for the Sikh American Film by mid-October 2023.
By early 2023 this film was ready and it was the first Sikh American Film running for fellow Americans to watch. “We have 20 cuts of this film. Ryan has been user-testing this film with a lot of his friends and the film-making community. All being non-Sikhs as this film is not exclusive to Sikhs but for everyone.”
These days, they have gotten to the point where they have gotten the movie screened at a few different film festivals around New York.
“It’s a Sikh film, but it is an American story. We want to represent Sikhs in the American cultural landscape.”
Vishavjit reflects on his story and says, “My goal is to keep traveling across the globe, virtually and physically, and keep dropping seeds of change through storytelling and art. And of course, a lot of that art is going to have turbans and beards."