War/Peace

Warpeace is my second feature documentary film. My first documentary film The Boys of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn (Brooklynin pojat) premiered in Finland in Fall 2014. My background is in theater. I graduated from the Theater Academy of Finland in 1997 with a Master Degree of Acting. Later I studied filmmaking in New York Film Academy. I lived in the USA 2000-2007 traveling and living as a yogi. Now I live in Helsinki with my 11-years old son. I run a yoga school, and write and direct documentary films.

http://www.inderjitkaurkhalsa.com

I have worked in the film industry from 1995, both in Europe and in Australia. I was born in Finland but in 2003 migrated to Australia and has since called both of the countries home. Currently I am living in Sydney.

I have worked as a producer in both feature films and TV programmes and started production company Greenlit Productions in 2011. Company’s focus is to produce quality drama and documentaries and as a producer my aim is to create the people I am working with an environment where their creativity and talent can bloom.

I have completed Master of Arts in Media Production degree in Griffith University, Brisbane and am currently doing PhD research in University of Wollongong. My research topic is about International Co- Production in feature films.

From living in two different sides of the globe I have learned how important it is that people communicate and travel and ask questions. I hope to produce films that make people think and in a small way hope to make a difference and leave the world a better place for my two children.

When 9/11 happened in New York in 2001, I had just moved from Manhattan to San Francisco. A year earlier, I had lived only a few blocks away from the WTC. I remember how I felt restless in the area, although I had no reason to. New York was more peaceful than ever. And then, quite suddenly, without any warning that feeling was shaken. Fear that spread like a blanket over the continent was crippling, but eventually life went on. I lived in the USA until 2007 moving back to Finland just before another shock hit the country. This time it was financial. Once prosperous people began quietly crumble, companies failing, families lost their homes and livelihood, I felt the entire nation falling down on abyss without a safety net that for us Finns is a given. I felt frustration in front of these events, and heartache for my friends and family who experienced this all. Personally I was already 'safe' in Finland.

These events led me to investigate why this nation was all of the sudden crushed twice within a decade. Who could I blame? Coincidentally, I found an old magazine from 1970 that led me to The Weather Underground movement. I knew immediately that through these people and their stories I could focus on what is going on in the United States right now. I found where to point my finger: money and political power.

When I started this project in 2013, the Western world had already calmed down almost to the same peaceful state as it was before 9/11, but now I felt a new kind of unrest. I knew that something was bubbling under. I could not guess back then that now when the film will be completed the timing for it couldn’t be better.

With this film I want to encourage people to think and come up with new ways to influence decision-making, it seems that peaceful activism is not working and violent activism only creates more violence. What can we do so that we can have fair and peaceful world for us all?

- Inderjit Kaur Khalsa
Director