By IANS
Sydney : The world premiere of a documentary exploring the lesbian relationship between a British Indian Sikh and an Australian will be held at the Sydney Film Festival 2007's concluding day June 24.
"Searching 4 Sandeep" is a 55-minute documentary based on the video diaries of 31-year-old Sandeep Virdi from the British Midlands and 28-year-old Poppy Stockell from Sydney. The pair, whose relationship is now two years old, is currently based in London.
The relationship started after Stockell, who had come out in the open about her sexual orientation 10 years ago, created her profile on a lesbian website. She got a response from a girl who called herself Shola and the two struck up an instant rapport, reported the Sydney Star Observer.
"She sent me a smile and we clicked instantly. I could feel it coming out through the computer," said Stockell.
Shola, who turned out to be Virdi, came from a conservative Sikh family based in the British Midlands, the opposite side of the world for Stockell.
The Sikh girl had not told her family – comprising her religious parents, five sisters and a brother – about her lesbian orientation.
Stockell, a filmmaker, did not want to pass up the opportunity to document the relationship between them and so, after a month of chatting online, told Virdi about her idea.
"She thought it was a fantastic idea," Stockell told the Observer. "I sent a camera to her in London and she started filming her life."
According to Stockell, though both of them had planned to make piece-to-camera video diaries, Virdi's siblings started playing with the camera and life in the British Indian family became a background for Virdi's diary.
"It's amazing how unobtrusive it is. The camera recorded amazingly personal and unaware, unselfconscious moments in the household," Stockell said.
It was then that Stockell decided to go all the way to Britain and meet up with Virdi.
By then, Virdi had revealed to her parents about her sexuality. The parents, thinking that it was a passing phase, allowed Virdi to have Stockell as a guest at their home.
"When I walked in that door it all became very real for her family and her community.
"Sandeep got disowned by her family and chucked out of her home. Which inadvertently pushed us together as she was forced to live with me," Stockell said.
According to her, though Virdi did not feel any conflict between her religion and her sexuality, she missed her family terribly.
"Then one day her mother called, and that changed everything," Stockell said.
Talking about the making of the documentary, the Australian said that Virdi trusted her and her judgement to have honesty and integrity in telling the story.
However, she confessed that she was initially confused about what she was getting into.
"I did a piece to camera early where I worried she is not even out, she's never experimented with drugs, she hasn't had many sexual partners. It's a massive responsibility for me.
"It's probably a good thing I didn't think about it too much," Stockell added.
Directed and scripted by Stockell, 'Searching 4 Sandeep' is produced by Cecilia Ritchie.
"Through raw, incredibly frank footage, 'Searching 4 Sandeep' follows Poppy and Sandeep's tumultuous relationship across two years and three continents.
"As intimate and comfortable with technology as she is with her sexuality, 'Searching 4 Sandeep' feels like Poppy's extended-mix video blog, a new kind of document for the future family archive," said a note on the Sydney Film Festival website.
Both Virdi and Stockell are coming down from London to attend their film's premiere.