Film and Television: Producer/Director/Writer
Baljit Sangra is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who uses documentary and factual entertainment to explore social and cross-cultural issues. A three-time Leo Award nominee, Sangra’s films have routinely premiered at festivals around the world. Her most recent project is the NFB-produced feature documentary Because We Are Girls, exploring the impact of sexual abuse on a family. Her previous documentaries include the award-winning Many Rivers Home, a personal story about seniors living in assisted care at the end of life; and Warrior Boyz, examining the long-running gang scene unique to the Indo-Canadian enclave of BC’s Lower Mainland; Hockey United, which follows two amateur South Asian hockey players with their eyes on the NHL. She also produced an E TV series VIVA! for CityTV; Channel M/Omni for several seasons. Baljit runs her own production company Viva Mantra films and has line produced several international projects from all over the globe.
Sangra is currently a Co chair of the BC chapter of Documentary Organization of Canada and previously sat on the board the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.
"Because We Are Girls provides a rare glimpse into family and social dynamics in Canada's Punjabi Sikh community and how that community, now three and four generations into settled in this country, is still struggling to reconcile shifting #MeToo values with old-world patriarchal interpretations of family honour and shame.…"
– Globe and Mail
"The film ultimately inspires hope – not just because of Sangra's approach, but because of the surprisingly positive attitude of Jeeti and her sisters in the face of trauma."
– Georgia Straight
“As a documentary filmmaker, you’re an independent spirit fighting for space and the truth in the age of fake news” - Baljit Sangra, Hollywood North
"…startling and audacious and revolutionary."
– Vancouver Courier