Rex vs. Singh

The year: 1915. The place: Vancouver, Canada. The police arrest two Sikhs on a charge of sodomy. The city is just 30 years old and in addition to the 50,000 white inhabitants, there are some 10,000 immigrants from China and 6,000 more from various other parts of Asia. A large proportion of these are Sikhs. "Rex vs. Singh" was one of the many court cases against immigrants that the white authorities used to maintain the status quo. It was a no-holds-barred attempt to limit the influence of the Asian minority, and corruption, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia were the order of the day. Vancouver was not alone in its approach: in the same period, similar lawsuits were filed against Sikhs in California as well. This short film mixes the documentary, musical, and drama genres, in a story told in four parts by three directors, one of whom describes it as a "deconstruction of history." Rex vs. Singh is part of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival's Queer History Project, whose goal is to record the visual, literary, and oral history of Vancouver's homosexual community for future generations. All the films made as part of this project will be screened in 2011, when the city celebrates its 125th anniversary. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)