For it was by sheer accident that bored of making sales calls in New Delhi, I called up the offices of National Geographic, asking for a job on a Friday and started working with them a week later. One fine monsoon afternoon, a chance meeting with Steve McCurry, the photographer of The Afghan Girl, taught me two things that I would always carry with me: to be intensely aware of the world around me and to live life passionately.

Years later, now in San Francisco, another set of happy coincidences matured into a role as a jury member of United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF). I met diverse filmmakers from across the world, telling their own stories — of pizzas in Iran or baseballs in Havana or why the bread I eat is not what I think it is. Some of these are so far removed from our lives, yet provide a perspective — to learn, to think and to keep me alive.

So, in this spirit of being alive, I simply want to tell my stories. Stories that may originate from where I live, where I travel and the people I meet. Surely, not everyone is going to feel the same way as I do or understand where I am coming from, but that’s ok. It’s ok to have a diversity of thought and opinion, because in this diversity lies the accidental discovery of things that matter. Diversity is necessary for serendipity, and chance discoveries make great stories.

I may not know what inspires me — for it is a fleeting moment, if I am aware, I may recognize it, else it is gone forever. But I do know that inspiration does not come when we build walls around ourselves or isolate people and their lived experiences because they look or appear different to us. Inspiration lurks somewhere in appreciating these differences as the richest form of human experiences. As a Sikh, I have been outside these walls many times and I often ask myself, “If I don’t tell these Sikh stories, who else will?” and perhaps more importantly, “How?”

Which brings me to write about my current project, Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes, in which I challenge gender, racial and appearance biases, but with a backdrop of comic books and superheroes. Here is a sneak peek:

Comics are everywhere, in all cultures, in all countries and are for all ages. Turn on television or Netflix and chances are you will see some show inspired by or adapted from a comic book. Go shopping at the mall or a department store and you will be guaranteed to find comic boom memorabilia and merchandise for sale. Movies based on comic books are some of the highest grossing films each year.

Comic books have the ability to instill important values and life lessons into its readers, such as protecting the weak, believing in hope, and a rare combination of simultaneously having the courage and a strong moral ethic. For all of the good, comic books have a tendency to perpetuate stereotypes among people, especially gender and racial ones. Almost all the superheroes are anglo American male wearing a cape, with super human powers and often depict women in minor roles. There are no Sikh Superheroes or role models in this genre. Disney has a history of bringing racist/sexist characters to life. Black, Latino, gay characters are all underrepresented, and women are just reduced to sex symbols. The gap is too glaring to ignore and since I wanted to make a film on stereotypes, this provided a perfect opportunity I don’t think anyone has attempted such an audacious story before this.

In the film “Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes” I challenge such stereotypes. The film weaves together stories of three comic creators Eileen Kaur Alden, Keith Knight and Vishavjit Singh, who share their perspective of being stereotyped and how they constantly challenge this notion through their work and in their personal lives.

On the face, Keith, Vish, and Eileen look like they are worlds apart — when you see them onscreen together, you immediately think — what are these disjointed set of people doing together? So subconsciously, as an audience, you have already bucketed them — rightly or wrongly. And that’s I want you to place yourself as the film begins.

Over the course of the film, I also interview voices in academia (Dr. Arvind Singhal), media (@Adam Elrashidi) and an expert on cartoon art (Andrew Farago). With hard evidence, they explain how consciously or unconsciously we box people and make generalizations based on race, color, gender or looks. Through their voices, we get a perspective on how our lead artists are creating and curating new stories to counter the deeply negative subculture of stereotyping. So in effect, I am telling a story of how other artists are telling their stories.

And we all ought to tell our own stories, for they may uncover another superhero.

Perhaps David Bowie anticipated it in his song Heroes:

We can be heroes, forever and ever

What’d you say?

I know I’d say Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes.

In some other news this week, I was eeatured as a person of the week on the much widely read www.india.com portal. India has a long way to go in addressing implicit and explicit biases that create an uneven playing field for its citizens. The website claims to have about 28 million readers – even if a small fraction of those who get to read about Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes, change their attitudes about racial, gender and appearance related stereotypes, I’d consider that the film is on the right path to creating social change.

You can read excerpts from my interview here. Much thanks to Soni and Trisha.

The story is reproduced below.

Harleen Singh’s new documentary, “Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes,” is a fantastic feature on three people using cartoons to fight stereotypes. In fact, it is so much more than that because of the profound meaning and message it carries. In a time where xenophobia, sexism, and racism are alarmingly common and the media coverage of these issues are either biased or ignored altogether, Singh’s documentary is not only insightful but timely. It is a worthy study in why popular culture values, or rather devalues these topics.

Singh’s achievement is no small feat. She examines American cultural stereotypes with a backdrop of superheroes – typically, white, male, and physically formidable – as portrayed in comic books and films.

“The film explores how a lack of diversity among these superheroes reflects and reinforces public attitudes about who may or may not be of high value in our society,” she said. “We also take a hard look at the opposite of superheroes as portrayed in comic books: the villainous characters that, more often than not, represent racial, ethnic, or religious minority groups who are misrepresented and stereotyped.”

The film features the work of and commentary by three comic book artists: Keith Knight, an African-American who provides politically astute commentary, Vishavjit Singh, a Sikh who dresses as Captain America, and Eileen Alden a woman who is the creator of action based comics. These artists grapple with and challenge the stereotypes of gender, race, and physical appearance, both in their creative work and in their personal lives.

In her film, Singh also interviews a professor of entertainment education, a cartoon museum curator, and an Al Jazeera journalist. They reflect on the stories popular media tells and how they shape how we think about ourselves as a people. Singh questions who is idealized and who is excluded from the public determination of being held in highest regard.

In regards to comics, it would appear that there is more diversity than in years past. For instance, there are more superheroines in comic books as opposed to female characters only being depicted as damsels in distress. Despite this, most female comic book characters continue to be sexualized. Luckily, Singh’s documentary echoed these sentiments and believes that there is some progress in terms of diversity in comic books, but there are disproportionately less number of minorities.

“We address the gender stereotypes in two ways. First, we show a creator’s perspective. Eileen Alden is the creator of comics, but unlike what has been thought about of women creators—they can only create things that are highly emotional, are mostly sentimental and always deal with the subject of love—she breaks that stereotype and goes on to create an action based comic,” she said. “Second from a creation point of view, the Super Sikh comic that we talk about in the film is also one where the woman protagonist is equal in her presence. She is definitely not a sexual object sitting in one corner, she plays a critical role in solving the issues. Her character is fiercely independent and can do things that are equal to a male counterpart if not more.”

Singh also added that though her film’s basis is comics and cartoons, it is essentially a film about challenging stereotypes. “It’s not just about comics alone, but wherever we see a conscious or an unconscious bias. Our goal is to reach out to as many people as possible across the world and talk about the pitfalls of such biases that show up as racism and discrimination.”

As far as propagating stereotypes, Singh said we all share the blame and we need to reboot our attitude by becoming a more accepting society and break the walls we have created. “We have come a long way from the 15th century, but we need to go further,” she said. “The film definitely has an answer to this question. Hopefully, towards the end of the year when you watch the film, you will have some handy tools with anecdotes to help you understand the issue and solutions to get past them.”

“Drawn Together- Comics, Diversity and stereotypes” is a fiscal sponsorship with the San Francisco Film Society and all contributions to the film are tax-deductible.

Imagine a world where everything is the same – one kind of plants, trees, animals, only one color, identical homes, all the streets with same names, homes with same numbers. Imagine a world where you only have one kind of pots and pans and you eat the same food for every meal, every day, we do the exact same tasks every day – day in and day out and are surrounded by people who all look the same.

SARABJIT SINGH, WATERCOLOR, THE ART OF DIVERSITY