ABOUT SAFAR (JOURNEY)

Through historical inquiry and site-specific performance, choreographer Joti Singh honors her great-grandfather, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee—a member of the anti-colonial Ghadar movement and an early South Asian immigrant. He likely entered the United States through Angel Island under a false name to avoid colonial surveillance.

Filmed at Angel Island Immigration Station, SAFAR is a poetic hybrid documentary that blends performance, ancestral memory, and historical testimony to explore the often-overlooked history of early South Asian immigration to the United States.

THE STORY BEHIND…

Safar is a short film adapted from a feature documentary-in-progress, Inkilab (Revolution), about the Ghadar movement, born out of the struggles, resilience, and political awakening of early South Asian immigrants.

While filming a sample for our feature documentary at Angel Island, we uncovered a largely forgotten chapter of South Asian history that felt too urgent to wait.

In a moment when the past echoes loudly in the present, SAFAR became a way to begin the conversation. Angel Island is not merely a historical site, but a mirror — reflecting enduring questions of belonging, exclusion, and resistance.

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We were deeply honored to premiere SAFAR (Journey) as part of the United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF) at the Creativity Theater in Yerba Buena Gardens. Inspired by this year’s theme, Common Ground, we envisioned the gathering as a space for memory, recollection, and healing.

Guests were welcomed into the space through grounding, and the room came alive through poetry, dance, and movement. At its center, SAFAR met its audience for the first time. A post-screening conversation invited us deeper into the histories of Angel Island and their echoes in the present. The afternoon closed in shared reflection, as audience members offered memories, questions, and connections.

More than a screening, it became a space for collective witnessing — a reminder that these stories live on in all of us.