Satinder Kassoana is an Indian-Canadian filmmaker/actor whose credits include Bonjour Ji (2015), a French short film about the prejudice different races and communities keep against each other. The film won the best short film award at 5 international film festivals including the International Film Festival of South Asia Toronto 2015, Richmond International Film Festival USA 2016, Washington DC South Asian Film Festival 2015, Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival 2015 (Best North American Short).
Satinder’s new Punjabi indie film Range Road 290 is an official selection at the largest South Asian film festival in North America, the International Film Festival of South Asia IFFSA Toronto, and is scheduled to be released on 13 Jan 2023. The film was shot in Calgary.
Satinder’s documentary ‘Hockey United’ (2017) which he wrote, co-directed and edited, about a young ice-hockey player of Indian descent, was nominated in ‘Best Production Representing Cultural Diversity’ in AMPIA awards 2017. The documentary was released on major TV networks in 2018.
His other writing/directing credits include Don’t Walk Among the Dead’ (2016), a short film set in a post-apocalyptic world about two sisters, who are journeying to find a safe haven rumored to be in mountains and a violent encounter they have on their way. The film was made by winning a film grant from Telus and a successful Kickstarter campaign.
In 2017, Satinder wrote a multi-cultural drama film script, based on a story of an Indian student in Canada at a time of social and political turmoil of the Trump era when an anti-immigrant movement is rising in North America. The script was selected among the few by NFDC India for Film Bazar 2017. Later the project was announced by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau during his 2018 India visit under ‘Creative collaborations between Canada and India’. Unfortunately, due to COVID19, the project got shelved for the time being.