I've had a few people ask about sponsorship and financially how they can support the Hola Mahalla exhibition and now you can sponsor it by clicking on the following link: SPONSOR
The majority of this project has been mostly self funded, with some brilliant assistance from a Kickstarter campaign for the documentary. It's consisted of a number of costs which I will detail at some point soon to give people an idea of costs involved and also to help other people who might want to do something similar get a rough idea of whats needed to do a project like this, so you're not going in cold.
Unfortunately you can't film or take pictures of Hola Mahalla without travelling to Anandpur, India. I travelled to India, twice over 2011 and 2012 to get as much footage as I could, from 2012 onwards I've been working on this project, editing down the hours of footage, processing the thousands of photos, crafting a script for the documentary and during 2014 I spent most of my time on the project, drastically reducing commercial work so I can finish this project.
Mostly the project has taken time, I've been on the project for over 4 years. Whilst this is a labor of love I would really appreciate it if I was able to try and cover some of the costs. I'm never going to cover all my costs, but projects like this, for me are important, my community - the Sikh community, this subject - Hola Mahalla, was not being covered. We were not and still are not covered by the mainstream media. Having tried TV channels and various funding bodies to no avail I decided to crack on and just do it myself. I feel passionately that we should be proactive and get things done rather than waiting for gatekeepers to give us permission to create.
If you believe in yourself; and genuinely put the work and time in then what ever you do will lead to some form of success, regardless of how you measure it.
I want to continue working on projects like this. I want to encourage other people to work on projects like this and I want our community to embrace the arts and help support such projects. Without them, our history and culture will not be documented and we cant wait for others such as the mainstream media to may be cover it when its fashionable or timely for them.
The exhibition hasn't had a Kickstarter funding campaign or any actual sponsorship to date, and all of the costs involved from prints, frames, mounts, artist commissions, promotion, administration and any miscellaneous costs have been covered by me. I'm hoping this is the first of many exhibitions that I do and a catalyst for others to get involved more. So, if you want to sponsor the exhibition, even if its £1, I would really appreciate it.
To sponsor the Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival exhibition click on the following link: SPONSOR
You can now book tickets for the exhibition launch and preview screening of the documentary Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival here.
To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival click here.
Thanks
D
