Judi Singh was a trailblazer, who deserves to have her spotlight, says director Baljit Sangra, of the late Black-Punjabi Canadian jazz singer. Sangra’s documentary, Have You Heard Judi Singh?, will be screened May 4 (VIFF Centre) and May 8 (SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema) as part of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. Her film highlights a continued need to showcase South Asian voices – including their historic contributions in Canadian history.

“I never got to meet [Singh] and hear her whole story,” Sangra reflects. “I really wanted to focus on the woman, the artist, and the chapters of her musical career, and what was happening in her life at that time to give it some more texture, some context.”

Hearing Singh

Sangra’s first encounter with Singh’s music was serendipitous: she stumbled upon an article about the singer while working late one night. Inspired by the article, “Why Did Edmonton Forget Judi Singh,” Sangra started listening to her music and was struck by Singh’s talent and her backstory.

“She was on T.V., she put out some albums, and if I was a kid in the sixties, and I saw somebody that looked like me on a record album, ‘What would that feel like?” the director reflects.

Singh’s father was an early Punjabi immigrant who arrived in Canada in 1907, eventually settling in Alberta, while her mother’s family was one of the earliest Black families to migrate north from the Mississippi Delta. For Sangra, Singh’s story is multifaceted: it is about a beautiful voice, a talented individual and early immigrant communities in Alberta.

The director worked with those who knew Singh, including her daughter Emily Hughes, and researched archives. The late singer was prominent on the jazz scene, performing around Edmonton’s jazz clubs and even appearing on American jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw’s album. Yet, Sangra soon found that much of the archive – recorded on film cans – had already been erased.

“I’m surprised we got it: we made a feature because there’s not a ton of archives,” she adds. “Magic just starts happening, things pop up, and you’re like ‘Oh, I found this old interview somebody shared with me,’ or ‘I have this old VHS tape where she was on this show.’”

Beginning with her teenage years, the film traces several chapters of Singh’s life, highlighting key moments such as her appearance as a singer on the Lenny Breau Show and her collaborations with Tommy Banks. It also includes 30 of Singh’s songs.

“To lift up any women of colour on the cultural landscape, [was] a story worth being told,” the director shares, acknowledging the collaboration with her producer Brishkay Ahmed. “Without us really talking about why we feel this story is important, we understood we felt the same way.”

Observing cats

Kazuhiro Soda, known for his observational documentary filmmaking, brings his latest work The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (May 8, SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema) to the festival. The film observes stray cats around a shrine and the people who care for them – highlighting the importance of public spaces.

“Japanese shrines have been functioning like a community centre for each traditional community,” he shares, adding that people gather at these shrines for spiritual, social and cultural purposes. “It takes a community to maintain it, but that community is disappearing.”

His observational filmmaking method prioritizes careful, attentive looking and listening; the director observed the ongoings of the shrine for around two years. He attributes the cats’ survival to the shrine’s status as a truly public space.

“Every piece of land is owned by somebody or some company, but the shrine is a very ambiguous place,” he shares. “It’s everybody’s shrine and nobody’s shrine.”

Living near the shrine meant that he could capture footage of important events, including the Autumn Festival and the community’s cat neuter program. Refraining from doing research or writing scripts, he prefers to let the story naturally unfold; he often only knows what type of film is being made during the editing process.

Soda originally envisioned the documentary to follow a linear structure, showing the shrine through all four seasons. But his producer, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, suggested returning to spring again – leading to the film’s final circular structure, highlighting the cycle of nature.

“Traditionally speaking, observational filmmakers hated it when characters or subjects try to interact with the camera,” he shares. “They would cut off these kinds of interactions, but I find it more interesting and revealing to show the process or the relationship.”

His opening scene – where a cat plays with his microphone – breaks this fourth wall between filmmaker and subject. For Soda, the scene not only shows the cat’s personality, but also reveals his identity as a director. He hopes his films are an antidote to a fast-moving society full of distractions.

“If you think of the function of a film, it has potential to connect people or to advance understanding,” he adds. “We are all the same beings…we are all trying to live in a peaceful society.”

The festival’s 24th edition (May 1–11) showcases 39 features, 30 short and mid-length films, as well as industry events.

For more information, see www.doxafestival.ca