Victor Sarin (born 1941) is an Indian-born Canadian/American film director, cinematographer and screenwriter who has worked in film and television for over 60 years. Sarin was the recipient of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Kodak New Century Award in 2009, the Directors Guild of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and the Order of Canada in 2022.
Sarin has worked on over 100 feature films, documentaries and television specials across multiple genres. Sarin has nominated for and won Emmys, Genies, Geminis and Canadian Screen Awards. Sarin's films have screened at film festivals including TIFF, Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca, London, Shanghai, San Sebastian, Sydney, and Goa.
His work as a cinematographer includes Partition, Margaret's Museum, Whale Music, Heartaches, and Dancing in the Dark. He also directed Partition, A Shine of Rainbows, Left Behind, and The Lightkeeper.
Early life Born in Occupied Kashmir, India, Sarin experimented with his family's 8 mm movie camera and watched Indian films as a child. Sarin's father worked for India's Ministry of External Affairs as a diplomat to Australia. Sarin joined them in Canberra before moving to Melbourne. He took a two-year Broadcast Operator's program at the Royal Technical College. On his 17th birthday, his father bought him a 16 mm Bolex camera.
Career
ABC Television
After graduating from The Royal Technical College in 1961, Sarin was hired by the Australian Broadcast Corporation as a technician's assistant and freelanced as a film cameraman for ABC News. Due to his father's diplomatic post ending and Australia's racial immigration policy, Sarin had to leave Australia and chose to move to Canada in 1963.
CBC Television
Shortly after arriving in Canada, Vic was hired by CBC Toronto as a studio cameraman, working on programs such as The National, This Hour Has Seven Days, The Friendly Giant, Front Page Challenge, Take Thirty, News Magazine, Razzle Dazzle, Mr. Dressup, The Nature of Things, Front Page Challenge, Juliette and others.
In 1968, Sarin joined the film department of CBC Television. Over the next 18 years, Sarin worked as a cinematographer for many primetime CBC documentaries and dramas. Sarin was the first staff cinematographer for the CBC's long-running primetime investigative documentary program The Fifth Estate in 1976 as well as the first cinematographer on the landmark anthology drama series For The Record in the same year.
Sarin worked as the cinematographer for many award-winning CBC Television movies and miniseries such as Riel, The Wordsmith, War Brides, Chautauqua Girl, Charlie Grant's War, Crossbar and Love and Larceny. In 1980, Sarin's directorial debut began with the acclaimed three-part miniseries You've Come a Long Way Katie starring Lally Cadeau and Catherine O'Hara. He then directed CBC movies The Other Kingdom, Passengers, Island Love Song and Family Reunion. While working for the CBC, Sarin also shot his first feature Heartaches as the cinematographer in 1981 which was nominated for eleven Genie Awards, winning three.
After CBC
Sarin left the CBC in 1987 to pursue a career as an independent filmmaker. In 1989, His first feature film as a director was Cold Comfort, a dramatic thriller about three people stranded at deserted gas station in a blizzard starring Paul Gross, Maury Chaykin and Jayne Eastwood. It was nominated for five Genie awards including Best Picture and won Best Adapted screenplay.
In 1991, Sarin directed and shot the ten part documentary series Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World which celebrates the lives and worldviews of small scale non-technological societies as the last of them face their inevitable accommodation with the 'modern world'. The Millennium series premiered in February 1992 on The Global Television Network. It was broadcast nationally on PBS in May 1992 and later on BBC Television. The series was subsequently broadcast in numerous other countries over the following years with global viewership approaching 100 million. Millennium earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography.
Sarin directed Trial at Fortitude Bay starring Henry Czerny in 1994 which received two Gemini nominations. In 1995, he was the cinematographer for the period drama film Margaret's Museum starring Helena Botham Carter and Clive Russell, earning another Genie nomination for Best Cinematography. In 1996, Sarin directed The Legend of Gatorface in 1996 which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Paul Winfield for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special. In 1997, he directed In His Father’s Shoes, being nominated for five Daytime Emmy Awards, winning two. Sarin directed and shot Sea People in 1999, earning Four Daytime Emmy nominations.
In 2001, Sarin directed the Christian apocalyptic thriller film Left Behind in 2001 starring Kirk Cameron. Shot primarily in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the film cost $17.4 million (equivalent to $28,653,459 in 2023). At the time of its release, the film was promoted by its creators as the "biggest and most ambitious Christian film ever made."
Sepia Films In 2003, Sarin founded the multi-platform film and television production company Sepia Films with partners Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia and Los Angeles, Sepia specializes in international co-productions and has produced and shot films in Canada, U.S., Ireland, England, Italy, Denmark, India, China, South Africa, Tanzania, Argentina, Australia and Brazil.
Sarin wrote, directed and shot Partition in 2007, an epic period romantic drama film starring Jimi Mistry, Irrfan Khan and Kristin Kreuk. A co-production between Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom, it takes place in India during the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan and follows a Sikh ex-soldier who offers shelter to a young Muslim woman separated from her family. The film was shot primarily in Kamloops, British Columbia Canada and Punjab, India. The film received one Genie Award nomination for the Best Achievement in Cinematography.
In 2009, Sarin wrote, directed and shot A Shine of Rainbows in County Donegal, Ireland. Starring Connie Neilson, Aiden Quinn, John Bell and Jack Gleeson, it is an adaptation of the novel A Shine of Rainbows by English writer Lillian Beckwith. Debuting at TIFF, It was nominated for and won several awards.
Sarin returned to documentary work in 2011 by directing Desert Riders about the trafficking, slavery and sexual abuse of young boys from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mauritania and other countries to work as camel jockeys in the UAE under excruciating conditions and the global effort to stop it. Sarin was a 2012 Director's Guild of Canada nominee for the Allen King Award for Excellence in a Documentary.
From 2013 to 2018, Sarin directed and shot The Nightmare Series which included A Sister’s Nightmare (2013), A Daughters Nightmare (2014), A Wife's Nightmare (2014), A Surrogates Nightmare (2017) and A Father's Nightmare (2018) for the Lifetime Network.
Sarin directed Hue: a Matter of Colour in 2013 which channelled a personal, heartfelt investigation into the history and often tragic effects of colourism. It was a co-production between Sepia Films, The National Film Board of Canada and Documentary Channel. In 2014, Sarin directed The Boy From Geita which followed Adam, a young Tanzanian boy persecuted because of his albinism. The film was nominated for several awards, including three from VIFF and the 2015 Directors Guild of Canada Allan King Award For Excellence in Documentary. In 2015, Sarin directed Keepers of the Magic which “honours the great masters of cinematography, unsung heroes whose vision and talent was always right before our eyes” and conducted interviews with fellow filmmakers like Roger Deakins, Vittorio Storaro, Gordon Willis and Sam Mendes.
In 2022, Sarin co-wrote, shot and directed the dramatic thriller Sugar for Amazon Prime Video starring Katherine McNamara and Jasmine Sky. The true story chronicled two Canadian influencers on a cruise around the world who naively get involved in illegal activities for a cartel.
In 2017, Vic wrote a published autobiography about his life called Eyepiece: Adventures in Canadian Film and Television. With a foreword by The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Eyepiece chronicles Vic's childhood in India and Australia, working for the CBC in Canada to transitioning to an independent filmmaker.
Sarin's latest film is an Irish period romantic drama called The Lightkeeper starring Dominac Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Aiden Quinn and Sarah Bolger. Filming began in September, 2023.
Filmography
Feature film +YearTitleDirectorDoPWriterNotes1981Heartaches1986Loyalties1986Bye Bye Blues1986Dancing in the Dark1987Nowhere to Hide1988A Switch in Time aka Norman's Awesome Experience1989Namumkin1989Cold Comfort1989The Long Road Home1990Divided Loyalites1991On My Own1993Cold Sweat1993The Burning Season1994Whale Music1995Urban Safari1996Salt Water Moose2000Left Behind: The Movie2004Love on the SideAlso executive producer2007Partition2009A Shine of Rainbows2022SugarTBAThe Lightkeeper
Documentary cinematographer The Naked Peacock (1975) Mountain Gorillia (1992) The Hidden Dimension (1997)
Television YearTitleDirectorDoPNotes1963–1971Telescope16 episodes1976The RimshotsPilot1976–1979The Fifth Estate3 seasons1976–1977For the Record8 episodes1981Seeing Things1 episode1984The Edison Twins2 episodes1988Alfred Hitchcock PresentsDirected 1 episode1988T. and T.1 episode1994–1995SpenserDirected 1 episode1997Wind at My Back1 episode2000Hope Island1 episode2001Starhunter2 episodes2002FlatlandDirected 4 episodes
TV movies YearTitleDirectorDoP1977Someday Soon1977The Fighting Man1979Crossbar1979The Wordsmith1979Fighting Back1980War Brides1981A Far Cry from Home1982Passengers1983Rumours of Glory1984Chautauqua Girl1984The Accident1985Charlie Grant's War1985Love and Larceny1986Turning to Stone1986Dave Thomas: The Incredible Time Travels of Henry Osgood1986The Last Season1987Island Love Song1988Family Reunion1989Love and Hate: The Story of Colin and JoAnn Thatcher1989A Moving Picture1994Trial at Fortitude Bay1995Wounded Heart1996Hearts Adrift1996The Legend of Gator Face1997Artemesia1997In His Father's Shoes1998Hard to Forget1998The Waiting Game1999Sea People2002Recipe for Murder2005Murder Unveiled2013A Sister's Nightmare2014A Daughter's Nightmare2014A Wife's Nightmare2016Summer in the City2017A Surrogate's Nightmare2017Drink Slay Love2018A Father's Nightmare2021Kidnapped
Miniseries YearTitleDirectorDoP1979Riel1981You've Come a Long Way, Katie1984The Other Kingdom
Documentary film {| class="wikitable" !Year !Title !Director !DoP !Writer |- |1981 |Bix: 'Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet'''
|1982 |Hugh MacLennan: Portrait of a Writer|
|2013 |Hue: A Matter of Colour|
|2016 |Keepers of the Magic|
Documentary series YearTitleDirectorDoPWriterNotes1964Endless Cycles1965Dig those Diggers1974People of Our Times1974Elements of Survival1979Taking Chances1983Gurkhas of Nepal1989Solitary Journey1992Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World1992The David Milgaard StoryAlso producer1993God's Dominion: Shepherds to the Flock2011Desert Riders2014The Boy from Geita
Awards and accolades 2022 Order of Canada "for his long-standing contributions to the Canadian film and television industries as a renowned director, cinematographer and screenwriter." 2008 Genie Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography - Partition - Nominee 2007 Leo Award for Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Drama - Partition - Nominated 2007 Leo Award for Best Direction in a Feature Length Drama - Partition - Nominated 2007 Leo Award for Best Screenwriting in a Feature Length Drama - Partition - Nominated (with Patricia Finn) 2006 Leo Award for Best Direction in a Feature Length Drama - Murder Unveiled - Nominated