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Delta LGBTQ group receiving grant to screen doc about Surrey-raised murder victim

Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society is getting $4,000 to show award-winning short My Names Was January
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January Marie Lapuz (right) with friend Alex Sangha in an undated photo. Sangha has produced a short documentary film about his Surrey-raised friend, who was killed in 2012 at her New Westminster home, and will be showing it Surrey’s City Centre Library this September thanks to a provincial grant pf $4,000. (Submitted photo)

Delta’s Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society has received $4,000 from the province toward the screening of the documentary My Name Was January.

The organization is one of 76 recipients of the provincial multiculturalism grant program, which awards $300,000 annually to various community groups throughout B.C. to promote “intercultural trust and understanding by funding projects that bring people together in creative ways to enhance multiculturalism and address racism,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

“Our province is home to a diverse group of people,” Ravi Kahlon, Delta North MLA and parliamentary secretary for sport and multiculturalism, said in a press release.

“We are funding the important work that Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society does. Organizations like this make Delta a better place for everyone in the city.”

In an emailed statement to the Reporter, Sher Vancouver founder Alex Sangha said the money will go a long way for a grassroots organization with a “show string budget” such as his.

“Sher Vancouver is very grateful to the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and the multiculturalism program for supporting a screening and discussion of our multiple international award-winning documentary film, My Name Was January,” Sangha wrote.

The film, which is making the rounds of the festival circuit, eulogizes 26-year-old trans woman January Marie Lapuz, who was stabbed to death at her home in New Westminster in September of 2012.

READ MORE: Surrey-raised murder victim remembered in new documentary film

SEE ALSO: Doc about Surrey-raised murder victim wins national film award

“January was a wonderful, kind, and caring soul and this grant helps to share her story with more and more people in her home town,” Sangha said.

Screenings of the documentary will be held in Surrey at the City Centre Library on Sept. 21 and 28.

— with files from Tom Zillich



sasha.lakic@northdeltareporter.com

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