New series and documentary by Sarnia’s Sami Khan streaming on PBS

Sami Khan, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who grew up in Sarnia, has two new projects streaming on PBS.

Khan, who was nominated for a short documentary Oscar in 2020 for his film St. Louis Superman, has a four-part food and travel series, Spice Road, made with actor Rupak Ginn, as well as Angel Dose, a short documentary about a Philadelphia nurse and politician, streaming on PBS.

The idea for Spice Road dates back a decade to when Khan and Ginn were shooting the feature film, Khoya, in a part of India where some of Khan’s relatives live.

Khan said he and Ginn “dreamed aloud” about what they might do next “and my cousin had just made biryani, a rice and meat dish.”

“We thought what would be really cool is to do a show that champions South Asian food and takes you to interesting places,” he said.

Khan said that while he was growing up in Sarnia, his family traveled often to other parts of the world.

“Invariably, my dad would want us to go find the Indian restaurant,” in the countries they visited, he said.

Khan said his mother always wanted to write a guidebook for Indian restaurants around the world in unexpected places.

“Those two originating impulses collided and then it only took six or seven years to get the project green lit,” he said.

Approval to shoot a pilot came early in 2020, but Khan and Ginn had to wait through pandemic restrictions to make the pilot in the second half of 2021 and then shoot the rest of a four-episode series last fall, Khan said.

All four episodes in the first season are set in the US but “our ambition is to spread far and wide, and explore places in Canada and then overseas,” he said.

They visited Bakersfield, Calif., where “an amazing little food truck” caters to Punjabi truck drivers for the first episode. “The food became so good it came to the notice of The New York Times and they wrote about it,” Khan said.

The other episodes visit southern Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, and include as guests comedian Nik Dodani, actor-writer Sheetal Sheth and comedian Kiran Deol.

Spice Road is the story of immigrants and South Asian food “in unexpected places,” Khan said.

“A big part of what we wanted to do with the show was to articulate the diversity of Indian food” beyond dishes from Northern India that became popular in England in the 1960s and 1970s, he said.

“South Asian food is so much more than butter chicken,” Khan said. “We’re proud to showcase the diversity of the subcontinent’s culinary culture, from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu, from Lahore to Kolkata and everywhere in-between.”

Angel Dust is a short documentary about Tarik Khan, a Philadelphia nurse, state representative, and South Asian American activist.

Khan’s wife is from Philadelphia and his father-in-law pointed him to the story of a nurse practitioner who set up a vaccination project for homebound residents of the city during the pandemic, he said.

“I followed him the summer of 2021 and into 2022 and captured the moment where he decided to actually run for political office,” Khan said.

“It kind of asks, ‘Why is it so hard for regular people to run for office?’”

Khan, who is based in Toronto, continues working on additional projects, including a feature documentary shot in Western Canada.

“It should be coming out on one of the big streamers next year,” he said.

The first episode of Spice Road first Thursday on PBS streaming sites and Angel Dose is streaming this month at PBS WHYY, https://video.whyy.org/video/angel-dose-1kt8la/

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