Thoughts on "Bollywood Steps" - Fusion / Confusion

My documentary, "Bollywood" explores the attempt by an expatriate Indian choreographer/dancer to both train American-born Indian kids in Bollywood-style dance, and encourage a sense of identity with their Indian heritage. In the group on which the documentary focuses, all the boys are first generation Americans. Like millions of first-generation children before them, they live a dual identity, with their family life still strongly reflecting their heritage, culture and religion, and the outside American socieity, which, despite what many people might think, has a culture, mood and attitude of it's own, which in turn is built from those hundreds of unique cultures brought here from other lands.

For first generation American kids of any culture, the result could initially lead to a confusion of identity. In time, though, I believe they're discovering a new fusion - a new definition of being an American in the 21st century. The kids in "Bollywood Steps," I think, are creating an entirely new interpretation, unique to their generation, of what it means to be Indian-American.