AMERICA, WE BEG YOUR PARDON
A PANTHER CUBS STORY
Oakland students revive Black Panther Party stories through a powerful play,
blending history, protest poetry, and youth voices to honor its unseen women and children.
A FILM BY A.K. SANDHU
SYNOPSIS
AMERICA, WE BEG YOUR PARDON is a short documentary that follows Oakland theater students as they bring to life a play written by Rita Garcia-Williams. From first rehearsals to opening night, the film captures their creative journey—how they don’t just learn history, but embody it.
Through intergenerational conversations with former Panther Party members, powerful performances, and the revival of Gil Scott-Heron’s prophetic protest poetry, critiquing U.S. leadership from Nixon to Trump, this project transforms into more than just a play. It is a bridge between past and present, a lesson in activism, and a testament to the often-overlooked role of women and children in liberation movements.
Director A.K. Sandhu weaves together behind-the-scenes moments, raw reflections, and electrifying performances to create an immersive experience—one that leaves audiences feeling empowered, inspired, and deeply connected to a history too often erased.
#AmericaWeBegYourPardon #BlackPantherParty #HiddenHistory #OaklandHistory #PowerToThePeople
Photo by: Tony Sehgal
Filmmaker: A.K. SANDHU
[Director, Producer, and Co-Editor]
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A.K. Sandhu is a Desi-American filmmaker whose work explores reproductive justice, the immigrant experience, and societal transformation through untold and overlooked histories. Her award-winning debut film, ALIVE IN BRONZE: Huey P. Newton, premiered at the Tribeca and Pan African Film Festivals, among others, before being acquired by MTV Documentary Films and streaming on Paramount+. The film garnered multiple accolades, including Best Documentary Short and Best Director honors from organizations such as the NAACP, Realscreen, and The Women’s Image Awards, among others.
She was awarded the Emerging Artist Award by the State of California and won the SeriesFest “Spotlight Your Town” Pitch Competition sponsored by National Geographic.
Her forthcoming short, AMERICA, WE BEG YOUR PARDON, will premiere in 2025. She is also in production on a deeply personal feature documentary about the lives and choices of “Choice Moms.” A.K.’s storytelling blends vérité, archival, and experimental docu-hybrid techniques to revive suppressed narratives and explore themes of race, class, spirituality, and cross-cultural solidarity.​
A.K. has earned degrees from Columbia University and U.C. Berkeley, and is a member of A-Doc, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, CineFemme, and Collective of Documentary Womxn Cinematographers. Her work has been supported by California Humanities, Berkeley Film Foundation, Bay Area Video Coalition, East Bay Artists Fund, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Center for Cultural Innovation.
