Filmmaker Rajan Gill (left) stands alongside his father, Kashmir “Kash” Gill, following the Nov. 6 screening of “Harvest Party at Camp Two” at the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts in Yuba City. Kash Gill, a former Yuba City mayor, participated in the original harvest parties that inspired the documentary. Photo by Shamaya Sutton

YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - Standing in the paint aisle at Lowe’s in Yuba City today, it’s hard to imagine that this very spot was once part of Camp Two, a seasonal agricultural labor camp remembered for its legendary harvest parties.

During the 1970s and 1980s, camps like Camp Two housed farmworkers who helped bring in the region's agricultural harvests. For a generation of young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers navigating cultural expectations, racial discrimination and the challenges of growing up between two cultures, the annual harvest parties became something much more than an end-of-season celebration.

“I think the cool thing about this story is it feels very unique to our area,” said Rajan Gill, a Yuba College history professor and filmmaker. “I think anyone that’s lived here, grown up here, or been here for any extended amount of time can relate to the themes there. But it's also really a story about a community coming together and about young people finding their footing in the United States.”

Decades later, these legendary harvest parties took center stage, drawing a nearly full house to the hometown screening of “Harvest Party at Camp Two” at the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts on Friday, Nov. 6. The 16-minute documentary, co-directed by Gill and filmmaker Reaa Puri, tells the story of young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers who, unable to attend local proms and homecoming dances, transformed traditional harvest gatherings into celebrations of music, friendship and community.

The film was inspired in part by the experiences of Gill's father, Kashmir “Kash” Gill, who attended the original harvest parties and later became Yuba City’s mayor and the first Sikh elected mayor in the United States.

“I'm a big film fan, and films like this that tell these kinds of stories are just, you know, near and dear to my heart,” said David Read, executive director of Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture. “So when Mr. Gill came to us and said, 'Hey, we've got this documentary we made that's never been shown locally,' I went, 'Okay, when do we start?'”

The screening marked the final stop on the documentary's festival tour, which included approximately 12 festivals and screenings across the United States, Canada and India.

“This project is a labor of love, not just for myself, but from the larger community,” Gill said. “The people that you're going to see are familiar faces. They're your neighbors, your friends, your family members perhaps.”

During a discussion following the screening, Gill explained that he grew up hearing stories about the harvest parties but did not fully investigate their history until the COVID-19 pandemic. Through conversations with former participants, he discovered that the gatherings were an annual tradition that grew increasingly popular with local teenagers during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“I had no idea it was, like, this crazy rager of an event that these teenagers, like, hijacked the harvest party,” Gill said.

For Puri, whose Sikh grandfather immigrated to California and worked in almond orchards near Chico during the 1980s, the documentary provided an opportunity to explore her family's agricultural heritage.

“I had never stepped foot in an orchard,” Puri wrote in a LinkedIn post about the film. “Farm labor is an integral part of the lineage of Sikh Punjabi people, and I was totally disconnected from it.”

Although the harvest parties brought together young people from different ethnic backgrounds, the film also examines the discrimination and cultural restrictions experienced by Punjabi Sikh families. During the audience discussion, one woman who grew up in the area recalled the challenges of being raised by immigrant parents while navigating American society. She described experiencing racial harassment, including being spat on and insulted because of her background.

“But we did it. We survived, and everyone’s doing well,” she said, thanking Gill for bringing back memories of that period.

Another audience member recalled knowing about the harvest parties as a young woman but not being permitted to attend. Gill acknowledged that while the gatherings helped break down cultural barriers, young women often faced greater restrictions than their male counterparts. The filmmakers deliberately included perspectives from women who were excluded from the celebrations.

“Although this was, like, one step towards breaking the ice in this community, there was still a lot of divisions in the neighborhood for sure,” Gill said.

Despite those challenges, Gill said interviews with former participants consistently revealed deep respect for their immigrant parents, many of whom endured economic hardships while establishing their families in the United States.

Looking ahead, Gill hopes to expand the documentary into a feature-length film, envisioning a coming-of-age comedy similar in spirit to “Dazed and Confused,” “Superbad” and “Project X,” but set in Yuba City.

For those unable to attend, Gill said the documentary is expected to become available through PBS platforms and YouTube, tentatively around May 2027. Additional information is available at http://harvestpartyfilm.com.