ABC Television After graduating from The Royal Technical College in 1961, Sarin was hired by the
Australian Broadcast Corporation as a technician's assistant and freelanced as a film cameraman for
ABC News. Due to his father’s diplomatic post ending and Australia's
racial immigration policy, Sarin had to leave Australia and chose to move to Canada in 1963.
CBC Television Shortly after arriving in Canada, Vic was hired by
CBC Toronto as a studio cameraman, working on programs such as
The National,
This Hour Has Seven Days,
The Friendly Giant,
Front Page Challenge,
Take Thirty,
News Magazine,
Razzle Dazzle,
Mr. Dressup,
The Nature of Things,
Front Page Challenge,
Juliette and others. In 1968, Sarin joined the film department of
CBC Television. Over the next 18 years, Sarin worked as a cinematographer for many primetime CBC
documentaries and
dramas. Sarin was the first staff cinematographer for the CBC’s long-running primetime
investigative documentary program
The Fifth Estate in 1976 as well as the first cinematographer on the landmark
anthology drama series
For The Record in the same year. Sarin worked as the cinematographer for many award winning CBC Television movies and
miniseries such as
Riel,
The Wordsmith,
War Brides,
Chautauqua Girl, ''
Charlie Grant's War, Crossbar
and Love and Larceny''. In 1980, Sarin's directorial debut began with the acclaimed three-part miniseries
''You've Come a Long Way Katie'' starring
Lally Cadeau and
Catherine O'Hara. He then directed CBC movies
The Other Kingdom,
Passengers,
Island Love Song and
Family Reunion. While working for the CBC, Sarin also shot his first feature
Heartaches as the cinematographer in 1981 which was nominated for eleven Genie Awards, winning three.
After CBC Sarin left the CBC in 1987 to pursue a career as an independent filmmaker. In 1989, His first feature film as a director was
Cold Comfort, a dramatic thriller about three people stranded at deserted gas station in a blizzard starring
Paul Gross,
Maury Chaykin and
Jayne Eastwood. It was nominated for five Genie awards including Best Picture and won Best Adapted screenplay. In 1991, Sarin directed and shot the ten part documentary series
Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World which celebrates the lives and worldviews of small scale non-technological societies as the last of them face their inevitable accommodation with the 'modern world'. The
Millennium series premiered in February 1992 on
The Global Television Network. It was broadcast nationally on
PBS in May 1992 and later on
BBC Television. The series was subsequently broadcast in numerous other countries over the following years with global viewership approaching 100 million.
Millennium earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography. Sarin directed
Trial at Fortitude Bay starring
Henry Czerny in 1994 which received two Gemini nominations. In 1995, he was the cinematographer for the period drama film ''
Margaret's Museum starring Helena Botham Carter and Clive Russell, earning another Genie nomination for Best Cinematography. In 1996, Sarin directed The Legend of Gatorface'' in 1996 which was nominated for a
Daytime Emmy Award for
Paul Winfield for
Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special. In 1997, he directed
In His Father’s Shoes, being nominated for five Daytime Emmy Awards, winning two. Sarin directed and shot
Sea People in 1999, earning Four Daytime Emmy nominations. In 2001, Sarin directed the
Christian apocalyptic thriller film
Left Behind in 2001 starring
Kirk Cameron. Shot primarily in and around
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, the film cost $17.4 million (equivalent to $28,653,459 in 2023). At the time of its release, the film was promoted by its creators as the "biggest and most ambitious Christian film ever made."
Sepia Films In 2003, Sarin founded the multi-platform film and television production company Sepia Films with partners Tina Pehme and Kim Roberts. Based in
Vancouver,
British Columbia and
Los Angeles, Sepia specializes in international co-productions and has produced and shot films in Canada,
U.S.,
Ireland,
England,
Italy,
Denmark,
India,
China,
South Africa,
Tanzania,
Argentina,
Australia and
Brazil. Sarin wrote, directed and shot
Partition in 2007, an epic period romantic drama film starring
Jimi Mistry,
Irrfan Khan and
Kristin Kreuk. A co-production between Canada, South Africa and the
United Kingdom, it takes place in India during the 1947
Partition of India and Pakistan and follows a
Sikh ex-soldier who offers shelter to a young
Muslim woman separated from her family. The film was shot primarily in
Kamloops, British Columbia Canada and
Punjab, India. The film received one Genie Award nomination for the Best Achievement in Cinematography. In 2009, Sarin wrote, directed and shot
A Shine of Rainbows in
County Donegal, Ireland. Starring
Connie Neilson,
Aiden Quinn,
John Bell and
Jack Gleeson, it is an adaptation of the novel
A Shine of Rainbows by English writer
Lillian Beckwith. Debuting at TIFF, It was nominated for and won several awards. Sarin returned back to documentary work in 2011 by directing
Desert Riders about the
trafficking,
slavery and
sexual abuse of young boys from
Bangladesh,
Pakistan,
Mauritania and other countries to work as
camel jockeys in the
UAE under excruciating conditions and the global effort to stop it. Sarin was a 2012 Director's Guild of Canada nominee for the Allen King Award for Excellence in a Documentary. From 2013 to 2018, Sarin directed and shot
The Nightmare Series which included
A Sister’s Nightmare (2013),
A Daughters Nightmare (2014), ''A Wife's Nightmare
(2014), A Surrogates Nightmare
(2017) and A Father's Nightmare'' (2018) for the
Lifetime Network. Sarin directed
Hue: a Matter of Colour in 2013 which channelled a personal, heartfelt investigation into the history and often tragic effects of
colourism. It was a co-production between Sepia Films, The
National Film Board of Canada and
Documentary Channel. In 2014, Sarin directed
The Boy From Geita which followed Adam, a young Tanzanian boy persecuted because of his
albinism. The film was nominated for several awards, including three from
VIFF and the 2015 Directors Guild of Canada Allan King Award For Excellence in Documentary. In 2015, Sarin directed
Keepers of the Magic which “honours the great masters of cinematography, unsung heroes whose vision and talent was always right before our eyes” and conducted interviews with fellow filmmakers like
Roger Deakins,
Vittorio Storaro,
Gordon Willis and
Sam Mendes. In 2022, Sarin co-wrote, shot and directed the dramatic thriller
Sugar for
Amazon Prime Video starring
Katherine McNamara and Jasmine Sky. The true story chronicled two Canadian influencers on a cruise around the world who naively get involved in illegal activities for a cartel. In 2017, Vic wrote a published autobiography about his life called
Eyepiece: Adventures in Canadian Film and Television. With a foreword by
The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Eyepiece chronicles Vic’s childhood in India and Australia, working for the CBC in Canada to transitioning to an independent filmmaker. Sarin’s latest film is an Irish period romantic drama called
The Lightkeeper starring
Dominac Cooper,
Sarah Gadon, Aiden Quinn and
Sarah Bolger. Filming began in September, 2023. ==Filmography==