Unpacking Immigration, an award-winning 13-minute film directed and produced by Harleen Bal, explores the lives of Punjabi immigrant meatpackers whose unseen and undervalued work bridges the crucial missing steps in “the farm to table” concept in food production. This short film shares the story of a longtime Punjabi Sikh meatpacker in California’s Central Valley. The film traces his migration journey, the human toll of meatpacking work, and the fraught notions of home and belonging for working-class immigrants and their families in the “land of opportunity.”

Unpacking Immigration won the Loni Ding Award for social issue documentary and the InspirASIAN Graduate Student Award at CAAMFest.  It has been screened as part of community and campus discussions, as well as several film festivals.  The film was screened through Indiana University Cinema's Movement: Asian/Pacific America film series.

Harleen's foray into film was part of a seminar on public scholarship through the Mellon Foundation and involved collaboration with a grassroots organization, Jakara Movement.  She continues to use film as a modality for public scholarship by bridging social theory concepts and stories to broader communities.