Ben Rekhi, Swetlana, 2026

Our opening night film tells the story of Michigan Tech alumnus and benefactor Kanwal Rekhi—for whom Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Hall is named—and brings his remarkable journey back to Michigan Tech, where his American story began. In Breaking the Code, filmmaker Ben Rekhi retraces his father’s path from India to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and on to Silicon Valley, where Kanwal broke barriers in the overwhelmingly white world of early tech and became the first Indian to take a venture-backed company public.

What begins as a portrait of a pioneering entrepreneur becomes something far more intimate. As Ben looks more closely at his parents’ life together—and events during filming bring the family’s past into the present—he begins to reckon with what their extraordinary journey demanded of them. The result is both a son’s search to understand his father and a deeply personal story of migration, identity, family, sacrifice, and love.

Kanwal Rekhi will be in attendance at the screening and director Ben Rekhi will zoom in for a Q&A following the film.

82 minutes
United States, India
English, Punjabi, Hindi