Event: Sneak Preview: Passage to Freedom
Date: April 24, 2023 (Monday)
Time: 6:00pm -8:00pm (two showings - 6:00pm and 7:00pm)
Venue: Room 1600, Harbour Centre SFU Vancouver Campus (515 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3)
Join us for a sneak preview of this new film Passage to Freedom (2023) exclusively made available to our volunteers, partners and the Hearts of Freedom storytellers. The French version will be made available at a later date if there is enough demand for it.
There will be two screenings, one at 6:00pm and one at 7:00pm. Please select your ticket accordingly.
Passage to Freedom is a moving documentary that features oral histories of Southeast Asian refugees that made the dangerous journey from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to Canada. The film effectively weaves archival clips of news stories, wartime footage, and interviews with former refugees and Canadian immigration officials. New government policies and programs enabled Canada to resettle over 100,000 Southeast Asian refugees from 1975 to 1985. The Canadian response to the refugee crisis was recognized internationally with the awarding of the UNHCR Nansen Medal in 1986. The film delves into the harrowing and courageous journey of the refugees during the Vietnam War, the Secret Lao War, and the Cambodian Genocide; their struggles in settlement; and their resilience in starting a new life in a new country. It highlights their successful integration into the fabric of Canadian life and the contributions of this first generation and their descendants in Canada.
Content advisory: This film features coarse language and graphic first-hand accounts of physical, psychological, and sexual violence.
The film will be officially launched in BC on April 29 (Saturday) followed by a question-and-answer session with two of the principal researchers of the oral history project that gives rise to the production of the travelling exhibit and this documentary film.
This free program is brought to you by PCHC-MoM Society with support from the Government of Canada, City of Vancouver, SFU Vancouver, and in collaboration with Hearts of Freedom national partners & local partners.