Showing of the Documentary Film “Passage to Freedom” at the Mayfair Theatre

We are pleased to present Passage to Freedom, a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Sheila Petzold. Passage to Freedom describes firsthand the dire conditions faced by Southeast Asian refugees who embarked on perilous voyages from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to Canada.

The film is produced by Hearts of Freedom, a major oral history research project based at Carleton University that includes 174 video-taped interviews of former refugees from these three countries, government officials, and Canadian sponsors who welcomed them. All the interviews are available at the project website at https://heartsoffreedom.org/ 

Through a skillful interweaving of archival footage, news reports, and interviews with former refugees and Canadian immigration officials, the film vividly portrays the escape journeys and resettlement of some of the over 100,000 Southeast Asian refugees in Canada between 1975 and 1985. 

It remains the largest and most successful refugee immigration project in Canada’s history. The Canadian response to the refugee crisis was internationally recognized with the UNHRC Nansen Medal in 1986. 

There is no charge for this screening. A donation box will be available if you wish to support the work of Hearts of Freedom and the cost of the screening.   The director and the researchers will be there to answer any questions. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to watch this powerful film. 

  “…..very emotional, touching, and powerful documentary  It was a true, epic, historical, real-life tragedy, captured on film for posterity, Your film narrates this human episode of the Vietnam War in a poignant, true-to-life way, not found in any of the  previous Vietnam War related films thus far”. 

Dr. Hieu C. Truong O.C.                       

Contact

Allan Moscovitch [email protected]

Colleen Lundy [email protected]