© Franklin Heavy
Ottawa, Canada — The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, is thrilled to partner with Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival this year to support refugee and migrant voices from around the world.
Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and to creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers. Hot Docs will present its 29th annual edition from April 28 to May 8, 2022, in cinemas across Toronto, as well as online to audiences throughout Canada.
Featuring stories of resilience and courage spanning the globe from Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq, to South Sudan and the United States — UNHCR’s partner program ‘Diaspora’ presents eight films. These feature-length documentaries showcase the diverse challenges and experiences of people forced to flee from conflict and start over again. Films in ‘Diaspora’ also explore topics of memory, generational impacts of forced migration and paving a way forward.
Included in ‘Diaspora’ are:
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- And Still I Sing – Directed by Fazila Amiri, 2022, Canada
- Angels of Sinjar – Directed by Hanna Polak, 2022, Poland and Germany
- Batata – Directed by Noura Kevorkian, 2022, Canada, Lebanon and Qatar
- Eskape – Directed by Neary Adeline Hay, 2021, France
- Mija – Directed by Isabel Castro, 2022, USA
- Midwives – Directed by Snow Hnin El Hlaing, 2022, Myanmar, Germany and Canada
- Nasim – Directed by Ole Jacobs and Arne Büttner, 2021, Germany
- No Simple Way Home – Directed by Akuol De Mabior, 2021, South Sudan, Kenya and South Africa
A special panel discussion — featuring Rema Jamous Imseis, UNHCR Representative for Canada, director Noura Kevorkian and producer Paul Scherzer — will also be available throughout the duration of the festival for a deep dive into the making of their documentary, Batata. Join us to take a glimpse at a decade-long journey into the life and plight of Maria, a Syrian migrant worker unable to leave Lebanon and return to her home in Syria.
For more information on Hot Docs please visit www.hotdocs.ca.
Media contacts:
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- In Ottawa, Gisele Nyembwe, nyembwe@unhcr.org, +1 613-986-4300
- In Montreal/Ottawa, Levon Sevunts, sevunts@unhcr.org, +1 613-286-6975
UNHCR supports freedom of artistic expression and diversity of views — as documentaries can be a powerful vehicle to start conversations and drive change. However, views expressed in the films do not represent those of UNHCR. The UN Refugee Agency is an intergovernmental humanitarian organization that works in over 130 countries, protecting millions of people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution.
