Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay
June 14, 2017
Doors: 8:45pm
Screening: 9:00pm
Co-sponsored by No One Is Illegal – Toronto
Passages, bridges, and borders can be ambiguous spaces. They are slippery in-betweens where the rules seem to always be changing. There are those that are porous, and those that are closed. Some migrants cross with hope, while others do so reluctantly, or by force, with no access to return. These imagined (yet enforced) borders and boundaries in the real, the digital, or spiritual worlds mark those who make the voyage and transform them – for better or worse. The films in Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay trace migratory queer stories and bring into question the concepts of borders, passages, and crossings.
LOCATION AND INFO
Steelworker’s Hall
25 Cecil St, Toronto, ON M5T 1N1
PWYC, suggested donation: $5 – $20
No one turned away for lack of funds.
All screenings are PWYC and wheelchair accessible. This screening will be closed-captioned and ASL-interpreted. Please contact us if you have any additional accessibility-related inquiries.
Films
Right of Passage
Right of Passage is a personal look at three LGBT refugees resettling in Germany: Ibrahim, Hamid, and Ali. As they share details of the struggles they have faced, both in their countries of origin and now in Germany, we learn about the extraordinary circumstances behind why they decided to seek asylum and what their future holds for them.
Crossing Bridges
A man confronts his insecurities and internalized homophobia as he reflects on his experience as a gay Asian man and immigrant with the help of his family and friends.
Occidental Paradise
Exploring “self-reflections” in the empire of information and images, this film presents an unsettling assemblage of cultural texts on Thailand that often pass as common sense.
Two Snakes
An experimental animation & documentary about diasporic foundational myths.
The Migrant Mixtape
Arab LGBT individuals send Helem Montreal the Migrant Mixtape, a series of recorded letters. They are asking for support to seek asylum in Canada in order to escape persecution and homophobic violence in their country of origin. One of them, Adib Mardini, having managed to become a refugee in Canada, tells us about the process that changed his life.