Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees: Free Film Screening & Book Launch (April 25, 2026)
Chúng Ta Cùng Nhau is pleased to co-present with the Edmonton Vietnamese Association:
Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees
A FREE film screening, book launch & signing, and panel on Saturday, April 25, 2026 at Edmonton City Hall.
RSVP for free to the Saturday, April 25, 2026 book and film events at Edmonton City Hall.
Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees
Film Screening
Book Launch & Signing
Panel Discussion
Exhibition (Vietnamese Stories)
Refreshments
Location: 📍 Edmonton City Hall
Main Atrium and Heritage Room
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Full Event Program:
1-1:30 p.m.
Doors open. Exhibition. Book Sale.
(Main Atrium)
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Free Film screening of “Passage to Freedom.”
(Heritage Room)
2:30-3 p.m.
Refreshments. Exhibition. Book Sale.
(Main Atrium)
3-4:30 p.m.
Free "Hearts of Freedom" Book Launch and Panel.
(Main Atrium)
Panelists:
Mike Molloy, Author
Stephanie Stobbes, Author of Hearts of Freedom
Dr. Nhung-Tran Davies, Author
Yvonne Ho, Owner Banh Mi Diddy
4:30-5 p.m.
Refreshments. Networking. Book Signing.
(Main Atrium)
Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees takes place ahead of the anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, which led to the mass evacuation of Vietnamese refugees ("boat people") in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many resettled as immigrants in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. As the book Hearts of Freedom emphasizes, this event comes at a particularly poignant time amidst renewed tensions over immigration and refugee policies and programs in North America. Join us in understanding and celebration of immigrant history and contributions in Canada.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Between 1975 and 1997 some three million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians fled atrocities in their home countries, with over 210,000 resettling in Canada. While this history is partly known to some Canadians, little has been written about it, especially from the perspectives of the refugees themselves.
Hearts of Freedom, released in 2025, is a rich oral history based on interviews with 145 former refugees, sharing deeply moving accounts of oppression, concentration camps, genocide, and perilous escapes over land and sea. Survivors reflect on their first impressions of Canada – the unfamiliar snow and cold, the unexpected kindness of neighbours, and occasional encounters with racism. Through their experiences, we come to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Canada’s refugee programs. These stories reveal how refugees’ attachment to Canada grew over the years and how multiculturalism policies facilitated that.
Ordinary Canadians played a decisive role in the first mass refugee movement through newly created private sponsorship programs – a role for which the United Nations awarded the Nansen Medal to the Canadian people in 1986.
Coming at a time when we are assessing the benefits of immigration and refugee policies and programs, Hearts of Freedom documents the lives and contributions of people who have suffered the worst excesses of war to rebuild their lives in Canada.
ABOUT THE FILM
"Passage to Freedom" is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Sheila Petzold, describing 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.
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.
STORIES OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEES is presented by the Edmonton Vietnamese Association, Chúng Ta Cùng Nhau and Children of Vietnam Benevolent Foundation, with support from FascinAsian Film Festival - Edmonton, LitFest Alberta, Hearts of Freedom, and Banh Mi Diddy.
