29 May 2021 | 2:00 p.m.
Presented in collaboration with Reelworld Film Festival
Screening of “The Greatest Country in the World,” directed by Ky Nam Le Duc
followed by a Q&A with Director Ky Nam Le Duc, moderated by Pahull Bains, Marketing and Outreach Manager, Reelworld Film Festival
Opening Remarks: Mr. Justin Poy, Honourary Patron, Asian Heritage Month-CFACI
This is an immigrant story for our time. In the depths of winter, in a not-so-distant future, a far-right government is elected and a province closes its borders; the safety and livelihood of refugees and non-status immigrants are left hanging in the balance. A Haitian woman working as a housekeeper leaves her young son, Junior, with her thirty-something-year-old employer before disappearing without a trace. Now, with help from his former father-in-law, a former Vietnamese refugee, this de facto family unit attempts to solve the mystery of where Junior’s mother fled.
The harsh winter landscape echoes the struggle of the trio who are trying to ensure that Junior will not be left behind. The film’s title suggests a duality: love versus nationalism. For Junior, both are true to his experience: the struggle to stay in the place he knows as home and the threat of being deported from it.
Director: Ky Nam Le Duc
A second-generation immigrant, Montréal-based director Ky Nam Le Duc makes films about people who exist between places.
Programme Notes by Marina Hanna.
Co-Organizers: Reelworld Film Festival; Toronto Public Library; Asian Heritage Month—Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc.; Toronto Public Library; York Centre for Asian Research, York University; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; York University; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; WE Artists’ Group; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society; Fête Chinoise
Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund