"The Least We Can Do" premiere and discussion “The Clock is Ticking” at the One World Refugee Film Festival - Ottawa
Sent: December 3, 2020, 3PM PST
To: Women Refugees Advocacy Project
Subject: Join us for "The Least We Can Do" premiere and discussion “The Clock is Ticking” at the One World Refugee Film Festival - Ottawa
We’re writing today to share some news with you and other sister organizations.
Our documentary, The Least We Can Do, is premiering on December 12 in the One World Refugee Film Festival online across Canada. The film will be followed by an insightful, issues-based discussion that we believe will interest you.
We know you work with people who are immigrants and refugees and imagine the discussion could offer hope and inspiration as you move forward. The festival created a program called “Canadians speaking out for refugees” to showcase The Least We Can Do and the activist discussion.
You are warmly invited to attend. The cost is only $10 and that money is donated to the sponsoring charities.
The discussion panel will explore the crisis taking place in Iraq as the Yazidi displaced by war leave the refugee camps to return to Sinjar, their homeland destroyed by ISIS. Join us to learn firsthand of the current crisis and how Canada can work with allies to make a difference.
For details of The Least We Can Do film festival screening and discussion:
https://owrff2020.eventive.org/films/5f6b69e2a55c07007d3a63dd
Thank you for your time and attention.
Wishing you well during the challenges of the pandemic,
Christine McDowell and Barbara Shuman
Women Refugees Advocacy Project
https://womenrefugeesadvocacyproject.ca/documentary/
MEDIA ADVISORY
(attached and below)
WORLD PREMIERE: THE LEAST WE CAN DO
ONE WORLD REFUGEE FILM FESTIVAL: ONLINE, CANADA-WIDE
FOLLOWED BY FEATURED GUESTS
THE LEAST WE CAN DO examines Canada's response to the Yazidi genocide by ISIS and the struggle of a small group of women to obtain comprehensive trauma care for the 1,200 Yazidi women and girls who were brought to Canada as refugees. The film features Adiba, a Yazidi survivor, Reverend Majed El Shafie of One Free World International, and Canadian MP Jenny Kwan.
WHEN: Film premiere December 12, 2020 3 pm PST, 6 pm EST | Canada-wide
Followed by discussion at 4pm PST/7pm EST featuring:
The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, Chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council
Rev. Majed El Shafie, founder One Free World International
Dr. Leora Kuttner, Clinical Psychologist and expert on pediatric pain management
Aveen, Yazidi survivor of a previous genocide
Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, Psychologist and leading world expert on Yazidi trauma care
The Honourable Mobina Jaffer, QC, int’l advocate for protection of women and girls in war
TICKETS: $10 available here: https://owrff2020.eventive.org/
VANCOUVER - The Least We Can Do will be screened online in Ottawa’s One World Refugee Film Festival in the aptly named “Canadians speaking out for refugees” program. The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A: “The Clock is Ticking: The Urgent Situation Unfolding for the Yazidi“. Panelists will bring forward news and insights on the state of the refugee camps and the crisis unfolding in Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland destroyed by ISIS.
Selected as the sole entry for the “Canadians speaking out for refugees” program, director Moira Simpson’s labour of love follows the story of a small group of women fighting for comprehensive trauma care for Yazidi women and girls in Canada. They embark on a petition campaign to urge the Canadian government to follow through on their initial promise to the Yazidi refugees. The Least We Can Do is a story about genocide, religious persecution, misogyny and enslavement, and finding ways to speak the unspeakable.
For more information about The Least We Can Do and to view the trailer, visit: www.womenrefugeesadvocacyproject.ca/documentary; includes downloadable press materials; Distribution by Moving Images Distribution.
CONTACT:
Christine McDowell and Barbara Shuman
Women Refugees Advocacy Project
womenrefugeesadvocacyproject.ca/documentary/
604-974-1145,cell: 604-374-5826
Background
On August 3, 2014, ISIS extremists began a campaign of genocide against the Yazidi, a religious minority in Northern Iraq. They murdered the men, forced the boys into ISIS military training camps, and enslaved the women and girls subjecting them to torture and rape in a fate that survivor and Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad described as “worse than death.”
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidi fled the attack by ISIS on Sinjar, eventually ending up in refugee camps in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan. The international community formed a coalition with Iraq to fight ISIS and succeeded in 2017/2018.
Fast forward to today
Under the pressure of the pandemic, the Yazidi are returning to Sinjar as the international money to support the refugee camps dries up. But Sinjar’s infrastructure is destroyed, the water is undrinkable, and hundreds of thousands of landmines exist, planted by ISIS in an unfathomable act of hatred and genocide.
What are Canada’s international moral obligations during the pandemic?
Must the terrible circumstances in Sinjar lead to yet another tragedy?
