Sad Song of Yellow Skin

Eight hundred thousand Cambodians have fled genocide. This film describes the life of these people in Thai refugee camps, the hardships they encounter, and the concerted efforts by many countries to help them in their fight for survival. Aside from its historical value, this film reveals the courage of a people who refuse to die.

Eugene "Gene Boy" (pronounced Genie Boy) Benedict was raised by his Great Uncle and Aunt on the Odanak Indian Reserve an hour and a half east of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He left home at age 15 to work in construction in New York State. At 17, adrift and beginning to lose his way, he accepted a dare and enlisted in the US Marines. A few months later, he was on his way to the frontlines of the Vietnam War. Gene Boy Came Home is the harrowing and deeply moving story of his two years of service in Vietnam and his long journey back to Odanak afterwards. At this critical point in the world's history, celebrated filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin turns her camera on the ugliness of war through the eyes of one survivor. Her new documentary will resonate with all those who have been touched by war, and with anyone who has had to travel the painful path of healing that eventually leads home.

Soorgul and Amir were two of many Afghan children sent to Tajikistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the civil wars that broke out on both sides of the border left the children stranded. They were meant to be in Tajikistan only temporarily, to attend school. Instead, they became stranded there, unable to leave the country until Canada accepted them as refugees. It took 16 years before they could return home. In The Sweetest Embrace Soorgul and Amir return to their country in search of their families. They travel in NGO vehicles (until it becomes too dangerous), then local vans - and finally, when rock-strewn roads become completely impassable, finish their journey on foot through some of Afghanistan's highest mountains. But when their paths diverge, their futures become filled with unexpected and unpredictable turns as they seek to find resolution in their lives. The Sweetest Embrace tells an intimate story set against one of the world's most harsh and yet beautiful landscapes, in a land where life has been shaped by war and hardship but where spirit remains resilient.