Sponsored by the United Nations Migration agency, the IOM, this festival features films that ‘capture the promise and challenges of migration, and the unique contributions that migrants make to their new communities’. The stated goal of the Global Migration Film Festival is to ‘pave the way for greater discussion around one of the greatest phenomena of our time.

This year, Idea Exchange is participating in the GMFF through the screening of Brothers in the Buddha. This Canadian film tells the story of Michael, a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese Canadian boy who is pursuing life as a Buddhist monk, while still treading the path of adolescence in Canada. Michael, who has one foot clearly placed in the culture and tradition of his family’s culture of origin, also balances the other in his life as a Canadian teen.

After the film screening we will enjoy a discussion on the challenges youth face while balancing the disparate traditions of their culture of origin and a new Canadian life, and enjoy a mindfulness exercise led by the talk facilitator, Brandon Kidd.