NFB Collection
When Strangers Re-Unite
199952 minFilm: Documentary
Direction: Marie BotiFlorchita Bautista
Production: Malcolm GuyMichelle SmithGermaine Ying Gee WongSally Bochner
Script: Marie BotiFlorchita Bautista
Co-produced by Productions Multi-Monde Inc. and the NFB.
Every year thousands of women enter Canada as domestic servants, the majority of them from the Philippines. Leaving their own children and families behind, they can spend many isolated years cooking, cleaning and caring for others. Sending much of their wages back home, they dream of the day their families can join them. When Strangers Re-Unite looks at what happens after years of separation and sacrifice. Virtual strangers at the airport, family members face a confusing journey of rebuilding relationships while adapting to an often unwelcoming environment. Within the Filipino community in Canada, several groups and organizations have been actively working for the rights and welfare of migrant workers. It is largely thanks to them that most of these families are able to overcome what can seem like insurmountable obstacles. Filmed in Toronto, Montreal and the Philippines, this candid and touching portrait reveals three families in the midst of healing, coping with the strangers they love.
Availability
Other versions
Subject categories
- Cultural Diversity and Multiculturalism > Asian OriginsImmigration Experience and Social AdjustmentWork
- Families > Family PortraitsImmigrant Experience
Credits
- director
- Marie Boti
- Florchita Bautista
- script
- Marie Boti
- Florchita Bautista
- producer
- Malcolm Guy
- Michelle Smith
- Germaine Ying Gee Wong
- executive producer
- Sally Bochner
- camera
- Michael Wees
- Kwoi
- animation camera
- John Sleeman
- sound
- Alain Tremblay
- Craig Lapp
- Gerry Carillon
- editing
- Marlene Millar
- Alfonso Peccia
- sound editing
- Luc Bourgeois
- online editing
- Jean-François Monette
- sound mix
- Luc Bourgeois
- narrator
- Florchita Bautista
- music
- Janet Lumb