Welcome to Canada

>> Yves Dion examines the immigrant experience in The Promised Land

by MATTHEW HAYS

When filmmaker Yves Dion and NFB producer Adam Symansky set out to make a film together, they thought about what the prime benefits are when making a doc with the crown corporation.
“One of the rare luxuries you have at the NFB,” says Dion, “is that you can focus on a subject for a long period of time. You’re not rushed.” The result is The Promised Land, slated to premiere on the fest circuit this year, which features two immigrant families as they resettle in Montreal over a seven-year period. Dion says the filming took a different approach from the usual doc fare. “I’m usually very comfortable with people, but this was a challenge. The families had just arrived and it was hard to know how to proceed, as there were huge cultural differences.”
Several of the families who were going to be part of the film dropped out, reports Dion, leaving a Bosnian family and a Guatemalan family. “I suppose I was a bit naïve, but I thought that when they came to Canada they would be thrilled about starting a new life. They were, but since they had been through such devastating wars, everything they looked at in life was seen through that filter. I should have been ready for that, but I didn’t expect it.”
Dion was also saddened to find that one family profiled felt compelled to agree to make The Promised Land for all the wrong reasons. “They said they felt obliged because we were with the government, so they thought they had to say yes. Where they came from, saying no to the government meant imprisonment or worse.” :