The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada

In partnership with Tamarack Productions, Huron University College and Words are pleased to present a conversation on the recent film The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada, featuring a visit from Director James Cullingham and journalists Abdulrahman Matar, Arzu Yildiz, and Luis Horacio Nájera.
The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada
Featuring: James Cullingham, Abdulrahman Matar, Arzu Yildiz, and Luis Horacio Nájera
Hosted by Thomas Peace
13 November 2021
The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada confronts one of the most compelling human rights challenges of our day: the threat to journalists. Focusing on the lives of Abdulrahman Matar from Syria, Luis Horacio Nájera of México and Arzu Yildiz from Turkey, this documentary film investigates why they fled their countries and are seeking to rebuild their lives as refugees in Canada. All three now reside in the Greater Toronto Area striving to re-invent themselves. Their stories and challenges illuminate the global struggle for free speech in a time of increasing threat to journalists. This documentary was filmed in southern Ontario and Mexico. It includes archival footage from the principal characters’ countries of origin and analysis from leading analysts on press freedom and the security of journalists. Directed by filmmaker-historian-journalist James Cullingham, The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada is the latest in his catalogue of documentaries concerning social justice, popular culture, history and politics over his 30 year career. Cullingham is president of Tamarack Productions, an adjunct graduate faculty member in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University and a professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College.