2020 Compassion Film Festival Selections
Congratulations to our 2020
People’s Choice Award Recipients!
2020 brought a year of change and transition as the global pandemic gave pause to the flow and opened up opportunities to move forward creatively. Compassion Film Festival® was delighted to offer our first virtual online festival and we were quite honored by the incredible films that gave hope, inspiration, and healing during these turbulent times. We are deeply grateful for the filmmakers that enthusiastically participated in our online festival which brought the light of love, compassion, and connection to our lives.
Feature Length Films
Balikbayan
The story depicts the point of view of Jon Jon Rivero, a Filipino Canadian who made a promise to his dying father to discover his cultural roots by visiting the Philippines. What started out as a singular trip evolved into an ongoing epic journey of sharing meaningful service, rediscovering cultural resilience, and creating family connectedness. BALIKBAYAN: FROM VICTIMS TO SURVIVORS is the story of a Filipino Canadian’s journey to return to the Philippines every one to two years since 2006 in order to serve orphanages, street children, and special needs schools using hip hop, music, and play therapy to heal trauma. Since 2007, a group of Canadian volunteers would join him, determined to empower street children in Tacloban, Leyte in the wake of the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. What started out as a promise to his dying father became a journey of self-discovery and a redefinition of the word family.
Father Unknown
Captured on a camera phone as it happened, FATHER UNKNOWN is the true story of a man’s struggle to face the emptiness he carries inside. Disconnected from the people closest to him and haunted by the secrecy in his family, he records his desperate search for connection on a journey with the father he’s never truly known.
