Per the press release… In honor of Human Rights Day on December 10, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announces the online launch of Last Chance (NFB), a feature documentary by Paul Émile d’Entremont, which tells the stories of five asylum seekers in Canada – from Jamaica, Egypt, Colombia, Lebanon, and Nicaragua – who have fled homophobic violence in their native countries.

In Last Chance, filmmaker Paul Émile d’Entremont (Reema, There and Back, NFB, 2006) once again explores the theme of personal empowerment, following the heartrending journeys of Trudi, Carlos, Jennifer, Zaki and Alvaro. The film graphically portrays the issue of minority rights and exposes for the first time the ordeal that asylum seekers must go through, from their countries of origin to their arrival in Canada. Giving women and men who refuse to deny their true identities a chance to be heard, Last Chance breaks the silence and raises awareness about the struggle of these strong people, who courageously embrace their differences in the face of marginalization and oppression, as they await a decision that will forever change their lives. At the same time, Last Chance questions Canada’s now threatened tradition of openness in welcoming refugees.

The film was a winner of the La Vague/Léonard Forest award for best medium- or feature-length Acadian film at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA), and recently screened as one of the opening films at the Image+Nation Festival.

Last Chance will be available for viewing for free online, but only for a limited time – from December 7 to 9, 2012, at nfb.ca/lastchance.

Subsequently the film will be available for download-to-own, for $14.95 in high definition and $9.95 in standard definition, and as a video-on-demand rental for $2.95.

Some further back-story, also from the press release: Canada was among the first countries to accept asylum seekers on the basis of sexual orientation and identity. Every year, it takes in numerous refugees who have suffered from homophobic violence in their countries of origin, where they are often rejected by their families, arrested, imprisoned, raped, tortured, or threatened with death. To obtain Canadian refugee status, applicants must be able to prove that they are members of a sexual or gender-based minority at a hearing of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Watch the trailer for Last Chance below:

Last Chance by Paul Émile d'Entremont, National Film Board of Canada