MAME 48 Annual Conference 2021

Diversity and inclusion are a growing concern and challenge. The program Baggage is a powerful tool to talk about immigration in school districts. It raises awareness around challenges newcomers are facing. For students, as well as teachers and staff, it helps to better understand what coming from another country means, how it feels to not understand a language. 
It can build bridges between regular classes and ESL students to facilitate relationships.
It creates a sharing experience among the community that will impact links to others.
It fosters empathy.
Baggage is a moving documentary with a book that gives voice to young immigrants aged 12 to 17, newly arrived in Montreal. These young people share their narrative of migration and adaptation through drama workshops and theater. They are young, but talk about their course with a disconcerting wisdom, an emotion to shake the hardest, and a disarming authenticity. These young people testify to an "elsewhere" and a "before" that will become "here" and "now".
Original idea from Mélissa Lefebvre | Directed by Paul Tom Produced by Picbois Productions – 2017 Trailer: https://vimeo.com/272395377