Ba’s Book directed by Ashley Duong will open the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, which will take place from November 11 – 21, 2026 in Toronto (Canada), and online from November 16 – 29, 2026.

Opening Night
November 11, 2026 | Wednesday | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema | 7:30 pm

Ba’s Book by Ashley Duong – Canada | 2026 – 103 minutes

Filmmaker Ashley Duong had always wondered about her father’s story of escaping Vietnam and then the revolution in Iran, eventually finding his way to Canada. Unable to get answers, she made multiple trips to Vietnam, until to her surprise her father sent her an entire memoir of his experiences, forming the book Dear Da Lê. Duong responded to the book with more questions — and this remarkable documentary, Ba’s Book.

Duong and her reluctant father venture to Vietnam to meet with family to re-enact and challenge scenes from his memoir, revealing past joys and scars while giving voice to those he left behind. These are essential intergenerational conversations, approached with tenderness, humour, and care, but also rigorous determination. Not merely a family travelogue, Ba’s Book inventively uses film as a form to reimagine the lives of family members from multiple perspectives, to give windows to the past, and to find peace for the future. Ba’s Book stands alongside other great Canadian documentaries like Stories We Tell (2012), but for people from the diaspora, whose families have been ruptured and displaced by war. It is an extraordinary achievement in family and filmmaking. – Aram Siu Wai Collier

Clip:

About the director:
Ashley Duong is a Vietnamese Canadian director based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal who specializes in stories about relationships between humanity and the natural world.

For more information, please visit: https://www.reelasian.com/