Filmmaker Moze Mossanen to appear at screening of documentary You Are Here – A Come From Away Story

Writer/director Mose Mossanen will be appearing in person post screening of his successful 2018 documentary You Are Here – A Come From Away Story. The film is screened as part of Open Doors Stratford courtesy of Stratford Film Festival and the City of Stratford.

The Stratford Film Festival, as part of the 2026 return of Doors Open Stratford, is screening the Canadian documentary You Are Here – A Come From Away Story on April 18 at the Stratford City Hall auditorium. The film tells the extraordinary story of some 7,000 “plane people” who landed in Gander, Nfld. after North American airspace was closed following the attacks of 9/11. Both screenings, at 5 and 7 p.m. will feature a post-screening discussion with the filmmaker Mose Mossanen.

The wildly successful play Come From Away was the precipice from which Mossanen launched his journey into seeking out the real story behind the people of Gander and how they opened their hearts and home to thousands of strangers stranded in their town when all planes were forced to land. What followed was nothing short of an extraordinary and very Canadian story that Stratford audiences will want to experience.

“This all started with Gander. I wondered who these people were that were immortalized in the show, Come From Away, so I reached out to the community in Gander and the Come From Away people were really helpful in putting me in touch with them. Then I took a trip to Gander to kind of introduce myself because if you don’t have trust in a documentary, you have nothing,” said Mossanen.

Meeting the people characterized in the play left him with so many stories. His favourite is the second day of shooting the mayor of Gander sought them out in the park where they were working and said, “Hi Boys, just wondering how you’re doing and what are you doing Tuesday night? I want you to come to the house for dinner, we’re doing a Jiggs dinner.”

“I said to my producer, ‘Where can you go where the city’s mayor approaches you and invites you to the house for dinner?’ He prepared a great and wonderful traditional Newfoundland Jiggs dinner. My other favourite story is the day we were leaving, we shot a scene with the air traffic controllers prior, and the day we were leaving, I heard my name being called, Moze, Moze, and I looked up and at the top of the control tower one of the guys had climbed out the window and was sitting on the edge waving to me saying ‘Have a nice flight’ and I thought, this doesn’t happen at Peason or La Guardia,” laughed Mossanen.

They truly accepted and took in the crew, much as they did the plane people. Everywhere they went people would greet them and told them how happy they were that the story was being told. There is a history of Newfoundlanders looking out for each other and helping each other and the crew was witness to this.

There were powerful and unexpected experiences as the people revisited that time as both locals and those that come from away. 9/11 is a day that was immortalized in memory and affected almost everyone, much in the same way as the Kennedy assassination or the moon landing; people remember where they were.

“There were lots of times I was in tears listening to their stories of what they did with so few resources. They gave shirts off their backs and pulled blankets and sheets off their own bed, made scrambled eggs every morning for breakfast, brought sandwiches, gave medicines and needles and drinks. The drug store supplied drugs and sanitary napkins and baby food, anything that was needed was donated for free. The Red Cross was very helpful and I have to acknowledge their participation. They opened church doors and made beds. It’s not like a big city with infrastructure, this was a small place with two hotels,” said Mossanen.

Making this film had an impact on his own perspective on connection and community. It serves as a reminder to be more generous, to be more cautious with people in need. The importance of community, being kind and empathetic are values learned as children but sometimes a reminder is needed.

This film, released in 2018, has been recognized by the Canadian Screen Awards and was released on HBO becoming its most watched documentary. The message is universal and impacts everyone.

“I think the message of kindness is something everybody believes in. We’re living in a time where greed and opportunism is so rampant we’ve lost sight of the fact that we’re human and how important humanity is. I think that especially in the last few years the film continues to resonate. On the day we saw the worst of humanity we saw the best in humanity as well,” said Mossanen.

Screenings with the Q-and-A following are on April 18 at 5 and 7 p.m. in the auditorium of city hall. Tickets are available at www.stratfordfilmfestival.com.