Lecture by Prof Leonard Swidler, Founder of the Dialogue Institute and Journal of Ecumenical Studies. Founder and past president of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church. Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA). Author of more than 100 books including Jesus Was a Feminist, After the Absolute, and The Age of Global Dialogue.

Dialogue with Minghua Hsiao, Founder of the Freedom Crossing Institute, Curator of Freedom Crossing Film Festival, former Visiting Scholar in Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Panel Discussion with:

- Chun-Kai YANG Speaker Director of The Path of Destiny. YANG is an independent filmmaker and Assistant Professor at the National Dong-Hua University in Taiwan to cultivate a new generation of filmmakers.

- Elvis Lu Speaker Director of The Shepherds. LU is currently a freelance documentary filmmaker whose works focus on social trends and minority issues. people

👥Co-hosted by Freedom Crossing Institute, and the Arlene and Leonard Swidler Foundation

The 2020 Freedom Crossing Film Festival (FCFF) is dedicated to Prof Swidler’s grand vision and lifelong work for global religious dialogue. Especially in our time of growing isolationism and divisiveness, we believe this dialogue sustains peace, tolerance, and religious liberty and cultivates fertile ground for democracies to flourish. FCFF films are designed as a bridge that sparks dialogue of the heart with those who are different.

Through a keynote talk and dialogue with Ms. Hsiao, Prof. Swilder will address the principle of the Dialogue Decalogue – of the ‘Head, Hands, Heart, and Holy’ – and lift up religious dialogue as key to open the public sphere and build 21st Century democracy.

We will then put these principles into practice by exploring how dialogue can address the tension between personal faith and religious tradition, especially after Taiwan became the first East Asian country to legalize gay marriage. We will open the discussion to include directors Chun-Kai YANG (The Path of Destiny) and Elvis Lu (The Shepherds), both of whom documented the tensions within and between religious communities. The Shepherds explores tensions between a minority of LGBT-affirming churches and mainline Protestant Christianity in Taiwan regarding the campaign to legalize gay marriage, and The Path of Destiny documents an ethnographer’s decision to embrace Christianity and also reconnect with the aboriginal Sikasaway tradition of her ancestors.