Celebrating Black Voices : Library videos

In the early 1900's, Saskatchewan attracted immigrants from all over the world. Among those were the many African Americans who were driven away from their homes in the United States due to racism. They brought with them a number of traditions, one of them being constructing a church to act as the focal point of their settlements. To the settlements, a church would serve the community as a meeting house, community hall, school house and many other functions. Another tradition they carried with them was the act of planting spruce trees directly on top of the graves of those who had passed away. These communities, such as the Shiloh community, quickly grew in numbers despite prejudices and eventually became a part of Saskatchewan's social fabric.

In Africville, its troubled past and the turbulent present dynamically coalesce to spotlight a community that has remained strong and resilient in the face of overwhelming racism and injustice.
Africville, the once vibrant, prosperous and self-sustaining community that took pride in its own church, post office, school and brightly painted houses, has now come to represent the oppression and racism faced by Black Canadians and the efforts to right historic wrongs.

Anne Cools was Canada's first black senator. Appointed over 30 years ago by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, she is Canada's longest serving member of Senate.

Canada is a diverse country but that's not often what it looks like when it comes to pop culture. A recent study showed that 87% of the characters on the screen were white. When they weren't, the role often fell into stereotypical roles. A panel discussion with Marina Phillips, Founder of Ree Ree Productions; Farley Flex, Senior VP, Feva TV; and Andrea Lewis, Creator, "Black Actress."

From enslaved people during the eras of New France and British North America, to the community of Africville in Nova Scotia, this program examines a variety of Black experiences from Canada's history. Learn about those seeking freedom from enslavement in the United States during the American Revolution and during the time of the Underground Railroad. Also, the experiences of African-American migrants arriving in British Columbia during the 1850s and those journeying to the Canadian Prairies in the early 1900s are outlined.

You’d never know it but the sleepy hamlet of Canfield in Southern Ontario has an interesting history, one that’s been hidden from view for years. Bill Douglas lived in Canfield most of his life and even he’s surprised when local historians begin to reveal his family’s role in Canfield’s rich history of Black ancestry.

Premier Wynne unexpectedly walked into the middle of a group of Black Lives Matter protesters.

Produced and Directed by Stacy-Ann Buchanan, The Blind Stigma is an award winning documentary that discusses mental health within the Black community. It chronicles and testifies the stories of five individuals (including Buchanan's) on their trials and triumphs with mental health. Each story is told bravely and effectively with additional context provided by mental health professionals, religious leaders, caregivers, and your everyday citizen. Within the Black community, mental health is deemed as a 'Swept Under The Rug' stigma that has been creating false illusions and assumptions for a long time. That stigma is the core component of the African Canadian response to mental illness, and therefore African Canadians who suffer from mental illness are less likely to seek treatment. As a result very few studies have been done on the impact of mental illness in the Black community. The Blind Stigma powerfully removes the veil of shame that clouds the topic of mental illness in the Black community, challenges that misconception, gives a voice to Black Canadians living with mental illness and leaves the audience more informed and empowered.

On April 10, 1734, Montreal was on fire. The city was devastated and the cause was deemed to be arson. An enslaved woman was charged, tortured, and hung for the crime — a crime she might not have committed. This is the story of Marie-Josèphe-Angélique, from one of the darkest chapters of Canadian history.

Every year, Toronto plays host to the biggest street festival in North America. The elaborate costumes, props and lively dancers bring everything to life and add to this incredible experience that happens only once a year. Caribana was introduced to Canada by immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Antigua and Jamaica. Much of the music associated with the event, such as steel pan, soca and calypso originated from Trinidad and Tobago.

Cool Black North explores the unique and vibrant Canadian Black Community and its role in our country’s contemporary identity.
Through a series of intimate profiles, we are witness to a wide spectrum of life experiences, including the arts, entertainment, law, business, science and social activism. Though each person’s pathway to success is unique, they all share a common purpose and strength in overcoming often racially-based obstacles to succeed at the highest levels in their respective fields.

Josiah Henson was born into slavery in Maryland in 1789. Soon after, he was sold to a particularly cruel slave owner. When Henson tried to buy his freedom, he was tricked out of it his owner, and he fled with his family on the Underground Railroad to Canada. Henson settled in Dresden, Ontario, and set about establishing a school to teach former slaves to read and write. It became known as the British American Institute and opened its doors in 1842. In 1849 Henson's autobiography was published, which Harriet Beecher Stowe used when she wrote her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's book launched Henson into celebrity and also helped to bring about the civil war.

A fire started on the night of April 10, 1734. By the early hours of the morning, half of Montreal had been destroyed. Marie-Josèphe-Angélique, a young black slave, was accused of setting the fire despite the lack of evidence against her and sentenced to death by hanging. Fire and Fury looks at the story of Angélique through the eyes of 3 people who knew her. Each sheds a very different light on the woman. Based on a true historical event.

A University of Toronto student has graduated as the medical school’s first black woman to be named standalone valedictorian — and the first woman to receive the honour in 14 years. Chika Oriuwa, the child of Nigerian immigrants, made history while being the only black medical student in her 2016 university class of 259 people. In an interview with CTV News, Oriuwa shares her journey towards graduating and her fight to bring more black students into this key medical school located in one of the world's most diverse cities.

A documentary examining the lifelong work of a pioneering civil rights organizer, Jack O’Dell, who was a close colleague and advisor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A former member of the Communist Party, O’Dell was followed by the FBI, labelled the number-five Communist in America by President Kennedy, and was eventually forced out of King’s organization.
In the film, Jack O’Dell eloquently speaks to issues concerning the civil rights movement, both with respect to his historical involvement and to contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter. O’Dell passed away in 2019 at the age of ninety-six, after this film was completed.

One of Governor Simcoe's greatest achievements in Upper Canada was the ending of slavery. The first black citizens of Oxford County came up with Peter Lossing and the Quakers; they were quickly released from slavery and Lossing helped them acquire jobs and become situated. The next wave of black settlers to come from the United States were a group from Cincinnati following the riots of 1829.

Marie-Josephe Angelique was a young black slave who lived in New France during the early eighteenth century. She was accused of setting Montreal on fire in 1734. The story of Angèlique is the story of black slavery in Canada.

Winston LaRose, a beloved 80-year-old activist/amateur documentarian who has documented the Black community throughout the Black Diaspora for the past 60 years throws his hat into local politics and is met with unflinching systemic racism in the Canadian political system. This award-winning film gives an insider perspective of Black community activism in Canada.

A short, informative biography of Mandela - covers his involvement with the African National Congress, his treason trial and his struggle for human rights. Also covers Canada's contribution to the anti-apartheid movement.

In the 1800's Chatham-Kent became known as a place of refuge for many fugitive slaves who escaped from the United States. The land was rich in natural resources and far enough away from the border that it was relatively safe from slave hunters. Some of them also got assistance from the native people in the area. Once the blacks came to Canada their journey had just begun. They had to learn to rid themselves of their slave mentality and take their place as equals in society. Chatham enticed both free blacks and slaves from all over North America to settle along the Thames.

A panel of Black leaders discuss the role and history of the black community in Canada. The panel includes Don Meredith, Conservative Party of Canada; Michael Pinball Clemons, Vice Chair, Toronto Argonauts; Kwesi Johnson, Youth Outreach Worker; and Delvina Bernard, Executive Director, Council on African Canadian Education. The introductory segment takes a brief look at the history of blacks in Canada with reference to Mathieu de Costa, the first recorded black person in Canada and the story of Viola Desmond of Nova Scotia who was one of the first to raise awareness about the reality of Canadian segregation.

Soul On Ice: Past, present, and future presents and retells the virtually unknown contributions of black athletes in ice hockey. For decades, hockey was seen as a homogeneous sport - exciting to watch but played by one kind of player. Soul On Ice presents the exploits of athletes who dared to stand out, and dared to make the sport their own. These Black athletes dared to give their sport soul. At the heart of the story is Jaden Lindo, a young man chasing after his lifelong dream to play in the NHL. The film follows Jaden in the most important year of his hockey life, mirroring the journey that many other black athletes have faced to make it to the NHL.

Journalist, Brandy Yanchyk, travels to Windsor, Ontario to visit the Tower of Freedom which honours the flight of American slaves into freedom on the Underground Railroad. This trip is part of her Seeing Canada season three series.
In the video Brandy Yanchyk interviews Educator Irene Moore Davis about the significance of the Tower.
In this episode of season three Brandy Yanchyk learns about the Underground Railroad and the history of the Freedom Seekers who came to Canada and helped build a large, vibrant Black community in the country.

On November 8, 1946, Black Halifax business owner Viola Desmond made a stand against racial segregation in Canada by refusing to leave the whites-only section of a New Glasgow, N.S. movie theatre. She took her appeal to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and became an iconic figure of Canada's civil rights movement. Seventy-five years later, Desmond’s courage continues to be honoured and remembered by her appearance on Canada’s $10 bank note.

Sprinter Harry Jerome, widely regarded as one of the ultimate advocates of his sport, was only 19 years old when he set the first of his seven world records, achieving one of the greatest triumphs in Canadian sports to date, an Olympic gold medal. Jerome, born in 1940 as a minority in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, championed the rights of the African-Canadian community. He was met with great adversity from the media all of his athletic career, yet overcame the odds to win 2 gold medals and become a hero of the Canadian people. A deeply committed athlete, Jerome often showed great courage in difficult times, most notably when he made a remarkable full recovery after a quadriceps muscle tear severed his connection with his knee and threatened to end his career as an athlete. After a ground-breaking journey, Jerome retired from the sport with a masters in physical education and began a life-long mission to mentor and advocate for young athletes and minorities. In honour of his legacy, the annual Harry Jerome awards began over 30 years ago as a national event which credits and embraces the extraordinary excellence in African Canadian achievement.

42," is the powerful story of Jackie Robinson, the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier when he joined the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. "42" will star Academy Award(R) nominee Harrison Ford ("Witness") as the innovative Dodger's general manager Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who first signed Robinson to the minors and then helped to bring him up to the show, and Chadwick Boseman ("The Express") as Robinson, the heroic African American who was the first man to break the color line in the big leagues

Based on a true story, "Amistad" is the saga of a failed mutiny on board a Spanish slave ship and the trial that followed. In the summer of 1839, fifty-three African captives, led by Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), broke free and took over the slave ship Amistad. Captured off the eastern seaboard after failing in a desperate attempt to sail home, they find themselves strangers in a strange land and at the mercy of the American justice system. Fighting for the Africans are abolitionist Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and young lawyer Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey). However, seeking re-election, President Martin Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) is willing to sacrifice the Africans to appease the pro-slavery South. The case takes on historic proportions when former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) comes out of retirement to take the Africans' cause all the way to the United States Supreme Court in a trial that challenges the very foundation of the American legal system.

Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington's directorial debut involves the touching story of a sailor (Derek Luke) who, prone to violent outbursts, is sent to a naval psychiatrist (Washington) for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

The illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Captain in the Royal Navy finds her unique social standing become instrumental in the campaign to end slavery in England after meeting an idealistic young vicar's son.

Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat's preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities - against himself and his fellow slaves - Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.

In a contemporary adaptation of Langston Hughes' celebrated play, the holiday musical drama BLACK NATIVITY follows Langston (Jacob Latimore), a street-wise teen from Baltimore raised by a single mother, as he journeys to New York City to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged relatives Reverend Cornell and Aretha Cobbs (Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett). Unwilling to live by the imposing Reverend Cobbs' rules, a frustrated Langston is determined to return home to his mother, Naima (Jennifer Hudson). Langston embarks on a surprising and inspirational journey and along with his new friends, and a little divine intervention, he discovers the true meaning of faith, healing, and family.

Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) and Dre (Taye Diggs) can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to one single childhood instant ...when they met hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, she is a revered music critic and he is a successful, though unfulfilled, music executive. Both come to realize that their true love was found that day on the corner.

Based on Bizet's classic opera and its all African American musical counterpart Carmen Jones, Carmen a Hiphopera is a modern retelling of the story of the tragic gypsy Carmen. The setting has been taken from the hots streets of Barcelona and is now in scorching urban Philadelphia. This time Carmen Brown is an aspiring actress who in her own words 'leaves the whole town speechless.' Her sultry looks and carefree confidence attract the attention of everyone from crooked cop Luietenant Miller to famous rapper Blaze. However Carmen has eyes on the one man she can't have- Seargeant Derrick Hill who is engaged. Yet nothing stops Carmen Brown getting what she wants- except perhaps a trip to LA and an ominous tarot cards prophecy.

At an all-black army camp, civilian parachute maker and "hot bundle" Carmen Jones is desired by many of the men. Naturally, she wants Joe, who's engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War. Going after him, she succeeds only in getting him into the stockade. While she awaits his release, trouble approaches for both of them. Songs from the Bizet opera with modernized lyrics.

Based on the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr. in a tour de force performance) rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) herself and her court.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the controversial high school basketball coach who benched his undefeated team due to their collective poor academic record in 1999.

In a small Georgia town in 1906, young Celie gives birth to two children, fathered by the man she calls "Pa". Sustained by the close bond with younger sister Nettie, Celie submerges her own identity and pours out her heart in letters first to God, then to her absent sister. It is not until 1921, when blues singer Shug Avery, the preacher's daughter, comes into Celie's life, that she begins to reveal her glowing spirit and to develop an awareness of her own worth and the world of possibilities that lies open to her.

Denzel Washington is a colonel beginning what he thinks is the routine investigation of a candidate for the Medal of Honor. But nothing about his quest is routine. The Medevac pilot in question (Meg Ryan) is the first woman to be considered for this highest award. The White House and the Pentagon are pushing him to rubber-stamp the approval. He's uncovering the survivors' conflicting stories about Ryan's death in the line of duty. And he's being forced to confront the truth about his own past as a tank commander in the fury of the same Gulf War. From the director of Legends of the Fall and Glory comes a moving drama about bravery in combat and peacetime

A provocative, unflinching look at the complexities of racial conflict in America, CRASH is that rare cinematic event - a film that challenges audiences to question their own prejudices. Diving headlong into the diverse melting pot of post-9/11 Los Angeles, this compelling urban drama tracks the volatile intersections of a multi-ethnic cast, examining fear and bigotry from multiple perspectives as characters careen in and out of one another's lives. No one is safe in the battle zones of racial strife. And no one is immune to the simmering rage that sparks violence - and changes lives...

After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has been thriving in both his career and family life. When childhood friend and former boxing prodigy Damian (Jonathan Majors) resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian—a fighter who has nothing to lose.

Dreamgirls follows the rise of a trio of women who have formed a promising girl group- The Dreamettes. At a talent competition, they get the opportunity of a lifetime: to become the back-up singers for headliner James "Thunder" Early. Though the Dreams become a crossover phenomenon, they soon realize that the cost of fame and fortune may be higher than they ever imagined.

Set against the high-energy, high-stakes world of show style marching bands, DRUMLINE is a fish-out-of-water comedy about a talented street drummer from Harlem who enrolls in a Southern university, expecting to lead its marching band's drumline to victory. He initially flounders in his new world before realizing that it takes more than talent to reach the top.

An African American father struggles with race relations in the United States while trying to raise his family in the 1950s and coming to terms with the events of his life.

An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.

This is the true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother, whose birthday falls on New Year's Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend, who he hasn't been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to T, their beautiful 4 year old daughter. He starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easy. He crosses paths with friends, family, and strangers, each exchange showing us that there is much more to Oscar than meets the eye. But it would be his final encounter of the day, with police officers at the Fruitvale BART station that would shake the Bay Area to its very core, and cause the entire nation to be witnesses to the story of Oscar Grant.

Chris Rock, a man with two daughters, asks about good hair, as defined by Black Americans, mostly Black women. He visits Bronner Brothers' annual hair convention in Atlanta. He tells us about sodium hydroxide, a toxin used to relax hair. He looks at weaves, and he travels to India where tonsure ceremonies produce much of the hair sold in America. A weave is expensive: he asks who makes the money. We visit salons and barbershops, central to the Black community. Rock asks men if they can touch their mates' hair - no, it's decoration. Various talking heads (many of them women with good hair) comment. It's about self image. Maya Angelou and Tracie Thoms provide perspective

Jones is extraordinary as Jack Johnson, the first black heavy-weight boxing champion of the world. Alexander is remarkable as Johnson's girlfriend who is finally torn apart by her ordeal and the boxer's unfocused hostility.

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

Baldwin's novel "follows Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their first born child. It's a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families, and their lives."

After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker.

A married man who daydreams about being with other women finds his will and morals tested after he's visited by the ex-mistress of his old friend.

Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal, William O Neal, to betray him and the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality. Hampton was inspiring a generation, which put him directly in the line of fire of the FBI and Chicago PD. To destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside and the inside. Facing prison, O Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton s fiery message draws him in, he cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his betrayal

A powerful and thought-provoking true story, Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds — and the system — stacked against them.

Life, Above All is a emotional and universal drama about a young girl (stunningly performed by first-time-actress Khomotso Manyaka) who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community. The film captures the enduring strength of loyalty and a courage powered by the heart. Directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Schmitz ( Mapantsula , Paris, je t aime ), it is based on the international award winning novel Chanda s Secrets by Allan Stratton.

A woman decides to adopt the child of a drug-addicted mother, only to grow distraught when the mother wants the child back.

Malcolm Litte - known at various times as Detroit Red, Satan, Malcolm X and El-Hajj El-Shabazz - was one of the most charismatic political voices in American history. The fascinating life of this visionary leader is brought to the motion picture screen in a sweeping epic starring Academy Award-winner(r) Denzel Washington in the title role

An action film directed by Tony Scott ("Enemy of the State," "Spy Game"), starring Denzel Washington as an ex-soldier living out his life in Mexico who reluctantly agrees to protect a child whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. When the child is abducted and presumed killed while under his watch, Washington's fiery rage is unleashed on those he feels are responsible.

"Men of Honor" chronicles the inspirational, true-life exploits of Carl Brashear (Gooding), who becomes the Navy's first African-American master diver. Brashear runs into formidable opposition from Billy Sunday (De Niro), a rebellious senior officer and master diver who ultimately helps Brashear overcome the odds to make military history.

A timeless story of human connection and self-discovery, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.

The life and death story of Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect.

Slim and Queen's first date takes an unexpected turn when a policeman pulls them over for a minor traffic violation. When the situation escalates, Slim takes the officer's gun and shoots him in self-defence. Now labelled cop killers in the media, Slim and Queen feel that they have no choice but to go on the run and evade the law. When a video of the incident goes viral, the unwitting outlaws soon become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people all across the country.

Based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. "Race" is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one manÕs fight to become an Olympic legend.

1944. As the war in Europe continues to take its toll on Allied forces, the Pentagon brass has no recourse but to consider unorthodox options - including the untried and untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country - and the fate of the free world.

Samba migrated to France ten years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burn-out. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together

Set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping, honey and the Black Madonna

"The story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people — a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965

"Mother Joe," the matriarch of an embattled Chicago family, dishes out generous helpings of delicious "soul food, love and wisdom during weekly Sunday night dinners. But when she takes ill, her young grandson must struggle to keep the family together. The motion picture producing debut of famed songwriter/music producer Kenny 'Babyface" Edmonds.

Dancing great Bill 'Williamson' sees his face on the cover of Theatre World magazine and reminisces: just back from World War I, he meets lovely singer Selina Rogers at a soldiers' ball and promises to come back to her when he "gets to be somebody." Years go by, and Bill and Selina's rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to "settle down." Will she ever change her mind? Concludes with a big all-star show hosted by Cab Calloway.

Set in the shadowy world of undercover police work, a veteran L.A.P.D. narcotics officer (Denzel Washington) guides an idealistic rookie through his first day on a brutal inner-city beat.

A UNITED KINGDOM tells the inspiring true story of Seretse Khama, the King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments. Seretse and Ruth defied family, Apartheid and empire - their love triumphed over every obstacle flung in their path and in so doing they transformed their nation and inspired the world

A massive unmanned locomotive, nicknamed "The Beast" and loaded with toxic cargo, roars through the countryside, vaporizing anything put in front of it. A veteran engineer (Washington) and a young conductor (Pine), aboard another train in the runaway's path, devise an incredible plan to try and stop it — and prevent certain disaster in a heavily populated area.

An in-depth look at the life and music of Whitney Houston.

A black person in Toronto is nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police, according to a new Ontario Human Rights Commission report on race and policing. The commission's interim report said black people were over-represented in several types of violent police interactions, including use-of-force cases, shootings, deadly encounters and fatal shootings.

Novelist, historian, Marxist thinker and pre-eminent figure of the African and Caribbean nationalist movements, C.L.R. James was one of the great minds of the 20th century. David Austin profiles the man who wrote "The Black Jacobins" — the classic history of the only successful slave revolt in history: the Haitian Revolution, which presaged and influenced the African liberation movements. A three-part series from CBC Radio's Ideas.

Marvel's Black Panther has arrived to critical acclaim, but artistic merit aside, for lots of black youth it's much more than a superhero movie. CBC News followed a group of teenagers who won a screening to Black Panther to find out what the movie means to them and the lessons they learned from seeing the groundbreaking film.

Prof. Daniel Hill continues in the second of a 1979 four-part series of interviews on black history in Ontario with CBC Radio's Bill McNeil. Hill talks about the community volunteer groups that worked so hard to help black refugees arriving in Ontario on the Underground Railway in the mid-19th century, why Ontario was their main destination, the basis of the ...

CBC Kids News contributor Elijah Sandiford digs into the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. Historian and sociologist Afua Cooper describes some critical moments in black history and Vancouver activist Jacob Callender-Prasad talks about his role fighting anti-black racism.

Filmmaker Cazhhmere is a seventh-generation black Canadian. Despite this deep history, she’s constantly asked to explain where she’s from — even though the answer is always “Canada.” Cazhhmere is a proud Canadian. Her ancestors were among the first black settlers to come to Canada — her family has spent hundreds of years weaving itself into the fabric of our nation. Despite this deep history, Cazhhmere is constantly questioned about where she is originally from. In Deeply Rooted, Cazhhmere will change your perception of what a multi-generational Canadian family looks like. In a country that is widely known for being a "global melting pot," our nation can easily forget that not every person of colour is a newcomer to Canada.

In this six part series, actor Samuel L. Jackson uncovers the untold history of the transatlantic slave trade

How much do we know about black history in Canada? Who were the key figures? What do we lose when we don't include black stories in our history? Moderated by Amanda Parris, host of Exhibitionists on CBC Arts, the panel includes: Nikki Clarke, Ontario Black History Society; Afua Cooper, Dalhousie University; Andrea Davis, York University; and Karen Flynn, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

This special presentation from CBC Radio's Sunday Edition is a dramatized account of a pivotal moment in Canadian race relations. On November 8, 1946 Viola Desmond refuses to move to the upstairs balcony in the Roseland Theatre, and is forcibly removed from the theatre and thrown in jail. The resulting legal battle was taken all the way to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Black migrants from Oklahoma came to Saskatchewan in 1910 only to face the same racism they had been trying to escape.

Madiba: The Life and Times of Nelson Mandela reveals a story unknown to the world beyond his inner circle. Mandela talks of his love of children, how apartheid affected him and facing the death sentence. How he survived prison, won over his enemies, and overcame prejudice. He also speaks about the pain of his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with whom he had two daughters. In an interview, Winnie talks about her first meeting with Mandela, the last time they were home together, and how she survived torture and scandal.

The National's popular Only in Canada segment puts the spotlight on Burnley Allan "Rocky" Jones, a man remembered for his unflinching dedication to civil and human rights in Nova Scotia. Considered a revolutionary by some, Jones had connections with the Black Panther Party and was a founding member of the Black United Front in Nova Scotia. A prominent Halifax lawyer, he was lauded for his advocacy on behalf of black and aboriginal Nova Scotians. Among the many causes he championed, he fought racism in the justice system and took a lead role in the creation of an education program for blacks and Mi'kmaq people at the Dalhousie Law School.

The Canadian Prairies at the beginning of the 1900s were bustling with the anticipation of new settlers, and hundreds of newly freed slaves in Oklahoma joined the migration. They came to this country expecting freedom to pursue a life of happiness. They built lives, homes and communities, but they also found discrimination. Lee Williams, as chairman of the railway porters' union, worked to eliminate job discrimination on the railways. In 1966, a new collective agreement resulted in equal job rights for black and white railway workers across the country. The effects of Lee Williams' actions would soon be felt by a whole new generation of black immigrants in the Prairies. In this story, CBC reporter Sandra Batson takes a look at the history of African Americans who came to the Canadian Prairies, and the discrimination they confronted in search of a better life.

How did different groups of black men and women successfully work together towards labour activism and human rights in Canada? This episode we take a look at early Caribbean migration to Canada and reveal which islands could have become Canadian provinces. We also dive into the history of Black railway porters and how they and their wives made Winnipeg a hub of labour activism in Canada.

Uncovering some hard truths about Canada's history of slavery. George Tombs is the translator of Canada's Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage, originally written by Marcel Trudel in 1960. It was one of the first history books to map out who used slaves, and painted a picture of who those slaves were. Tombs joins host Saroja Coelho to explain how he came to translate the book into English decades after it was first published, and why the legacy of slavery in Canada is still relatively unknown.

The face of Canada is changing rapidly. One in three Canadians will belong to a visible minority by 2031, according to Stats Can. Once largely a nation of staid rural folk, today much of our population lives in competitive, fast-paced urban centres. And our economy, like all those of developed countries, is on the brink of a major green shift. Or is it? In this package of three mini-documentaries, The National investigates our assumptions about ourselves as a society, what Canadians are getting right and where we need improvement.

Writer Bee Quammie delves into Black History Month in Canada: "There is no benefit to treating black history like something that goes stale by March 1st, because Black Canadian history is Canadian history."

Reporter Sally Sara takes to the streets of Baltimore and Chicago to investigate a reawakened civil rights movement that’s fighting to stop the killing of black Americans.

Perhaps best known for The Color Purple, which won both the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, Alice Walker has a varied body of work that includes novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and nonfiction—much of it informed by her experience of growing up under Jim Crow laws in Georgia, where her parents fought for the right to teach Alice to read. In this program, Walker explains what she calls the “womanist” perspective of The Color Purple and other novels. Part of the series In Black and White: Six Profiles of African American Authors.

Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Distributed by PBS Distribution.

This 1984 feature documentary explores the role of black actors, black directors, and the black audience in American movies. Lorenzo Tucker, known as the Black Valentino, discusses his career with Oscar Micheaux. Joel Fluellen and Vincent Tubbs tell memorable stories of what life was like for the few blacks working in Hollywood in the 50s and 60s including Dorothy Dandridge. Also included are interviews with Diahnne Abbott, Rosalind Cash, and Alfre Woodard, who talk about negative stereotyping. Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, and D'Urville Martin come up with alternative solutions to the one-way street that was "blaxploitation" and discuss new ways of advancing an independent black cinema. Included is a marvelous speech by Sidney Poitier on accepting the Black Hall of Fame "Oscar.” Grandmaster Flash and his "Message" is the theme tune and the writer Oscar Williams holds the whole show together with his advice to the creative outsider.

In 2013 in Sanford, Florida, vigilante George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder of 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin. As a result, the struggle against police violence flared up under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and turned into one of the biggest grassroots movements in the United States. This film interviewed co-founder Patrisse Cullors about the various forms of violence against black citizens, and why resistance is essential.

During the 2018 midterms, women of color run for political office in record numbers. Candidates and organizers mobilize to expand the electorate, inspire voters to turn out and make history in the process.

How did it feel to be bought and sold like cattle, only to be liberated with nowhere to go and no one to turn to for help? In this profoundly moving program, Ted Koppel of ABC News presents the African-American slave experience in the voices of those who knew it firsthand. Thanks to tapes—now digitally remastered—from a project undertaken during the 1930s and 40s by John Henry Falke and others, 101-year-old Fountain Hughes, who was born in 1848, and other ex-slaves give their recollections of life before Emancipation and during Reconstruction.

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, Ken Burns tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice

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From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader’s character, showing him to be a man with an unshakeable commitment to peaceful protest in the face of an increasingly unstable country. Illuminating and poignant, the documentary – which is tied to the 50th anniversary of King’s death – reveals a conflicted leader whose successes were punctuated in his final years by an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, whether the Black Power movement, who saw his nonviolence as weakness, or President Lyndon B. Johnson, who viewed his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible. With compassion and clarity, King in the Wilderness unearths a stirring new perspective into Dr. King’s character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence, and his internal philosophical struggles prior to his death, inviting a sense of penetrating intimacy and insight into one of the most profound thinkers of our time.
An HBO Production.

A watershed moment in the civil rights movement occurred when federal troops enforced Brown v. Board of Education at Little Rock Central High School. What is Little Rock’s legacy a half-century later? This program follows the lives of present-day Little Rock students, teachers, and administrators over the course of a year—going inside classrooms, observing assemblies, and visiting students’ homes. Exposing the widely varying concerns and academic goals of black and white students, the film presents an unflinching view of the de facto segregation—all too visible in the racial makeup of Little Rock’s Advanced Placement classes—that still plagues many American schools. As one educator observes, Little Rock is “two schools in one.”

It was in Chicago, Barack Obama’s adopted hometown, that the 24-year-old future president of the United States began a personal and political odyssey that would take him all the way to the White House. In this program, many of the people who have known Obama best since his arrival in Chicago offer their insights. Obama’s work as a community organizer, his achievements at Harvard Law School, the writing of Dreams from My Father, his brief stints as a law professor at the University of Chicago and as a civil rights lawyer, and his meteoric political career are all discussed. The program ends with Obama’s victory in the 2008 primaries and his speech on the issue of race in the wake of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s controversial “God Damn America” sermon. Additional portions of Obama oratory are included throughout.

This film celebrates Dr. Maya Angelou by weaving her words with rare and intimate archival photographs and videos, which paint hidden moments of her exuberant life during some of America's most defining moments. From her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her work with Malcolm X to her inaugural speech for President Bill Clinton, the film takes us on an incredible journey through the life of a true American icon.

Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark is a candid account of the "fairy tale" life of an iconic crooner that features never-before-seen archival footage and exclusive interviews. As America groaned under the weight of segregation and prejudice, Cole’s astounding talent seemed to sweep these issues aside. Drawing on Cole’s private journals and interviews with his widow, Maria Cole — as well as Tony Bennett, Buddy Greco, Harry Belafonte, Nancy Wilson, Sir Bruce Forsyth, George Benson and more — these untold stories speak a wider truth about the national climate at the time.

This scripted narrative follows Rosa Parks' life from the time she was a private-school student, to her rise to infamy. Part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Parks fought against discrimination and segregation. But, it was her refusal to relinquish her seat on a bus and subsequent arrest, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which thrust her into the spotlight. This American-made film directed by Julie Dash features Angela Basset as Rosa Parks and Cicely Tyson as her mother.

Born out of a social media post, the Black Lives Matter movement has sparked discussion about race and inequality across the world. In this spirited conversation with Mia Birdsong, the movement's three founders share what they've learned about leadership and what provides them with hope and inspiration in the face of painful realities. Their advice on how to participate in ensuring freedom for everybody: join something, start something and "sharpen each other, so that we all can rise."

This program features excerpts from the 1969 off-Broadway production at the Cherry Lane Theater of To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry adapted by Robert Nemiroff (Hansberry's widower) and directed by Gene Frankel

This program introduces one of the greatest contemporary American authors: winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, "a literary Moses stripping away the idols of whiteness and blackness that have prevented blacks from knowing themselves." Readings from Beloved and Jazz show how she returns to the pain of slavery and segregation to restore wholeness to the black psyche. "The past," Morrison says, "is more infinite than the future... It’s avoiding it, deceiving ourselves about it, that paralyzes growth."

This feature documentary follows Bryan Stevenson – lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative – through his experiences as a capital defense attorney and advocate for community-based reform. Interweaving watershed moments from Stevenson’s cases with insights from his clients, colleagues and members of his family, the film focuses on Stevenson’s life and career – particularly his indictment of the U.S. criminal-justice system for its role in codifying modern systemic racism – and tracks the intertwined histories of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration. Offering intimate access to Stevenson as he reflects on the transformative moments in his career, the film chronicles his work in Alabama, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and home to the Equal Justice Initiative, as well as the early influences that drove him to become an advocate for the poor and the incarcerated. Illuminating the power of memory in cultural change, True Justice instills hope of a brighter American future through the insights of this remarkable pioneer.

This short documentary follows several refugee families during their first 19 days in Canada, as they navigate an unfamiliar terrain that has suddenly become their home. Located in the quiet Calgary neighbourhood of Bridgeland, the Margaret Chisholm Resettlement Centre is the starting point for government-assisted refugees who arrive in the city. During the 19-day timeline established by the federal government, an initial assessment is done and refugees are assisted with everything from airport reception and orientation to referrals, documents, and counselling.

Over the course of a decade Brooks, Alberta, transformed from a socially conservative, primarily white town to one of the most diverse places in Canada as immigrants and refugees flocked to find jobs at the Lakeside Packers slaughterhouse. This film is a portrait of those people working together and adapting to change through the first-ever strike at Lakeside.

On February 19, 2015, the NFB, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and Heritage Toronto connected students from across Canada with four talented Black professionals for a one-of-a-kind virtual conversation. Streamed live from the Daniels Spectrum auditorium in the multicultural neighbourhood of Regent Park, Toronto, the virtual classroom explored the topic of achieving one’s career goals while giving back to the community. Featuring: TV anchor and three-time Olympian Rosey Edeh; Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow, Executive Director of the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services Education; Layth Gafoor, sports and entertainment lawyer; and Dr. Teela Johnson, resident in family medicine. Discussion moderated by poet, playwright, and professor Dr. George Elliott Clarke. Special performances by Thompson Egbo-Egbo, Shawn Byfield, and Sean Mauricette, a.k.a. Subliminal.

Black Mother Black Daughter explores the lives and experiences of black women in Nova Scotia, their contributions to the home, the church and the community and the strengths they pass on to their daughters.

Martine Chartrand’s animated short dives into the heart of Black culture with an exhilarating trip though history. Watch as a young boy traces his roots through the stories his grandmother shares with him about the events that shaped their cultural heritage.

The Colour of Beauty is a shocking short documentary that examines racism in the fashion industry. Is a black model less attractive to designers, casting directors and consumers? What is the colour of beauty?

This sensitive drama tells the story of a couple, Roy and Judy, and the reactions they encounter when they announce their intention to marry, reactions complicated by the fact that Roy is black and Judy is white.

Monika Delmos's documentary captures a year in the life of two teenage refugees, Joyce and Sallieu, who have left their own countries to make a new life in Ontario. Joyce, 17, left the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid being forced into prostitution by her family. Sallieu, 16, had witnessed the murder of his mother as a young boy in wartorn Sierra Leone.
Delmos follows them as they bear the normal pressures of being a teenager while simultaneously undergoing the refugee application process. She shows how the guidance and support of a handful of people make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of these children.

In Handmade Mountain, Michèle Pearson Clarke explores the emotional fallout of being both early to gay marriage and early to gay divorce. Fifteen years after same-sex marriage became legal, she and friends reflect on its personal and political meaning in this experimental film.

Hardwood is a personal journey by director Hubert Davis, the son of former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis, who explores how his father's decisions affected his life and those of his extended family. Elegantly structured into three chapters entitled "love," "recollection" and "redemption," Davis uses personal interviews, archival footage and home movies to delve into his father's past in the hope of finding a new direction for his own.

This short film is a condensed version of our feature documentary Mighty Jerome, made especially for elementary and middle-school classes. Canadian athlete Harry Jerome overcame racism to reach the height of track-and-field success. When an injury ended his career, Jerome continued training and went on to achieve one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

This feature documentary takes us to the heart of the Jane-Finch "Corridor" in the early 1980s. Covering six square blocks in Toronto's North York, the area readily evokes images of vandalism, high-density subsidized housing, racial tension, despair and crime. By focusing on the lives of several of the residents, many of them black or members of other visible minorities, the film provides a powerful view of a community that, contrary to its popular image, is working towards a more positive future.

Josh Crooks is a promising teen hockey star in a sport where Black players like him are chronically underrepresented. Ice Breakers reveals the buried history of a pioneering Black hockey league in Atlantic Canada, as Crooks discovers that his unshakable passion is tied to a rich and remarkable heritage.

Into the Light features the liberating life stories and powerful words of inspiring Quebec women of African origin who’ve regained control over their lives after suffering from domestic violence. The film transcends prejudice and breaks the silence, pulling back the curtain on a poorly understood, hidden world, while testifying to the tremendous power that comes from overcoming isolation and accepting one’s self. It’s a luminous dive into the quest for personal healing and universal humanity. This is Togo-born director Gentille M. Assih’s third documentary.

Invisible City is a moving story of two boys from Regent Park crossing into adulthood – their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed; their environment and social pressures tempting them to make poor choices. Turning his camera on the often ignored inner city, Academy-award nominated director Hubert Davis sensitively depicts the disconnection of urban poverty and race from the mainstream.

This animated short tells the story of Seraphim "Joe" Fortes, one of Vancouver's most beloved citizens. Born in the West Indies, Joe Fortes swam in English Bay for over than 30 years. A self-appointed lifeguard at first, he became so famous that the city of Vancouver finally rewarded him with a salary for doing what he loved best. He taught thousands of people to swim and saved over a hundred lives. Yet there were some who did not respect him because of his skin colour. Through his determination, kindness and love for children, Joe helped shift attitudes.

John Ware Reclaimed follows filmmaker Cheryl Foggo on her quest to re-examine the mythology surrounding John Ware, the Black cowboy who settled in Alberta, Canada, before the turn of the 20th century. Foggo’s research uncovers who this iconic figure might have been, and what his legacy means in terms of anti-Black racism, both past and present.

This documentary pays tribute to a group of Canadians who took racism to court. They are Canada's unsung heroes in the fight for Black civil rights. Focusing on the 1930s to the 1950s, this film documents the struggle of 6 people who refused to accept inequality. Featured here, among others, are Viola Desmond, a woman who insisted on keeping her seat at the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946 rather than moving to the section normally reserved for the city's Black population, and Fred Christie, who took his case to the Supreme Court after being denied service at a Montreal tavern in 1936. These brave pioneers helped secure justice for all Canadians. Their stories deserve to be told.

Some dreamers have the power to inspire us, bring us together, and help us reconnect with our humanity. Alain Philoctète, a Haitian artist and activist who settled in Quebec, returns to the country of his birth to develop a permaculture project with local farmers. There, he has an emotional reunion with family members and his former comrades in arms, whose ideals remain unshaken despite the lingering aftermath of the 2010 earthquake and political instability. However, Alain, who is suffering from cancer, has to undergo treatment in Montreal, where his loved ones provide the same degree of affection and solidarity as he receives in Haiti. Director Will Prosper films this inspiring dreamer on his hopeful quest, chronicling the challenges of exile and illness with the personal, knowing touch of a longtime friend. With a rich score composed by Jenny Salgado, Kenbe la, Until We Win offers a cinematic journey that will move viewers to ponder the importance of embracing ideals and passing them on.

The nation, the country, where do we belong in it? In this film through conversation and poetry two poets meet for the telling and the listening. Adrienne Rich is a distinguished American feminist poet, and author of numerous books of prose, poetry, essays and speeches. Dionne Brand is a Trinidadian-Canadian femininst poet, writer and filmmaker. Incisive and inquisitive, the two women meet to discuss the world as they each see it. Claiming any subject, they talk about events as they see them, analytic, contemplative, honest and open ended. Topics include political issues, feminism, racism and lesbianism, among others. The viewer is invited into the exchange by the familiar images of two women talking intimately around a kitchen table, in corridors, or casually outdoors in the United States, Tobago and Canada. Shot in black and white and in colour, the conversation takes us over the territories of their poetry.

There is a cultural revolution going on in Canada and Faith Nolan and Grace Channer are on the leading edge. These two African-Canadian lesbian artists give back to art its most urgent meanings--commitment and passion. Grace Channer's large and sensuous canvasses and musician Faith Nolan's gritty and joyous blues propel this documentary into the spheres of poetry and dance. Long Time Comin' captures their work, their urgency, and their friendship in intimate conversations with both artists.

This animated film by Martine Chartrand (Black Soul) recounts the friendship between a young Félix Leclerc and Frank Randolph Macpherson, a Jamaican chemical engineer and university graduate who worked for a pulp and paper company. An inveterate jazz fan, Macpherson inspired Leclerc, who wrote a song about the log drives and entitled it “MacPherson” in honour of his friend. Paint-on-glass animation shot with a 35mm camera.

In 2005, Michaëlle Jean became the Governor General of Canada. A social activist, global citizen, and black woman, she would redefine the possibilities of that office. While her national priorities were at-risk youth, women, and Indigenous peoples, her international success came from her cultural diplomacy. 2010: the earthquake in Haiti tragically brings her back to her homeland. Michaëlle Jean: A Woman of Purpose is an intimate and sensitive portrait of the stateswoman she came to be.

Director Mina Shum makes her foray into feature documentary by reopening the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations – the infamous Sir George Williams Riot. Over four decades after a group of Caribbean students accused their professor of racism, triggering an explosive student uprising, Shum locates the protagonists and listens as they set the record straight, trying to make peace with the past.

In this short documentary, five black women talk about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s black people and the legacy of their community elders.

This short film depicts Africville, a small black settlement that lay within the city limits of Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the 1960s, the families there were uprooted and their homes demolished in the name of urban renewal and integration. More than 20 years later, the site of the community of Africville is a stark, under-utilized park. Former residents, their descendants and some of the decision-makers speak out and, with the help of archival photographs and films, tell the story of that painful relocation.

This 1996 documentary takes a nostalgic ride through history to present the experiences of Black sleeping-car porters who worked on Canada's railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There was a strong sense of pride among these men and they were well-respected by their community. Yet, harsh working conditions prevented them from being promoted to other railway jobs until finally, in 1955, porter Lee Williams took his fight to the union.
Claiming discrimination under the Canada Fair Employment Act, the Blacks won their right to work in other areas. Interviews, archival footage and the music of noted jazz musician Joe Sealy (whose father was a porter) combine to portray a fascinating history that might otherwise have been forgotten.

Show Girls celebrates Montreal's swinging Black jazz scene from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the city was wide open. It chronicles the lives of Bernice, Tina and Olga who danced in the clubs - mixing their memories with rarely seen footage of the era.

This documentary features Black women active in politics as well as community, labour and feminist organizing. They share their insights and personal testimonies on the double legacy of racism and sexism, linking their personal struggles with the ongoing battle to end systemic discrimination and violence against women and people of colour.

This documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments—including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate—add to the film's emotional intensity.

In their predominantly white high school in Halifax, a group of black students face daily reminders of racism, ranging from abuse (racist graffiti on washroom walls), to exclusion (the omission of black history from textbooks). They work to establish a Cultural Awareness Youth Group, a vehicle for building pride and self-esteem through educational and cultural programs. With help from mentors, they discover the richness of their heritage and learn some of the ways they can begin to effect change.

In 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army on the basis of anti-black racism. Fast-forward to 2013: the Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929, rendering more than 200,000 people stateless. Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows the grassroots campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris, as she challenges electoral corruption and fights to protect the right to citizenship for all people.

Many Black, racialized and immigrant women work with elderly patients as healthcare providers. Their jobs, already arduous and underpaid as it is, have become even more exhausting during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some public commentators have described them as overrepresented in this sector because of their culture, and hailed them as “guardian angels,” what do they themselves have to say? This cross-sectional portrait of some of these women takes the form of a meditative essay.

What is fatphobia and what can be done to overcome it? With poetic illustrations and painful, compelling testimony, Tales of Ordinary Fatphobia offers multiple examples of the psychological effects of weight-based discrimination and bullying on adolescent girls.

In a quest to rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, an African filmmaker from the Gourmantche tribe of Burkina Faso visits the Atikamekw of Northern Quebec. The resulting documentary is a dialogue between those who divine the future in the sand with those who use snow-encased sweat lodges to reconnect with the spiritual world.

On the heels of the Toronto Raptors’ historic NBA Championship and the record-setting number of Canadian draft picks, the Toronto hoop dream is more alive than ever. In this feature-length doc, director Ryan Sidhoo shines the spotlight on 12-year-old Elijah Fisher, 15-year-old Keone Davis and 18-year-old Cordell Veira as they navigate today’s youth basketball machine in pursuit of their own NBA dreams.

This feature documentary presents a thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At the centre of the story is a remarkably astute and luminous 12-year-old black girl whose poignant observations about life, the soul, and the power of art give voice to those rarely heard in society. Unarmed Verses is a cinematic rendering of our universal need for self-expression and belonging.

This documentary tells the story of a young man’s struggle to balance his African traditions and new Canadian home. Arinze Eze was born in Canada and raised in Nigeria. An engineer by trade, he returned to his birthplace after 20 years. There, he starts a new career in the arts and falls in love with Canadian woman. All is well until his parents come for a visit. How will they react to this new life?

Being young is tough, especially if you're Black, Latino, Arab or Asian. In a city like Montreal, you can get targeted and treated as a criminal for no good reason. Zero Tolerance reveals how deep seated prejudice can be. On one side are the city's young people, and on the other, its police force. Two worlds, two visions. Yet one of these groups is a minority, while the other wields real power. One has no voice, while the other makes life-and-death decisions.
When a policy of zero tolerance to crime masks an intolerance to young people of colour, the delicate balance between order and personal freedom is upset. A blend of cinéma vérité and personal testimonies, this hard-hitting film will broaden your mind and change your way of thinking. In French with English subtitles.

An historical overview video created by Historica Canada for Black History Month.

Hair Love is a short animated film by Matthew A. Cherry. It won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Animated Short. It follows a father as he tries to tackle the complicated world of doing his daughter’s hair. It’s a tribute to the beauty of black hair and the love between a father and daughter. Issa Rae is the only voiceover in this film as the little girl’s mother.
Hair Love is only six-minutes long but it tells a very captivating story of a family who is dealing with a major turmoil and coping with it to the best of their ability. It also speaks to the Black culture in its depiction of Black hair and teaching young girls to love and not fear it. Their hair is a part of their culture, identity, and uniqueness.

Natural hair struggles? Not anymore for these young girls. One Sunday a month, Nancy Falaise closes the doors of her hair salon to lead an empowering workshop for young Black girls struggling with their natural hair.
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