The Being Black in Canada 2020 series, part of the Fabienne Colas’ Youth & Diversity Program, gave a voice and a platform to 20 emerging Black filmmakers in Montreal, Toronto & Halifax who, after dedicated training and mentorship, created their first short films on the theme: Being Black in Canada.

 

BEING BLACK IN MONTRÉAL

Program in French

  • Aïcha Morin-Baldé, Knots
  • Cassandre Grégoire, Nuance
  • Kimberley Ann Surin, Against all odds
  • Nitsé Mathelier, Kase Chenn
  • Tania Doumbe Fines, iBANGA

Program in English

  • Amelya Hempstead, Sense of Space
  • Dee Edouard Williams, Patri A
  • Devantie Johnson, Because of you
  • Melannie Jonas-Ng, Wounded
  • Steve Deku, Fight of the Century

 

BEING BLACK IN TORONTO

  • Bethlehem Tsegaye, Mengedegna
  • David Peddie, Fractured: A Broken School System
  • Selina McCallum, Prison Bars to Page Lines
  • Shani McKenzie, We are here too
  • Uranranebi Agbeyegbe, Movement

 

BEING BLACK IN HALIFAX

  • Lily Nottage, Farrin
  • Dena Williams, A Passion Made New
  • Kardeisha Provo, North Preston: The Untold Story
  • Tyler Simmonds, The Search for Healing

 

FRANCOPHONE COHORT

ENVERS ET CONTRE TOUT / AGAINST ALL ODDS

Kimberley Ann Surin – Canada – 2020 / 8’ – French

Against All Odds — a battle against society’s deep-rooted mentality, against all expectations, and against being opposed to the majority. Against All Odds represents struggles, roadblocks, racism and all the difficulties that come with being a minority. Although success is always very uncertain, one athlete has overcome these challenges on the ice against all odds.

iBANGA

Tania Doumbe Fines – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – French

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. ibánga is an introspection on the notion of fear in Afro-descendant communities; is it palpable? How to face it? Perhaps knowing oneself, one another, knowing our heritage and environment, would enrich the deepening, coexistence, and advancement of all

KASE CHENN

Nitsé Mathelier – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – French

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. A Haitian-born dancer immigrated to Canada. She finds through Haitian Traditional Dance a means to affirm her identity, reconnect with her culture, and country of origin. She is accompanied through her quest by two dancers of Haitian background. They share their experience, connection with drums, and their understanding of the Ibo rhythm. Through their dancing, these three dancers acknowledge the freeing powerful emotion that comes with the Ibo rhythm, the necessity to break down the stereotypes that bind us. KASE CHENN is a personal thought process. A statement and celebration of Haitian cultural heritage.

NOEUDS/KNOTS

Aïcha Morin-Baldé – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – French

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, KNOTS explores the complexities of black women’s relationship with their natural hair and the stigmas surrounding it.

NUANCE

Cassandre Grégoire – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – French

Cassandre lives a quest for identity through colorism. She works on the subject of colorism with the aim of opening a dialogue. A sensitive subject to explain, but at the same time very present in black communities. She therefore called on specialists and personal testimonies to understand why colorism is still so present.

 

ANGLOPHONE COHORT

BECAUSE OF YOU

Devantie Johnson – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. We see our main character Boris doing a lot of the daily things he loves doing, homework, helping his family, and most importantly playing football. Though we follow him while his family speak on his journey to success in their eyes. Boris also takes the time to sit down and speak on his experience and what he had to overcome to become the man he is today.

FIGHT OF THE CENTURY

Steve Edwin Deku – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. An exploration of a black boxer’s life in a tumultuous year, as he reflects on his career to reveal how he feels about the current state of racial violence and how he intends to handle the challenge ahead.

PATRI A

Dee Edouard-Williams – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. Dee is a 2nd generation Haitian-Canadian living in Montreal. For the past four years, she’s been able to connect with her mother back home through the Haitian food and festivals sprinkled around the city. Her involvement with Montreal’s Haitian community, however, has been superficial for the most part. In an effort to understand her place within the city and what’s kept her from connecting with her community, she tries to find answers in the story of her mother’s immigration to Quebec in the spring of 1983.

SENSE OF SPACE

Amelya N.S.H – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. Theo Abellard and Modibo Keita are musicians from Montreal who have formed their own concert series and music venue. Their personal experiences in the music scene and within music institutions has led them to forming musical spaces for those of their community, taking the future of Montreal’s music scene in their hands.

WOUNDED

Melannie Jonas-Ng – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, Wounded focuses on the subject of hyper sexualization, which is under the umbrella of adultification bias. Where children of minority groups, such as black girls are treated as being more mature than they actually are by the social standard of development. The film explores the past and present stories of three young black women as they tackle the erasure of their childhoods.

 

MENGEDEGNA

Bethlehem Tsegaye – Canada – 2020 / 11’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. Bethlehem, who is of Eritrean-Ethiopian descent, migrated from sunny Addis Abeba to Winnipeg, Canada at the age of 12, leaving everything, including her family members, back in Ethiopia to start a new life here in Canada. We look into her experiences and obstacles she had faced as she opened a new chapter in her life by making a decision to move to a big city all alone. Today, she lives in Toronto and she reflects on mental health alongside Photographer, Producer, community organizer and Art + Health founder Aden Abebe.

FRACTURED

David Peddie – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, this film features Kearie Daniel, Charline Grant, and Claudette Rutherford, three inspiring black female activists from the organization called “Parents of Black Children” as they discuss the issues black students face on their journey through school.

PRISON BARS TO PAGE LINES

Selina McCallum – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, Prison Bars to Page Lines is a short documentary that follows the honest, resilient, and vibrant Simone Jennifer Smith. In the film she relives her past to tell us how she ended up behind steel bars in Panama serving five years of house arrest in Toronto.

WE ARE HERE TOO

Shani McKenzie – Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, this documentary follows young black and talented artist Daniel G. Wilson as he discusses his rise to success and the tribulations he faces in the process. Daniel showcases his many talents of guitar playing, writing, sound design all while showcasing his outgoing and captivating personality. With a false media representation of the lifestyle of black people in North America Daniel shows the less represented side of the black experience of being in the punk scene and making his way through a predominantly white industry.

MOVEMENT

Uranranebi Agbeyegbe - Canada – 2020 / 9’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program, Movement is a story about the beginnings of Black Lives Matter Toronto. In this short story, Rodney Diverlus gives us an insight into what it was like to be part of the inception of a global movement while also chasing his own dreams of becoming a dancer.  Rodney takes us on a journey from his upbringing across North America speaking about what it means to be Black and Queer in today’s world. Attending University at Ryerson and getting involved with student organizing Rodney realizes what it takes to bring about change in the world we live in.

FARRIN

Lily Nottage – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – Englis

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. Fed up with the stagnancy of her job in social work and the steadily increasing crime rates, Christine Allen packed up her life to venture from the sunny shorelines of Jamaica to the windy waterfront of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Not knowing what to expect, the harshness of her new reality struck when she found herself sleeping on an air mattress and doing housework for others. Surely this was not the “farrin” everyone back home spoke of that held the promise of a better quality of life and new opportunities.

NORTH PRESTON: THE UNTOLD STORY

Kardeisha Provo – Canada – 2020 / 10’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. A young woman from North Preston, NS goes on a journey to seek an in depth understanding of the complexities within Canada’s largest Black community. While showing how lovable and strong the community is, she tries to understand why the media continuously chooses to paint a negative portrait of where she’s from

THE SEARCH FOR HEALING

Tyler Simmonds - Canada – 2020 / 11’ – English

Created through the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada Incubator Program. Considering his background speaking publicly about mental illness and ways of coping, Tyler decided to make a documentary that follows him as he looks for answers to the questions he’s been having for years: How is the mental health of the black community unique? How are we affected by intergenerational trauma? How much of this has impacted our mental health and how can we heal from it?

A PASSION MADE NEW

Dena Williams – Canada – 2021 / 12’ – English

A Passion Made New is a film that depicts Dena’s journey from being a young cellist with a dream to becoming someone who helps bring Nova Scotian BIPOC Creatives closer to theirs.