Being Black in Toronto – A call for creativity

BY LEANNE BENN

Fabienne Colas is the face and the genius behind the Fabienne Colas Foundation, a non- profit organization behind many creative and diverse events happening around Canada. The main mission behind the foundation is to educate and advance awareness in the arts through methods of creativity and production.

This last February, Colas herself was here in Toronto for the 7^th annual launch of the Toronto Black Film Festival. The TBFF and the Montreal Black Film Festival are just some of the missions as part of the Colas Foundation.

One of their latest projects is entitled Being Black in Toronto. This brand new program is part of the Toronto Black Film Festival as part of the Youth and Diversity Initiative.  Being Black in Toronto is a film project and is a call for aspiring filmmakers to be part of a mentorship program in the production of short films. Filmmakers will get a chance to learn from the greatest as well as be inspired to produce content in their hometown of Toronto directly related to the theme of being black in the city.

Under this umbrella, filmmakers will be encouraged to deal with major issues such as social integration, race, and the basis of black communities in the city. This mentorship leads to the audiovisual production of a short film.

Five lucky filmmakers will have a chance to embark on this journey and learn about the steps behind making an impactful short film. The steps cover areas such as screenwriting, directing, editing, post-production, and other useful areas that filmmakers will gain knowledge of.

The genre of the short film will be a documentary with a maximum of ten minutes and the candidates will be working with a trained team of professionals in a matching environment with state-of-the-art equipment. The filmmakers will join forces with the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers in Toronto also known as LIFT.

This program is really meant to attract the aspiring filmmaker and is only eligible for those that have not worked on creating or directing a professional video.

The call is targeted to people between the ages of 18-30 and the potential candidates must show a passion for cinema as well as be from a black community to gather the impact of social economic and cultural differences. The aspiring filmmakers will also need to meet some other eligibility criteria including a video portfolio and a freshly created mini-documentary project that fits the theme of the program.

The five lucky filmmakers that complete this program will have their final work screened as part of a special event to be held at the next TBFF on February 12^th-17^th, 2020 as well as an early showcase at the 15^th annual Montreal International Black Film Festival to be held September 2019. The deadline for this call is April 15^th, 2019, and is the start of something great and immersive for the youth as well as the black communities in Toronto. For more information visit torontoblackfilm.com to learn more.