Community News
Next generation filmmakers
BY SELINA McCALLUM
What is it like being black in Toronto? Six young black filmmakers showcased their short documentary films at the 8th Toronto Black Film Festival last Friday that told their own story or the story of someone else.
The filmmakers were part of a project called Youth and Diversity Program hosted by the Fabienne Colas Foundation which enabled fifteen youths from Montreal, Toronto and Halifax to create eight to ten-minute-long documentary shorts.
The youth were guided through the process every step of the way, learning from industry professionals in audiovisual production, screenwriting, directing, and post-production.
Their short films are then a part of black film festivals in Montreal, Halifax and Toronto. They even get free travel and accommodation to attend the film festivals.
Six youth were selected from Toronto to make their films.
The Toronto cohort was mentored and guided by Oya Media Group and Pathway to Industry who also generously gave their professional equipment to use for the making of the films.
Each film was unique and told a story that dove beyond the surface in only ten minutes.
Sharine Taylor is the director and writer of Tallawah Abroad: Remembering Little Jamaica, a film that looks at how the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown Line on Eglinton West has affected the town of Little Jamaica in Toronto.
The hardest part of filming for Taylor was leaving once they got all the footage, they needed to tell the story.
“One of the things that I felt that I had to contend with is that once this production wraps and we’re ready to go, people still have to live through whatever realities they have to live through,” said Taylor.
The store that Taylor originally wanted to feature closed down before the shoot days for her film, leaving her to find another store in Little Jamaica to feature.
She hopes that this film will let folks know that this a place that needs to be chronicled.
“I hope that folks get to see how these communities are being affected,” said Taylor. “These are the side effects of gentrification.”
Mr. Small, business owner in Little Jamaica, who was interviewed in Tallawah Abroad, said, “We have seen days, weeks, where you do no business. No wants to come. We were hoping there should be some resources of which they would compensate us for the amount of business that we lost during the construction. If all the Jamaicans are one, and the Jamaican businesses are gone, you can’t see it as a Jamaican community.”
Taylor enjoyed her time and learned a lot while being a part of the Youth and Diversity Program.
“It’s very much a collaborative process. My background is in theatre and writing so I think filmmaking requires a strong sense of community at least amongst the people that you’re working with. I was grateful that I was given the opportunity to see what that aspect might be like and going forward how to create community amongst the folks that I’m working with for future productions,” said Taylor.
2005 was coined the “year of the gun” by the media in Toronto. Adrian Wallace’s film, Black Sun, documented two women anguished by acts of gun violence. During the question and answer period, Wallace told the audience that he almost didn’t have any subjects to shoot as the two girls he was going to interview decided to not partake in the documentary the night before shooting.
With the power of social media, he reached out to people on his Instagram and Facebook accounts and asked people to put him in touch with anyone who has been affected by gun violence directly. It didn’t take long for him to get responses.
Valerie Amponsah was one of the filmmakers that decided to share her own experience of being black in Toronto by filming the relationships between herself and her father, as well as the relationship between her mother and father.
The scene opens up with her crying as she tells her father she will not accept his apology for walking out on her, her sisters and her mother when she was a child. The audience is able to see her build on her broken relationship with her father, and how her mother still cares for him even though he hurt them.
Yasmin Evering-Kerr’s film is called The Onyx Butterfly which is a poetic documentary about a black male competitive dancer. Yvano Wickham-Edwards’ film is called #BLACK and analyzes how social media has disillusioned Canada’s black youth and offers a solution. Omolola Ajao’s film YYZ was also a personal story as she was speaking to her mother about what it was like adjusting to life in Canada from Nigeria.
The stories that were told on Friday night were all extremely important and could in some way relate to any black person living in Toronto.
The Toronto Black Film Festival wrapped up its last day on February 17th. To learn more about the Being Black in Canada program and how you can be involved, visit the Toronto Black Film Festival website.