BLACK LIFE: UNTOLD STORIES AT TIFF
Eight part series I executive produced premiered in Toronto yesterday
In 2016 I was offered a chance to direct a Lifetime movie based on the film of basketball star Kevin Durant’s mother Wanda. It had a decent premise and the money was good, so I ended up spending the early part of that year shooting, editing, and doing post-production Vancouver, which was then becoming known as “Hollywood North” because of the volume of United States financed TV and film projects underway. The resulting film, ‘The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story,’ is probably most noteworthy now because two of the leads, Cassandra Freeman and Adrian Holmes, play husband and wife in Peacock’s popular ‘Bel Air’ series.
Executive producer and show runner Leslie Norville at the premiere of Black Life: Untold Stories at the Toronto Film Festival yesterday.
On long shoot days the Canadian actors and crew gave me a crash course in black Canadian history. Like most Americans I knew very little about life up north other than generations of those escaping slavery crossed the border “to freedom.” Well, as I found out, there was a lot more to the story than “they lived happily ever after.” Racism and white supremacy was a disease of all of North America. Despite this truth the ex-enslaved forged a new destiny in Nova Scotia and across the vast country. French and English speaking Canada had histories of black migration thant connected, not just with the U.S., but England and France. In fact the black Canadian story had a powerful global thread that weaved in the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa diaspora and had helped define the Canadian national character.
Leslie Norville, a rising young producer who I’d worked closely with on my documentaries, ‘Finding the Funk’ and ‘A Ballerina’s Tale,’ was from Toronto and very aware that so much of the fiber of Canadian life remained untold. Along with veteran producer Miranda de Pencier, we began having conversations about black Canadian history and what we could help explore it further. There were many feature and short docs that revealed bits and pieces of the tale. We talked about how to highlight these stories in a more sweeping, attention getting manner.
Leslie Norville and I outside a cast and crew screening in Toronto.
Some four years after those initial conversations, ‘Black Life: Untold Stories,’ two episodes of an eight part series, just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In October all eight will begin rolling out on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the nation’s equivilent of our PBS. The two episodes screened at TIFF were Justice Denied, directed by Duane Critchton, about the history of police brutality towards black Canadians, and Northern Beats, directed by Will Prosper, about the history of Canadian hip hop pre-Drake. The other episodes cover everything from sports to immigation to literature. In no way is this a definitive history of the black presence in Canada, but a platform to shine a light on an amazing legacy of struggle and triumph.
Director Will Prosper talks about his episode, ‘Northern Beats,’ onstage at TIFF yesterday. And, no, there was not hat dress code being enforced!
As an American I could only be so involved in ‘Black Life’, but the project was in firm hands with Leslie show running the show. The CBC financing structure dictated that all eight episodes we shot and released in a bundle. Meaning Leslie was supervising multiple shoots. The good news is that all the episodes were helmed by black Canadian directors and unearthed many remarkable stories. The bad news is that it meant trouble shooting on a number of fronts at the same time. ‘Black Life’ is not strictly formatted, meaning each director created in their own style, much like ESPN’s 30 for 30. Leslie demonstrated much grit and creativity over the past years in putting together a ground breaking series of films. I salute with her all my heart and with great admiration.
‘Black Life: Untold Stories’ will air on CBC in Canada in October. As when the rest of North America can see these episodes, stay tuned.
Happy to have a credit on thi groundbreaking eight part series.