VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 1 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST 2018
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DIVERSITY WINS
JELANI GRANT/TORONTO CARIBBEAN Based on the continuous flow of new talent highlighted each year of the Toronto Black Film Festival, the growth and development of the festival has become undeniable. Despite tackling difficult issues that are regularly discussed across every social network, such as rape, culture, the festival certainly offered films for everyone. No blanket statement can properly describe each film or day. Add in live performances by poets and musicians four of the six days, and if you didn’t take the time to find and watch a movie you might like, you’ve simply missed out. This year’s opening of Toronto’s Black Film Festival assessed the trend of speaking on sexual assault with an illustration, directed by Nancy Buirski, called The Rape of Recy Taylor. The Canadian premiere presented to a full house at the
Isabel Bader Theatre is the documentarystyle film that tells the story of Taylor starting when she was twenty-four years old, abducted as she made her way home from church. She was raped and then left for dead by six armed white men in Jim Crow era Alabama. Taylor identified her attackers, despite the many threats of violence or death she received before and after she spoke about what happened to her. The NAACP sent their chief rape investigator, Rosa Parks, and what followed sparked a movement towards justice. Her story has significant similarities to the many women who have told their stories through #metoo. During the opening, Colas spoke about her introduction to the film industry, initially trying as an actress in Haiti. It wasn’t until after moving to Canada that she realized there were key differences that
made it difficult for her acting career to excel. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t find work as an actress. I discovered I was only a young immigrant black woman with an accent… so here I was a young black woman with an accent and no platform. This is when I felt disappointed, sad, hopeless, and frustrated. With that frustration, I decided that Montreal deserved another festival.” The Fabienne Colas Foundation was already established in Haiti, promoting and supporting diversity through cinema, and after it’s recreation, Colas created the Montreal-Haitian Film Festival. Since expanding into the Montreal International Black Film Festival it has become the largest black film fest in Canada. Continued On Page 10