Black like us

>> The Iced in Black film fest puts the spotlight on the Afro–Canadian experience

by GERARD DEE

As part of Black History month, the second annual Iced in Black film festival begins this Thursday at the Rainbow Concert Hall. The event promises a diversity of films from the African-Canadian perspective.
This time, the festival, which travels to Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa and Edmonton as well as Montreal, brings 12 films to the screen in the genres of animation, feature-length film, documentary and short film. This year’s theme, “I Am Canadian,” seeks to add a uniquely Canuck flavour to the Black experience in the New World.

The highest profile film of the lot, Canadian director Clement Virgo’s second feature, Love Come Down (he also directed ’96’s Rude), is sure to be a festival favourite. With a cast that includes Larenze Tate (Dead Presidents, Love Jones) and Canadian R&B singer Deborah Cox, the film examines the relationship between two brothers as they try to deal with their complex personal lives while making it in their respective careers. The fact that one brother’s black, the other white, makes for a family story with even more of a twist.
Family is also the focal point of My Father’s Hands. This time the father/son dynamic is under the spotlight. But this conflict is more than intergenerational, it’s a cultural clash between a father raised in a West Indian setting, and a Canadian son whose ambitions to be a dancer are at odds with his father’s traditional family upbringing. Director David Sutherland uses tragedy to force father and son to deal with each other and to confront the attitudes that have divided them.

One of the festival’s most ambitious films is also one of the shortest. At just under 10 minutes, Black Soul utilizes animation to recount the history of Africans from the Nile to the New World. Quebec director Martine Chartrand uses a dazzling array of light and colour to blend an often troubled journey into one solid bright path. Musical contributors to the film include Canadian jazz legend Oliver Jones and perennial Montreal vocalist Ranee Lee.
Anyone who assumed the history of blacks in Canada was infinitely less repressive than the American equivalent is in for a rude awakening after seeing Journey to Justice. This riveting and decidedly informative documentary highlights some key events in Canadian history that mirror the American civil rights struggle. From the days when basic human rights—including equal opportunity to jobs and housing—were routinely and legally denied to African-Canadians, to the appointment of Stanley G. Grizzle as Canada’s first black Citizenship Court judge, this journey is one of struggle and resistance against a society that quietly treated some of its own people as second-class citizens. Director Roger McTair juxtaposes stock footage and contemporary interviews to tell this very Canadian story.

Nadia L. Hohn founded the Iced in Black festival in 2001, in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, as a means of showcasing African-Canadian filmmakers whose work was not easily accessible. After decades of access denied, it’s a unique opportunity to see the African-Canadian experience take centre stage. :

Iced in Black: Canadian Black Experiences on Film, runs from Feb.15–17 at the Rainbow Concert Hall (5345 de Maisonneuve).
Info: 486-9496