DETAILS
Black Film Watch Parties
Online screenings in conjunction with Black History Month
Hosted by the St. Albert Public Library. Attendance at all events is free.
Event features screenings of Ice Breakers (15 minutes) by director Sandamini Rankaduwa; Black Soul (9 minutes) by director Martine Chartrand; and Oscar (12 minutes) by director Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre.
Event (including post-screening discussion) starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 11.
Screening co-hosted by librarian Geoff Manderscheid and Florence François, audience development programming agent for the National Film Board of Canada.
Visit sapl.ca to register for this event. Attendance is free but preregistration is required.
The second and final instalment of the St. Albert Public Library’s Black Film Watch Parties series for 2022 offers three short films to edify local audiences.
Florence François, audience development programming agent for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), was enthusiastic about the selection of titles from NFB’s extensive catalogue. These pieces enlightened her.
“They're three amazing films. I chose them because they are … really about taking back history. It's something that is really dear to me, that is really important to me,” she offered.
“Sometimes I find that there is not enough Black filmmakers compared to other filmmakers, even at the NFB, but strangely, I rediscovered a lot of the history from Black communities at the NFB.”
The event, scheduled for the evening of Friday, Feb. 11, will feature Ice Breakers, Black Soul, and Oscar.
Director Sandamini Rankaduwa’s Ice Breakers is a look at a young Black hockey player named Josh Crooks who stands out on his team because of the colour of his skin. To counter his feelings of being the odd man, he discovers there is actually a long tradition of Black hockey in Atlantic Canada, contrary to widespread public misrepresentation.
“He has a really promising career in hockey and then he is introduced in the American Colored Hockey League. He did not even know about the history of this hockey league that was really active in between 1895 to 1930,” she continued, noting how the film reveals some specific elements and now common elements of the game (including the practice of slapshots) the NHL learned from this league.
The piece is as tender as it is uplifting.
Next up is Black Soul, director Martine Chartrand’s brilliant and uproarious animated short that explores Black culture through history. A young boy traces his roots based off the stories his grandmother tells him about their cultural heritage.
“Black Soul is a film that I present everywhere to everyone. This film has been everywhere. It's an overview of everything for Black history. Everyone should see that film.”
The last screening is Oscar from director Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre. If you think this is about the Academy Awards, then you’re just not thinking about one of this country’s most celebrated and talented musical artists: Oscar Peterson — the undersung jazz pianist and composer who was as big as any of the greats and is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Even Duke Ellington once called him the “Maharaja of the keyboard,” but Peterson didn’t receive quite the widespread public acclaim in this country during his life.
“I love this short film. It's a really cute little film. It really puts Oscar Peterson in front view. It's essentially interesting because he was really famous all around the world, but his name is not that famous to us Canadians.”
There will be an audience discussion section of the event. François explained it’s moments like these that have become even more important to the NFB as it seeks to provide relevant contemporary social content.
“It's very important for the NFB to celebrate Black History Month, and to connect with all the community and to really present to what the community has to say, and to really be presenting a way to try to listen, to learn to give more space to the filmmakers from this community, and to give more space to the film from those communities. It's very important. In the last year since George Floyd, it's been a priority at the NFB to be part of all this movement.”
