Film Night presented by:
March 6, 2020
7 - 9:30pm | PWYC
OCAD University
100 McCaul Street
Toronto
FAC partners with Black Women Film! Canada to present this year’s Film Night featuring three short-films — PICK by Alicia K Harris, The Haircut by Maya Annik Bedward and Geni by Jackie Batsinduka. Following the viewing, Black Women Film! founder Ella Cooper will lead a talkback with two of the films directors: Harris and Batsinduka. Some of this year’s exhibiting artists also present work: Kahsto'serakwathe Paulette Moore’s The Clay She Is Made Of, Regan Henley’s Visiting You, Carmen Alemán’s Watermarks, and Queen Kukoyi’s Blxck Womxn.
Black Women Film! Canada is a collective of Black women filmmakers dedicated to forwarding the careers, networks and skills of filmmakers and media artists who are Black female identified of the Canadian African diaspora. Black Women Film! provides ongoing networking opportunities for its growing community of emerging and established Black women filmmakers, spotlighting Black and diverse women in film.
PICK by Alicia K. Harris
Running time 11 minutes
A young girl wears her afro to school on picture day and must deal with the unexpected consequences.
Alicia K. Harris is a filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. She graduated from Ryerson University where her thesis film, Love Stinks, won Best Director and Best Production. Her films have been broadcast on CBC, TVO, Bell Fibe TV, and at numerous festivals, including the Miami Film Festival, Festival du nouveau cinéma, and Vancouver International Film Festival. Alicia is dedicated to sharing the unique stories of the underrepresented, exemplified by her latest short film PICK, which is about the politics of Black hair, microaggressions and systemic racism. With her films, Alicia hopes to educate and inspire, creating films with an accompanying impact campaign to ensure her films have the greatest influence possible, particularly on children and youth.
THE HAIRCUT by Maya Annik Bedward
Running time 10 minutes 23 seconds
THE HAIRCUT is a short documentary about Marvin Bedward, a 65-year old business executive who refuses to cut his hair. Traumatized by the white barbers who ruined his Afro when he was a child, Marvin sees his long hair as an act of resistance to authority, mainstream culture and his wife. Produced in partnership with CBC short docs, the film has screened at Hot Docs, BlackStar, Reframe and the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.
Maya Annik Bedward is a Jamaican-Québecoise filmmaker. After living in the UK and Brazil, she returned to Toronto and launched Third Culture Media with support from the Michaëlle Jean Foundation. Her films have screened at festivals across North America and Europe and sold to Air Canada and the CBC. Maya is a recipient of the CBC Business of Broadcasting Mentorship and a fellow of the RIDM Talent Lab. Her most recent short THE HAIRCUT premiered at the 2018 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. She is currently in production on her first feature documentary, BLACK ZOMBIE.
GENI by Jackie Batsinduka
Running time 20 minutes
A daughter estranged from her mother returns home to confront their past, and its intrinsic link to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi.
A writer, a filmmaker, and a performer, Jackie Batsinduka is young, femme, black and trying to convince you to read her new script. She was a leader in media production in her community early on, founding both her high school and CEGEP’s A.V. clubs. Her skills in her field strengthened in university, completing the intensive film production stream in Concordia University’s renowned Communications Studies program. In the short time since graduating, Jackie has excelled in the visual effects world, coordinating the production teams major feature films. Her journey continues with her newest short film Geni, her most personal project yet.
Ella Cooper is an award winning cultural leader, producer, facilitator, photo-video artist, educator and programmer based in Toronto. She has been working in the arts and culture sector for over 19 years. Her creative work explores the diaspora, the creation of positive representations of the Black body in Canada, equity and arts for social change, community storytelling, contemporary dance and hybrid identity.
She is also the founder of Black Women Film! Canada a new collective and leadership initiative supporting the development of Black women filmmakers that she created with support from TIFF, CBC, CFC, the Nia Centre for the Arts and 40 Black women filmmakers funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.