A pitch for a new film came across our desk recently called ShoeGazer. But the film is about black hair, so the title left us wanting to learn more. ShoeGazer won the official selection for this year’s Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee’s Short Film Creation Lab. The all female team is using Indiegogo to raise $3,000 to finish production. The story follows Sydney, who, in the midst of a quarter-life-crisis, bumps into her perfect-on-paper ex-boyfriend. It's awkward. How could it not be, especially since Sydney still doesn't know what exactly went wrong between them. So she summons her ovaries and finds the…
Photo by Dahlia Katz | Ordena Stephens-Thompson as Rose in Fences
When news broke last year that CBC was looking for “Canada’s Kerry Washington” to star in the new crime show Diggstown, the excitement about this historic role was palpable.
On the day Makambe K. Simamba was born in Zambia, Nelson Mandela was visiting the country for the first time since his release from prison. It was the voice of men like Mandela and Malcolm X that made up the soundtrack of her childhood. Born in Zambia and raised in Guyana, Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands, this 29 year old storyteller has been exposed to many cultures and people. After high school, Makambe left the islands for Canada and took up theatre at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.
Skin symbolizes identity — its colour, shade and texture influences cultural currency and, by extension, self-identity. When we know who we are, we can honour where we come from and we can dance in our own skins with pride and passion.
The brisk cold air and the light dusting of snow could not stop the over 400 people who came to see renowned two-time bestselling author Angie Thomas at the Rose Theatre last night in Toronto. Though the room was filled with both young and old book lovers of all backgrounds and ethnicities, Thomas made one thing clear, Black voices and Black stories matter.
A 2018 University of Southern California study found that less than 1% of directors were women of colour, based on statistics related to the top-grossing 1,100 films and 1,233 directors in America, 2007 to 2017. In Canada, those type of statistics don’t even exist. But we know that women of colour are woefully underrepresented and underpaid.
A tall lean man of mahogany hue moves with ferocity of purpose, arms swinging with piston like precision belying a man of his 81 years. He propels his body forward, all swinging arms, contorted limbs and suspended frame. His steely eyes are locked on a hard won prize. The same prize that compatriots from the diaspora like Stephen Roach and Dudley Laws were severely punished for daring to reach.
Syrus Marcus Ware is a visual artist, community activist, researcher, youth advocate, and a key member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. Now he's adding playwright and actor to his resume, co-starring in 'Bubble Trans Pride' at this week’s Rhubarb Festival.
Frances-Anne Solomon is an artistic force to be reckoned with. As the director of CaribbeanTales and the International Film festival of the same name, she has grown the entity into a globally recognized institution that gives voice to filmmakers throughout the Caribbean diaspora.
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Featured events
- The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture | Photographs from The Walther Collection (September 11, 2019 6:00 pm)
- MANDELA (October 10, 2019 10:00 am)
- KINGDOM CHOIR (November 05, 2019 7:30 pm)
- KINGDOM CHOIR (November 06, 2019 7:30 pm)
- Isango Ensemble - A Man of Good Hope (November 15, 2019 8:00 pm)