We will be showing three films directed by award-winning Canadian Directors and Producers
Join the Campbell River Art Gallery for a film night on August 12th, featuring three short films by award-winning directors Sylvia D. Hamilton, Claire Prieto and Les Rose.
The films are a curated selection by the guest curator Ellyn Walker of the current exhibition Interrelations: a third perspective by artist Abdi Osman. The exhibition will be running until August 19th in the main gallery.
‘Seven Shades of Pale’ directed by Les Rose, released in 1975, features a meeting with the Black community in a neglected corner of Nova Scotia. The film shows both the traditional attitudes of the older generation and the more alert, resolved stance of the young. The old still pin their hopes on the church and the preacher, while the young look more towards the Black United Front and its roving director. For both generations change is a challenge. The common hope is for a fuller life.
‘Older Stronger Wiser’ by Claire Prieto, released in 1975, features five black women talking about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s black people and the legacy of their community elders. The film was produced by the NFB’s iconic Studio D.
‘Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia’ directed by Sylvia Hamilton and released in 1992, features a group of black students in a predominantly white high school in Halifax, as they face daily racism ranging from abuse (racist graffiti on washroom walls), to exclusion (the omission of black history from textbooks). They work to establish a Cultural Awareness Youth Group, serving as a vehicle for building pride and self-esteem through educational and cultural programs. With guidance from mentors, they discover the richness of their heritage and learn some of the ways they can begin to effect change.
The event will be from 7pm-9pm, August 12th. Popcorn and drinks will be available.
Entrance and refreshments are by donation. All donations to the Campbell River Art Gallery go toward running exhibitions, programs and outreach that the CRAG does in the community. Thank you for your donation to support ART THAT MATTERS!
The films were provided courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
About the film makers
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Nova Scotian and one of the most influential public historians working in Canada today, earning a reputation for excellence over four decades of active history-making. Her award-winning films include Black Mother Black Daughter, Portia White: Think on Me and The Little Black School House. Her essays are foundational pieces of scholarship in this field and, along with her poetry, are widely used in schools and universities. She co-created New Initiatives in Film, a program within the National Film Board’s Studio D, to provide filmmaking opportunities for women of colour and Indigenous women filmmakers.
Claire Prieto is a Canadian film director and producer, known as one of the first black filmmakers in Canada. Along with Roger McTair, Prieto was a partner in the Toronto-based production company, Prieto-McTair Productions, which operated from 1982 to 2007. Her film Some Black Women (1977) was the first film made by independent black filmmakers in Canada and her 2003 series Lord Have Mercy! was the first Caribbean-Canadian sitcom. Meanwhile, Black Mother Black Daughter (1989), produced by Prieto and Sylvia Hamilton for the Canadian National Film Board Atlantic Branch, was the first film created by this branch to employ an all-female crew.
Les Rose was a Canadian film and television director. He was most noted for the film Three Card Monte, for which he received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Director at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978. Rose began his career making documentary films for the National Film Board of Canada. Three Card Monte was his first commercial film. He subsequently directed the films Title Shot, Hog Wild, Gas and Isaac Littlefeathers, the television films Maintain the Right, The Life and Times of Edwin Alonzo Boyd and Covert Action, and two episodes of Fraggle Rock.
