Calgary Black Film Festival – 2022
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(May 19, 2022 – Toronto, ON) When the 2nd annual Calgary Black Film Festival (CBFF) opens next week, there is an entire schedule of films, features and shorts that deserve our attention. Many, if not most, are international films, but there is one program in particular that features short films made in different parts of the country screening together under the title “Being Black in Canada”. The image above is from one of those shorts, Finding a Way Out by director Jodell Stundon.
Finding a Way Out is a highly personal film because the focus is on the director. It’s a self-portrait of Jodell’s current life. We learn how he dealt with depression and incarceration and his experience within a certain lifestyle that brought him to a place he recognized as a changing point. Through photography and videography, Stundon finds his way out of a lifestyle and a system he felt he was trapped in. This short will screen with Born In Sin, For Black Muslim Girls, Framework, Knowledge Is Power, Scratching The Surface, The Idea of The Black Dollar and Washed Up. However, this selection of shorts is only one of many. The CBFF will present the World Premieres of 28 films from 28 emerging Black Filmmakers from Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa and Calgary who participated in the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada program.
The opening film is from South Africa. The White Line is from director Desiree Kahikopo-Meiffret and recounts a true story set in 1963, just three years after the “Old Location uprising” that shook South West Africa. A white police officer falls in love with a black maid, their love for each other grows over time through the letters they write each other. Their love endures many obstacles, one being the colour of their skin. The White Line is a riveting untold love story between a man and woman who do not see race and colour, subconsciously going against society’s norms and find solace in love in an era where love was restricted to you only loving your kind.
The CBFF is adopting a hybrid model this year with its first in-person offering in Calgary along with their online programming they introduced last year allowing for accessibility across Canada and the world. The in-person screenings and events will take place at the Globe Cinema, the Dome Theatre at Telus Spark Science Centre, the Calgary Memorial Park Library and the Calgary Central Library.
The CBFF opens Thursday, May 26 and runs until May 29. Click here to see the festival’s full screening program, tickets and festuval passes and learn more about the CBFF.
Also see: May 2022 Film Festivals.
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
