BLK: An Origin Story (2022)
From Jennifer Holness and David Sudz Sutherland, the stellar wife and husband filmmaking duo that brought us the ground-breaking documentary Speakers for the Dead (2000), the laugh-out-loud funny rom-com Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones (2003), and the poignant and political Home Again (2012), comes a national first, a four-part, television documentary series that tackles the histories of Black Canada.
Moving between British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, the series captures the early presence of Black Canadians from the 1600’s beginning with the brutal and standardly ignored histories of Canadian Slavery, and across the complex movements of Black populations into and out of Canada at key moments like the Revolutionary War, the Jamaican Maroon deportation, and the War of 1812.
The episodes also tackle the grave injustices of the often-unmarked Canadian Jim Crow and the racist segregation and infrastructure practices that led to the demolition of Hogan’s Alley, Vancouver and Africville, Halifax.
Packed with a stellar group of experts including novelist Lawrence Hill, politician Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, poet laureate and professor George Elliott Clarke, and our fearless leader, Art History professor Charmaine A. Nelson, the complex histories explored across the episodes are not only essential viewing for students, but for households across Canada.
This series is not just for Black History Month!