Film centre celebrates Black History Month

Film centre celebrates Black History Month. Toronto-based filmmaker Clement Virgo will be hosting a conversation with Norman Jewison before screening In The Heat Of The Night at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Feb. 9 to commemorate Black History Month. Photo/COURTESY

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC), which is located in North York, is presenting the 1967 Oscar winner on Tuesday, Feb. 9 to commemorate Black History Month. Director Jewison, along with award-winning Toronto filmmaker Clement Virgo and Lee Daniels, director of recent hit movie Precious, will be starting the evening by engaging the audience in a conversation about black representation in cinema.

There may be some pretty heavy subject matter, but Virgo intends to maintain an atmosphere of celebration.

"I don't want it to feel like taking medicine that just makes you feel a little better when you come out," said Virgo. "It's really about celebrating ourselves and our achievements and at the same time educating and entertaining people."

After studying under Jewison at the CFC in 1991, Virgo has gone on to accumulate an impressive portfolio of internationally acclaimed films and has worked on several mainstream television series including ReGenesis and The Wire. His talents have made him a success, but he admits without the impact made by In The Heat Of The Night at the height of the civil rights movement, much of today's black cinema may not exist.

"It was the first time on screen that a black character (played by Sidney Poitier) hit back at a white character," said Virgo. "It was seminal because what it did was change the future in some ways. After that, we suddenly had all these strong black characters like Shaft and Super Fly and it kind of ushered in the blaxploitation films of the 1970s where suddenly blacks were going to movies a lot more and were also represented on screen."

Born in Jamaica and immigrating to Canada as part of what he called "the third wave of immigrants to change the landscape of Toronto," Virgo has been heavily influenced by Jewison, whom he views as a mentor. Jewison's ability to deliver a socially progressive message in a film that was still entertaining is something that Virgo strives for in his work and thinks has a broad appeal in Canada.

Noting that Canada's civil rights movement was very different than that of the United States, Virgo predicts another set of unique difficulties for the next generation of diverse Canadian filmmakers. The idea that a widely varied cultural landscape is becoming the norm could be a challenging theme for the powers-that-be in Canadian film to embrace.

"The decision makers are still not as diverse as the viewers in the population so the challenge that young people are going to face is having people truly understand the stories they are trying to tell and the stories that represent the diversity of all of Canada," said Virgo. "Somehow, by being specific to their own experience and identity, they will then be universal. The challenge is to get that across and get people to understand that."

The doors at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles St. W., open for the event at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be bought at www.totix.ca or at the venue before the show. All proceeds will go toward the CFC Diversity Scholarship.