A new docuseries dedicated to unearthing the little-told stories of Black Canadian experiences is as much about the present as it is about relearning the past, says its showrunner.
“Black Life: Untold Stories” traces 400 years of contributions that helped shape the nation and underpin ongoing efforts toward racial justice, says executive producer Leslie Norville.
Through archival footage, recreations and testimonies from Black Canadians, it also dispels common myths, such as Canada being a utopia for Black people during slavery.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done here in Canada and the first step is grappling with our history,” says Norville, whose doc credits include 2021’s pandemic hospital portrait “The First Wave.”
“I didn’t know a lot of these stories myself. The process of doing this research unearthed a lot of information as a Black Canadian I should have known about and didn’t, so that was really shocking for me.”
The CBC series features eight hour-long episodes and debuts Wednesday with director Alicia K. Harris dissecting the history of slavery in Canada with haunting recreations and interviews.
Each instalment is dedicated to one overarching topic including Black empowerment, hip-hop, immigration, art and literature, sports, policing and settlements.
Starting Wednesday, viewers can also stream the entire series on CBC Gem, which posted the first four episodes last week.
The series celebrates national pioneers like “Let Your Backbone Slide” rapper Maestro Fresh Wes, “The Book of Negroes” and “Brother” director Clement Virgo, and athletes including former NHL superstar P.K. Subban, who also serves as executive producer on the series.
Further along, director Duane Crichton explores calls for widespread police reform and how media has contributed to the normalization of violence against Black people.
And in the final chapter on Black communities, director Frances-Anne Solomon uses interviews with descendants of displaced residents to examine the policies that destroyed settlements and the inspiring residents resisting systemic displacement.
“There are subjects that are going to be difficult for some people,” Norville says. “We have to confront our history and sometimes that history isn’t pretty, but it’s important we give people the opportunity to retell and recount their experiences.”
Narrowing down which stories to tell and deciding who would spearhead them was one of the biggest challenges. Norville envisioned the project as an anthology resembling ESPN’s “30 For 30” docuseries, with eight directors tackling one episode and subject each.
“We’re not a monolith, so this idea that one director or one showrunner would be able to tell these histories didn’t seem to fit,” Norville says.
She notes each director brought their unique voice and vision to not only the material, but also to the visuals and sounds.
In the second episode “Revolution Remix,” airing Nov. 1, director Michèle Stephenson homes in on two defining Black empowerment events in Montreal. The first is the 1968 Congress of Black Writers, a four-day Black liberation movement at McGill University, attended by Black liberation activists including Stokely Carmichael, C.L.R. James, Miriam Makeba and Walter Rodney.
The second is 1969’s Sir George Williams Affair, in which a peaceful protest by young Black university students devolved into a riot when police forcefully intervened, arresting dozens and galvanizing the anti-racism movement.
The episode is rife with personal anecdotes told through archived material and new interviews, including with movement leader Brenda Dash, who was convicted of mischief. It’s set against a 1960s-influenced jazz score, and Stephenson keeps the entire hour in black-and-white – regardless of who is speaking and when the footage was collected.
“We were almost collapsing the distance between the archival and the current-day material,” explains Stephenson, whose 2013 doc “American Promise” traced the divergent paths of two boys from kindergarten through high school graduation.
“When you do that, hopefully the audience understands a lot of the struggle that was happening back then is still so relevant today.”
Following the CBC run, Norville says she wants to get “Black Life: Untold Stories” in front of educators, students and the communities it explores. The team is putting together watch guides and curriculums that can be used in classrooms.
It’s all in an effort to reframe how Canadians view the country’s history, while amplifying the voices of those whose stories have never been mainstream, Norville says.
“For some reason there has been an effort to bury this history. I hope with the series that these untold stories are unearthed for audiences and there is a will and desire to continue seeking [them] out,” she says.
“Narrative is everything. If we don’t tell our own stories and lay a stake on the ground, then we don’t do justice or service to our future generations,” adds Stephenson.
“[They need] to be able to go back and see these archives that we are building so they know they have shoulders to lean on in the work they have to do moving forward.”
— Amber Dowling is a freelance TV reporter based in Milton, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2023
Amber Dowling, The Canadian Press