Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) announces line-up
Fourth annual festival marks Black History Month, runs February 10 – 14, 2016
Toronto, January 20, 2016 – The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF), presented by Global News in collaboration with TD Bank, today announced its official lineup featuring the best in black cinema from around the world. The festival runs February 10 – 14 and includes eight world premieres. The 44 films screening come from 20 countries, including Belgium, the Bahamas, Canada, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Haiti, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, UK and USA.
Venues include Carlton Cinema (20 Carlton St.), the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles St. W), Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. W), Théâtre de l’Alliance Française (24 Spadina Rd.) and Collège Boréal (1 Yonge St.).
#TBFF16 is also introducing the TBFF Audience Choice Award! Winners will be revealed on Closing Night.
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OPENING FILM
THINA SOBABILI (The Two of Us)
Presented by Global News
Isabel Bader Theatre – Sunday, February 14, 2016 – 7:30 PM
Ernest Nkosi | South Africa | 2015 | 90’ | Zulu with English subtitles
THINA SOBAILI is a coming-of-age story that follows young siblings Thulani and Zanele, whose relationship is strained when Zanele falls for an older man and plans to use him to escape her bleak surroundings. The film was South Africa’s submission for Best Foreign Language at the Academy Awards®, won the Best Picture Award at the Rwanda Film Festival, and audience awards at the Jozi Film Festival and the Pan African Film festival.
CLOSING FILM
BREATHE UMPHEFUMLO
Carlton Cinema – Sunday, February 14, 2016 – 7:30 PM
Russ Parr – USA | 2015 | 90’ | English and Xhosa with English subtitles
A tribute to the Puccini opera La Boheme, this musical drama relocates the struggling students from Paris to a South African shantytown. As the young bohemians fight for food and shelter, they neglect to notice one of their group is suffering from TB.
MOVIE TALK: 50 YEARS LATER
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION
Carlton Cinema – Friday, February 11, 2016 – 9 PM
Stanley Nelson – USA | 2015 | 116’ English
The first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party goes straight to the source, presenting a treasure trove of rare archival footage with voices people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph and many others, the film is an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a revolutionary culture in America.
NEW AT THE FESTIVAL THIS YEAR: TBFF BLACK MARKET
TBFF Black Market is a series of industry panels and workshops with local and internationally renowned leaders, experts and visionaries, who will address today’s most critical filmmaking issues. Special events include a Q&A discussion with The Book Of Negroes award-winning director Clement Virgo, a panel discussion about diversity on the screen featuring award-winning filmmaker Trey Anthony and a workshop presented by Actra Toronto on the How and Why of Making short films.
TBFF COMMUNITY PROGRAM
G98.7 LIVE AT TORONTO BLACK FILM FESTIVAL
Carlton Cinema – Sunday, February 14, 2016 – 2 PM
A “real-talk” session about realities in today’s film industry, covering topics such as DIVERSITY ON THE SCREEN, BLACK WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS, HOW TO BREAK INTO ACTING and IS BASKETBALL MORE THAN A GAME? Featured guests: award-winning filmmaker Trey Anthony, casting agent Warren Beatty, former CFL player Damon Alan and TBFF founder Fabienne Colas, among others.
NARRATIVE FEATURE FILMS
AYANDA AND THE MECHANICS
Mark Dornford-May – South Africa | 2015 | 105’ | English
After losing her beloved father, Ayanda will do anything to preserve his memory. But her commitment to keeping his garage open unearths unexpected emotions and long-hidden family secrets.
BREATHE UMPHEFUMLO
Russ Parr – USA | 2015 | 90’ | English and Xhosa
A tribute to the Puccini opera La Boheme, this musical drama relocates the struggling students from Paris to a South African shantytown. As the young bohemians fight for food and shelter, they neglect to notice one of their group is suffering from TB.
BROOKLYN
Pascal Tessaud – France | 2014 | 83’ | French with English subtitles
Wannabe-rapper Coralie leaves Switzerland for the strife-torn suburbs of Paris to make a go of it in hip-hop. Her skills soon get noticed by other aspiring artists in the neighbourhood, played by real-life rappers and actual residents of the urban projects.
CHRISTMAS WEDDING BABY
Kiara C. Jones – USA | 2014 | 112’ | English
Canadian premiere
Three sisters struggle to find happiness through the holiday season. The youngest sister and bride-to-be is traumatized when she discovers her first love has been hired as her wedding photographer.
DRY
Stéphanie Linus – Nigeria, UK | 2014 | 107’ | English
Zara, a successful African doctor living in Wales, is determined to stay away from her home country and dark childhood memories, until she discovers that her long-lost daughter might still be alive. Back in Africa, 13-year-old Halima’s poor parents force her marry Sani, a 60-year-old man.
KNUCKLEHEAD
Ben Bowman – USA | 2015 | 83’ | English
Canadian premiere
After his brother disappears, Langston, who lives with mental disability, falls under the control of his abusive mother. Taking his future into his own hands, he sets out to find a mysterious doctor who he hopes will cure him, venturing deep into the unscrupulous world of pharmaceutical marketing.
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE
Lanre Olabisi – USA | 2015 | 90’ | English
Canadian premiere
Four lovers’ lives collide as one marriage melts into several intertwining affairs. Structured like a jigsaw puzzle, the interwoven story is told from varying viewpoints, with no character fully grasping their dilemma.
THE BODA BODA THIEVES
Donald Mugisha – South Africa, Germany | 2015 | 85’ | Luganda with English subtitles
After his father is injured in a road accident, 15-year-old Abel takes up the responsibility of driving the family’s “boda boda” motorcycle taxi. But when a local hustler offers him the chance to be a snatch-and-grab getaway driver, he tumbles headfirst into a world of easy money and quick thrills.
THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE
Julius Onah – USA | 2015 | 90’ | English
Canadian premiere
After spending the night with a mysterious woman, a down-on-his-luck DJ discovers evidence of a murder involving a dangerous drug dealer and a billionaire’s son. Desperate for money, he must decide whether to blackmail the killer or help the woman escape.
THINA SOBABILI (THE TWO OF US)
Ernest Nkosi – South Africa | 2015 | 90’ | Zulu with English subtitles
THINA SOBAILI is a coming-of-age story that follows young siblings Thulani and Zanele, whose relationship is strained when Zanele falls for an older man and plans to use him to escape her bleak surroundings. The film won the Best Picture Award at the Rwanda Film Festival, and audience awards at the Jozi Film Festival and the Pan African Film festival.
WHITE WATER
Rusty Cundieff – USA | 2014 | 83’ | English
Young Michael lives in the deeply segregated world of 1963 Alabama. Obsessed with the abundant “whites only” signs, he decides to do the unthinkable: drink from a forbidden water fountain.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AND MID-LENGTH FILMS
EAVESDROPPING ON SOULS: A JOURNEY INTO HAITIAN ARTS
Jacqueline Jean-Baptise – Canada | 2015 | 51’ | English
Canadian premiere
This documentary presents a beautiful collage of Haitian art, painting, photography, woodworking and sculpture, from artists both celebrated and unknown, set against the folk music of the Creole Choir of Cuba.
GAME FACE
Michiel Thomas – USA | 2015 | 90’ | English
This documentary tells the parallel stories of Fallon Fox, the first transgender Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) pro fighter, and Terrence Clemens, a college basketball player in Oklahoma who happens to be gay. The film follows both athletes during their coming-out process and sheds light on the obstacles LGBTQ sports players must overcome. Former NBA star Jason Collins shines as a mentor for Terrence in this inspiring documentary.
IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE
Ricki Stern – USA | 2015 | 93’ | English
Canadian premiere
Hip-hop artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith purchases his childhood home on Chicago’s South Side in order to raise his young family in the house where he grew up. He quickly discovers that his estranged father is a homeless alcoholic living only blocks away, and hesitantly sets out to reconnect with the man who abandoned him over twenty years ago.
JIMMY GOES TO NOLLYWOOD
Jimmy Jean-Louis, Rachid Dhibou – USA | 2015 | 52’ | English
Few people know that Nigeria is one of the largest movie producers in the world, ahead of Hollywood and just behind India’s Bollywood. This documentary follows actor Jimmy Jean-Louis to the Africa Movie Academy Awards and presents the viewer with a colourful and rich panorama of the world of ‘Nollywood’.
MY FATHER’S LAND
Miquel Galore, K. Tyler Johnston – The Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, USA, Trinidad & Tobago, Spain | 2015 | 67’ | English, Haitian Creole and Spanish with English subtitles
Papa Jah, a humble gardener, lived in the Bahamas for 40 years. Now he returns to Haiti to see his 103-year-old father and reunite with the land he left.
SOUL ON ICE: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
Damon Kwame – Canada | 2015 | 84’ | English
This documentary explores the seldom-recognized contributions to ice hockey from black athletes, who have dared to make the sport their own.
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION
Stanley Nelson – USA | 2015 | 116’ English
The first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party goes straight to the source, presenting a treasure trove of rare archival footage with voices people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph and many others, the film is an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a revolutionary culture in America.
THE CULTURE
Noube Rateau – USA | 2014 | 55’ | English
Canadian premiere
This timely documentary sheds light on gun culture in America’s urban neighborhoods. It investigates the environment, results, and motives behind the country’s addiction to firearms.
THE FLYING STAR
Ngardy Conteh, Allan Tong – USA | 2014 | 65’ | English
Team captain Bornor Kargbo and midfielder Census Jalloh are amputees who play organized soccer in Sierra Leone to cope with the horrors of war they suffered a decade ago. As they dream of playing internationally, they wrestle with nightmares that haunt their daily lives and threaten the very families they are trying to feed.
WES
Samuel Lehner – Canada | 2015 | 82’ | English
World premiere
Wes Hall is one of Canada’s most influential business leaders and a recent Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. As a child raised by his grandmother in a tin shack in rural Jamaica, Wes overcame heartbreaking adversity. After moving to Canada as a young man, his drive and determination brought success in both his business and family life.
SHORT FILMS
ALMA
Eka Christa Assam – Cameroon | 2015 | 25’ | English
CALM
Kwame Lestrade – UK | 2014 | 13’ | Dinka (South Sudan) with English subtitles
CHAINING DAY
Dominic Haxton – Canada, USA | 2014 | 11’ | English
North American premiere
CHAMELEON
Jude Idada – Canada, USA | 2015 | 4’ | English
North American premiere
COUNTER
Nicholas Bouier – USA | 2014 | 12’ | English
COWBOY’S GIRL
Andrew Piccone – USA | 2015 | 16’ | English
FIRST DATE LAST DATE
Derege Harding – USA | 2015 | 7’ | English
World premiere
HEX
Clarence Peter – Nigeria | 2015 | 26’ | English
World premiere
JIMMY, THE SOUND OF SUFFERING
Ismaël Co – Canada | 2014 | 15’ | French with English subtitles
JOY
Onita Solomon – USA | 2015 | 15’ | French, Yoruba with English subtitles
World premiere
MAN’S PARADOX
Barney Frydman – Belgium | 2015 | 3’ | Silent
MEET THE PARENTS
Lonzo Nzekwe – Canada | 2015 | 36’ | English
North American premiere
MUNA
Keeya King – Canada | 2015 | 13’ | Krio with English subtitles
World premiere
PURGATORIO
Martine Jean – Haiti, USA | 2014 | 12’ | Spanish with English subtitles
Canadian premiere
RIPPLES
Nadine Valcin – Canada | 2014 | 8’ | English
World premiere
RUN FAST
Anna Muso – USA | 2015 | 23’ | English
THE BOY
Cayman Grant – USA | 2015 | 8’ | English
THE GIFT
Esery Mondésir – Canada | 2015 | 15’ | English
North American premiere
THE NIGERIAN
Ben Goloff – Canada | 2014 | 4’ | English
World premiere
THE TOWNSHIP
Eric Dickens – USA | 2014 | 20’ | English
World premiere
THE LEGACY OF RUBIES
Ebele Okoye – Germany| 2015 | 25’ | English
Canadian premiere
About the Toronto Black Film Festival
Founded by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, TBFF is dedicated to celebrating the very best in cinematic work dealing with the experiences of black people from a diversity of communities. Our mandate is to provide an opportunity for filmmakers from all ethnic backgrounds to shine the spotlight on authentic stories that reflect the realities of black experiences.
Along with its sister festival, the Montreal International Black Film Festival (now in its 12thyear), TBFF showcases new voices in cinema and encourages audiences to see the world in new ways. In connecting black films with viewers of all ethnic origins, we recognize the differences that make us unique while celebrating the shared values that bring us together.
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