The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – Take 6
Screening Dates
  • June 1, 2022 6:30

Diasporas

For her first and so far only foray into feature documentary, gifted Vancouver filmmaker Mina Shum (Double Happiness) casts a penetrating eye on an historic act of civil disobedience in our country: the Sir George Williams University riot of 1969, when a student protest against institutional racism touched off a two-week occupation of the Montreal academy (now Concordia University). The incident—known as the Sir George Williams affair—involved allegations by six Caribbean students of racial discrimination by a White biology teacher. When the university’s response was tantamount to a shrug, a sit-in was staged—followed by a full-blown student riot (Canada’s largest) once police got involved. NFB producer Selwyn Jacob, of Trinidadian descent, had long wanted to make a film about the incident. The documentary earned Shum an Artistic Merit Award from Vancouver’s WIFTV and was selected for Canada’s Top Ten 2015.

An important film about a watershed moment in Canadian race relations. Incredible and moving interviews with a group of articulate, accomplished, and extraordinary humans who came to Canada as students from the Caribbean.” Harry Killas

Introduction by Harry Killas, series curator of The Image Before Us.”

Guests in attendance: director Mina Shum; producer Selwyn Jacob

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