Saint John Newcomers Centre's first Black History month screening, Kenbe la, jusqu'à la victoire (Kenbe La, Until We Win) (submitted)
The Saint John Newcomers Centre hosted its first viewing party of films celebrating black culture on Zoom in honor of Black History Month on Friday.
The films will be streamed every Friday throughout February and alternate between in French and English-language audio, with respective subtitles, in support of the Newcomer Centre’s Francophone partners ARCf Saint-Jean, the Francophone School District South and Le Réseau en immigration francophone du Nouveau-Brunswick.
“The majority of the Black History Month events are happening in English so we thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight some of the Francophone films that are out there that highlight Black culture,” says Senior Communications Specialist Emily MacMackin.
Guy Verna, Saint John Newcomers Centre’s Event Coordinator (submitted)
Kenbe la, jusqu’à la victoire (Kenbe la, Until We Win) was the first of there series’ screenings, which are accessible on Facebook. The film follows the journey of Alain Phioctète, a Haitian artist and activist who settled in Quebec, whose goal is to develop a permaculture project in his native country while battling cancer.
MacMackin shared that the centre’s Event Coordinator Guy Verna curated the Black History month films. Kenbe La, Until We Win helped communicate Varda’s Haitian culture to the community and where he has come from.
“He wants to share that with the community, so that’s why we picked it as the first film,” she said.
The other three films planned to screen are documentaries La Ligue Oubliée (Ice Breakers), about The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, John Ware Reclaimed (Sur les Traces de John Ware) about nineteenth century black Albertan cowboy John Ware, and True North: Inside the Rise of Toronto Basketball (Direction nord – La montée du basketball à Toronto (long métrage)).
The centre has hosted virtual screenings in partnership with the National Film Board (NFB) since last March with the beginning of COVID-19. The NFB’s Montreal headquarters and promotion of the centre’s Black History month screenings on its website has has created a lot of interest in the event.
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- La Ligue Oubliée (Ice Breakers) (submitted)
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- John Ware Reclaimed (Sur les Traces de John Ware) (submitted)
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- True North: Inside the Rise of Toronto Basketball (Direction nord – La montée du basketball à Toronto (long métrage) (submitted)
“It is a really important part of promoting multiculturalism in our community, in storytelling, through film is just one of those ways of educating people on particular issues,” says MacMackin, adding today’s screening will most likely be a mix of New Brunswickers and Quebecois.
“The films that we get through the National Film Board help us also highlight some of those local stories that might not otherwise get exposure through by international platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime,” she said. “The story about La Ligue Oubliée, the Icebreakers, is a Maritimes story and it’s important to our culture in the Maritimes.”
