Our Land (Nuestra Tierra)
$11.50
Sylvia Hamilton and Claire Prieto’s contributions to Canadian film are invaluable, as their work explores and traces the lives, histories and perspectives of Black people in Canada. This February, the Winnipeg Film Group presents works by two pioneers of Black Canadian cinema.
Born in 1950 in Beechville, Nova Scotia, in a Halifax community first settled by Black refugees from the War of 1812, Sylvia Hamilton is a multi-award-winning Canadian filmmaker, writer and poet. She is considered, alongside Roger McTair, Claire Prieto and Jennifer Hodge, a pioneer of Black Canadian cinema.
Renowned and multi-award winning Nova Scotian filmmaker Sylvia Hamilton illuminates underrepresented stories from Black Nova Scotians in poignant vignettes, character portraits, and incisive testimonies, revealing a dark side to the often forgotten history of racial inequality and segregation of Black communities in Canada, from coast-to-coast.
Clarie Prieto is a Trinidadian-Canadian TV and film producer, director and distributor whose work was vital to the birth and growth of Black Canadian cinema. Her films focus on Black history and culture and the experiences of Black Canadian women. Some Black Women (1975), which Prieto produced, is considered to be the first film ever made by a Black Canadian about the perspectives of the Black community in Canada.
Prieto also played an important role in the Black Film and Video Network, whose goal, as she put it, was “to encourage and promote the development, production and distribution of the work of Black film and video-makers in Canada.”
Black Mother Black Daughter
Dir. Sylvia Hamilton and Claire Prieto
1989, Canada, 28 min
Black Mother Black Daughter, was one of the first NFB productions ever created by an all-female crew. It chronicles the lives of Black women in Nova Scotia, their contributions to the home, the church and the community, and the strengths they pass on to their daughters.
Older Stronger Wiser
Dir. Claire Prieto
1989, Canada, 27 min
In this short documentary, five Black women talk about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s Black people and the legacy of their community elders. Produced by the NFB’s iconic Studio D.
Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia
Dir. Sylvia Hamilton
1992, Canada, 28 min
In their predominantly white high school in Halifax, a group of Black students face daily reminders of racism, ranging from abuse to exclusion. They work to establish a Cultural Awareness Youth Group, a vehicle for building pride and self-esteem through educational and cultural programs. With help from mentors, they discover the richness of their heritage and learn some of the ways they can begin to effect change.
