Kicking off the Montreal International Black Film Festival
The 22nd edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival opens with awards, an extraordinary film and celebration
The Montreal International Black Film Festival began on Wednesday, Sept. 23 with a showing of The Eyes of Ghana at the Outremont Theatre. The emotional documentary was funded by former U.S. president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
The Outremont Theatre reception area filled up early. An hour before the film began, crowds of people in suits and dresses took pictures together with bright smiles on their faces. It seemed as though everyone in the room knew each other.
Many people in the room were young Black filmmakers and actors who came to show support for their peers. Quite a few of them were seeing the film for the first time. They were all in for an incredible surprise.
“Young filmmakers want opportunities like this to show their films and become known as artists,” Joeneel Benjamin, a young filmmaker, said.
After the audience was ushered into the screening room, Fabienne Colas, whose foundation created the Montreal International Black Film Festival, discussed the importance of empowering young Black Montreal filmmakers and giving them as many moments to shine as she could.
Éric Idriss-Kanago was welcomed on stage to accept the Vanguard award, presented to recognize Canadian filmmakers' efforts to raise awareness about Black realities. Idriss-Kanago has been helping Black filmmakers tell their stories for over 20 years, and he does not look to be slowing down any time soon.
“This award celebrates those who dare to create differently, and Éric is the very embodiment of that,” Colas said.
The theatre lights went down, and the executive producers of The Eyes of Ghana, Barack and Michelle Obama, appeared on screen to introduce the film and explain how much it meant to them to create a film as special as this one.
During the introduction, Michelle said she and her husband created Higher Ground Studios to make films like this one.
We must continue to fight. Not just to survive, but to shine and illuminate. — Éric Idriss-Kanago, film producer
The film chronicles 93-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, still full of life because his life still has so much purpose. He teaches the next generation at the Accra Film School and makes the journey to London every year to ensure his recordings of the life of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, remain intact.
Director Ben Proudfoot showed how these films, recorded so long ago, could change the world when shown to the right audience. They could rewrite the legacy of a man who had the physical records of his existence—written records, photographs and films— burned and destroyed for his mission of uniting the continent of Africa at any cost.
“We must continue to fight. Not just to survive, but to shine and illuminate,” Idriss-Kanago said during his acceptance of the Vanguard award.
The film argues that Nkrumah hired Hesse as his personal videographer to tell Ghana's story the same way America uses Hollywood to tell its stories.
When Hesse watches these old films he has not seen in decades, you can see so much life and light flood into his cloudy blue eyes.
The film was about Hesse and features the owner of the Rex Cinema in Accra, Edmund Addo, which had become run-down and nearly abandoned by the beginning of the film. Both of them, for one reason or another, had to abandon their passions. When the two men see the Rex Theatre restored and its seats filled again by young, smiling faces, their faith in the next generation becomes palpable.
Proudfoot found an incredibly engaging subject in Hesse. His weathered face and bright eyes contradict one another beautifully, painting a picture of a man who has seen it all.
When the audience sees his dreams come to fruition and so many of Accra’s young people sit to watch his films, one is inspired with a deep sense of renewal and hope.
Colas believes films like The Eyes of Ghana are what make the festival special.
“This festival exists because these stories deserve to be seen, and you are here because you believe that,” Colas said.
