Founder of the Halifax Black Film Festival Fabienne Colas knew Halifax would embrace her annual event. Now in its sixth year, the festival continues to grow and continues to bring people together to experience diverse perspectives through the art of film.
“You never can tell where a festival will go in a particular city…. It’s all about people in the city that makes a festival grow and the pace of the growth,” Colas says. “We knew we would get to six years and beyond … because we had started before in Montreal and Toronto successfully. However, we never expected the festival to evolve that fast, that quickly. It’s really thanks to the people in Halifax and Nova Scotia.”
The Halifax Black Film Festival is one of seven festivals created and presented by the Fabienne Colas Foundation. Its mandate is to provide an opportunity for filmmakers to shine a spotlight on authentic stories that reflect the realities of Black experiences.
One of the programs offered by the foundation is Being Black in Canada, which allows emerging Black filmmakers to create short films as part of the festival’s programming.
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This year’s festival features 73 films from 15 countries. The festival, including panel discussions, is virtual for the third year in a row due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions. Participants can purchase individual tickets to online screenings or a $49 all-access pass to watch all programming offered during the festival.
“It’s a record number of films,” Colas says of the event. “And each time you buy one ticket or pass, it is really a support directly to the artists participating at this festival.”
Audiences attending the virtual festival can enjoy short films, documentaries and full-length feature films from Halifax filmmakers and beyond. The festival opens with Desiree Kahikopo-Meiffrets narrative feature The White Line and closes with the documentary Murder in Paris from Enver Samuel. There are also virtual panel discussions offered through the Halifax Black Film Festival’s Facebook page with topics related to film, media, diversity and equity.
Recently, the Fabienne Colas Foundation received $3 million in funding from the federal government to launch the Festwave Institute. The initiative supports underserved Black entrepreneurs in the film and television industry through business training and skill-building.
“This is fantastic because we know that Black-led organizations don’t get to have the chance to benefit from such major funding,” Colas says. “So we’re very grateful, we’re happy and we can’t wait to work with the whole industry to move things forward.”
“This is the extension of what we’ve been doing all along with Being Black in Canada,” says Colas. “We’ve been training and mentoring emerging artists, now Festwave Institute will take it to the larger scale … not only to emerging artists but also to career artists.”
In addition to the federal funding announcement, the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Halifax 2021 received two Canadian Screen Award nominations: Best Documentary Program and Best Direction in a Documentary Series.
The Halifax Black Film Festival runs from Feb. 24 to 27 and is presented by TD Bank Group in collaboration with Global News. For more information on the festival, visit halifaxblackfilm.com.
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