True North

Synopsis

This captivating documentary directed by visionary filmmaker Michèle Stephenson (co-director of Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project), is a provocative confrontation of Canada’s historical and ongoing anti-Black racism. Through a masterful blend of insightful interviews and evocative archival footage, the film traces the height of the nation’s civil rights movement of the ‘60s in the unlikely hotbed of Montreal, revealing how the nation’s myth of tolerance masks a legacy of slavery, systemic exclusion, and generational trauma.

Haunting soundscapes, layered visuals, and non-linear storytelling combine to create a visceral atmosphere that echoes the emotional weight of displacement and erasure. The film not only excavates buried truths about Canada’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade and xenophobic immigration policies but also challenges viewers to question national narratives that sanitize oppression. With both personal tenderness and historical rigor, True North shatters illusions of Canadian innocence, demanding accountability and reckoning with the untold stories of resistance, survival, and Black resilience on northern soil.