The history of Canada is no simple thing. It’s a collection of diverse stories about diverse people and experiences. Documentary film can be an important tool for learning about ourselves, and others. With that in mind, here’s a list of documentaries we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), all of which tell stories that teach us things about Canada’s past and present.
Directed by Michèle Stephenson, True North provides an unflinching look at the anti-Black racism of the 1960s and the activists who fought to change Canada. The gripping documentary that centres around student protests that took place at Sir George Williams University in 1969. In opposition to racist policies that treated the university’s Black students as second-class citizens, activists occupied the Montreal-based university (which is today known as Concordia).
While it can be difficult to make history come alive on film, Stephenson deftly mixes found footage of protests and contemporary interviews with the activists who camped out at Sir George Williams. Protestors faced police brutality and incarceration as a consequence of their involvement, and many dealt with years of discrimination when people discovered they had participated in the occupation of Sir George Williams.A particularly beautiful feature of the doc is that it includes candid conversations with the recently deceased Brenda Dash, who played a central role in the demonstrations before moving to America in the 1970s and becoming a prominent manager in the music industry.
Overall, True North is the sort of documentary that stays with you long after it’s over. It is simultaneously a tribute to the joys and the sacrifices that flow from activism.
2. John Candy: I Like Me (Dir. Colin Hanks)
Documentaries about celebrities – even beloved and tragically deceased celebs – can feel vapid and superficial. But Colin Hanks’ new film about the life and work of beloved Canadian comedian John Candy is a cut above. Yes, part of its appeal is the vibrant interviews with all the comedy luminaries with whom John Candy collaborated throughout his career, from Eugene Levy talking about Candy’s time on SCTV to Tom Hanks discussing what it was like to film Splash. However, it’s also a meditation on what it means to be famous, and how The Hollywood Machine turns a person into a product.
As Candy’s friends make clear, the charismatic Candy always felt destined to be a star. A comic genius who could make a skit parodying defunct sitcom Leave It To Beaver feel revelatory, Candy became one of the biggest comedy stars of his generation before his untimely death at age 43.
Candy’s nickname during his early days at Second City was Johnny Toronto, because he always seemed to know everyone. Candy also had a grandiose tendency to pick up the tab and smoke expensive cigarettes, even before he made it big; however, Candy’s life was also marked by darkness. His father died on his birthday when he was just 5, likely contributing to his lifetime of alcohol use disorder and a history with panic attacks.
By the time of Candy’s death in 1994, he was dealing with persistent fat-shaming in the media which – as the doc makes clear – did not just roll off his back. On the flipside, Candy also dealt with executives who objected to him losing weight because a weight loss would damage his public persona. Overall, John Candy: I Like Me is a heartwrenching portrait of a life that was at once joyful and tragic.
3. Modern Whore (Dir. Nicole Bazuin)
Andrea Werhun is a prominent Toronto actress and writer. She is also a sex worker who speaks – and writes – candidly about her experiences. Werhun worked as a consultant on Anora, Sean Baker’s Oscar-winning film about a sex worker’s ill-fated marriage to a client. Now, she’s telling her own story on celluloid. As a veteran of the industry who has worked both as an escort and an exotic dancer, Werhun doesn’t provide the definitive story of Sex Work in Toronto (no one human ever could); however, she offers compelling and vulnerable commentary that is sure to keep audiences hooked.
Beautifully shot, this chic film is part of Werhun’s quest to use her own voice as a sex worker.
From Werhun’s perspective, sex workers are often portrayed in popular culture as “villains or victims.” But the reality is sex workers are real, three-dimensional humans whose experiences typically have little resemblance to the stereotypes seen on American Crime Shows. While the doc does not glamourize sex work – it acknowledges The Industry comes with dangers and risks, it provides audiences with nuanced and thoughtful reflections about the world’s most stigmatized form of work.
In the end, Modern Whore is both an entertaining and informative look at a career that is often represented on screen but rarely represented with accuracy.
4. Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (Dir. Ally Pankiw)
In 1997, the music industry changed forever, because Canadian songstress Sarah Maclachlan started Lilith Fair. Those of us who are old enough to remember the 90s – and I realize some of our readers are not – know how important it was when this groundbreaking all-women festival came to town. Lilith Fair showcased female performers by putting on one of the best shows you’ve ever seen…
Pankiw’s doc takes us behind the scenes of this traveling music festival. Before Lilith Fair changed everything, The Music Industry was infected by a belief that only a small number of female acts could succeed at a time – commercial radio stations famously wouldn’t even play two women artists in a row! By elevating women’s voices with a festival where male performers weren’t allowed on stage, Lilith Fair fought back against the popular perception that women musicians were less worthy.
Featuring interviews with iconics like Erykah Badu and Emmylou Harris, Lilith FairL Building a Mystery, is an important reflection on one of the most important things to happen to pop music in the 1990s. While Lilith Fair itself only lasted for three years, its legacy lives on, and films like this can help educate younger generations about this pivotal event.
And while this is a music doc, it’s also an important story about women working together to elevate and support each other and overcome sexism. It’s just the kind of inspiration feminists need in an era where women and gender minorities are facing discrimination from every front…
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