The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) celebrates its 10th anniversary, kicking off on February 16 with Krystin Ver Linden’s Canadian premiere of Alice, starring Emmy Award-winning actress, Keke Palmer and Grammy Award-winning rapper, Common. Inspired by the true events Alive tells the story of a woman of servitude who narrowly escapes her oppressor, to discover the surprisingly mind-bending reality that exists beyond the tree line. Then, as of 9pm EST all the films will be accessible online. The Festival will close with Paul Tom’s documentary feature, Alone, about unaccompanied minors who left their home country behind to start over in Canada in hopes to live a better life.
This year’s line-up consists of remarkable films, highlighting important topics such as women’s issues, politics, social injustice, discrimination, mental health, arts, sports, accomplishment, among others. Some of #TBFF22’s must-see feature films are: Alice, Black Mail, Jim Button and the Wild 13, Queen of Glory, The White Line, Vuta N’Kuvute. Furthermore, some of the thought-provoking documentaries include Alone, Frank Bey: All my Dues are Paid, Gemmel & Tim, Murder in Paris, President, Zinder, The Ants and the Grasshoppers, Target: St. Louis Vol. 1, Feisty Fighter – The Marnesba Tackett Story, She Dreams at Sunrise, the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada series and many more!
The Toronto Black Film Festival will pay tribute to the late Sidney Poitier by highlighting his contributions to the industry through a video compilation. Sidney Poitier paved the way for generations of Black actors in the 1950s and 1960s as a fine actor, and as an ambassador of America’s long-delayed civil rights movement. At the height of the civil rights movement in 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win an Oscar for best actor – for “Lilies of the Field” (1963). Poitier received numerous honorary prizes, including a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute, the Cecil B. deMille Award at the Golden Globes; and a special Academy Award in 2002, on the same night that Black performers won best acting awards, Denzel Washington, and Halle Berry. Additionally, in 2009, President Barack Obama presented Poitier with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, praising him for the advancement of “the nation’s dialogue on race and respect.”
The 10th annual Toronto Black Film Festival takes place online virtually from February 16 to 21, 2022.