The 43rd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will get going from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15 with a slew of films that will have World Premieres and hope to gather some Oscar buzz.
In terms of Black talent and films, there ‘s a great deal of directors (18) coming, including Kasi Lemmons’ Harriet with Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo, Chinonye Chukwu’s Sundance Award winner Clemency with Alfre Woodward, Kenny Leon’s American Son with Kerry Washington, Mati Diop’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story, Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables, Amjad Abu Alala’s You Will Die At Twenty, Miryam Charles’ Second Generation, a special presentation of Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season,
Uganda director IGG Nabwana’s Crazy World, Nigerian director Abba Makama’s The Lost Okoroshi, Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s Knuckle City, Everyone Hates Chris co-creator Ali LeRoi’s feature directorial debut The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Sweetness in the Belly, former White House deputy social secretary and senior advisor to Michelle Obama in brand strategy and strategic communications Ebs Burnough’s directorial debut The Capote Tapes, plus short films including Hiwot Admasu Getaneh’s A Fool God, Karen Chapman’s Measure, Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Sadla, and Nicole Delaney’s Thirsty starring Insecure’s Jay Ellis.
With talent, there’s a vast amount coming to showcase their work with Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx leading the charge in Just Mercy, Eddie Murphy and a host of comedians in Craig Brewer’s Dolemite Is My Name, Trey Edward Shults’ Waves starring Emmy Award winner Sterling K. Brown, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry, Zazie Beetz in both Lucy In The Sky with Natalie Portman and Joker with Joaquin Phoenix, This Is Us’ Susan Kelechi Watson opposite Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Anthony Mackie opposite Kristen Stewart in Seberg and starring withJamie Dornan in the sci-fi horror film Synchronic, Gugu Mbatha-Raw opposite Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn, Keke Palmer Cardi B., and Lizzo in Hustlers
Here’s a preview of several films that will premiere at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival that are directed by or starring Black talent.
Gala
CLEMENCY – written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu
Starring Academy Award Nominee Alfre Woodard (12 Years A Slave, Cross Creek), the prison warden drama garnered rave reviews following its World Premiere at Sundance, receiving the Grand Jury Prize and tremendous praise for Woodard’s performance. Clemency, which critics lauded as “powerful” and “profound”, is already garnering early Oscar buzz for Alfre Woodard’s emotional performance.
Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
Clemency also stars Aldis Hodge, Richard Schiff, Wendell Pierce and Danielle Brooks.
Harriet – directed by Kasi Lemmons
Directed by Kasi Lemmons from a screenplay Lemmons co-wrote with Gregory Allen Howard, the film stars Tony, Emmy and Grammy Award-winner Cynthia Erivo, Tony Award-winner and Grammy Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, multiple Grammy Award-winners Janelle Monae and Jennifer Nettles, and Clarke Peters.
Tubman is an American hero who escaped the shackles of slavery and subsequently helped free others from servitude through a channel of safe houses and secret routes known as the Underground Railroad. She also served a spy for the Union during the Civil War and fought for women’s right to vote.
Just Mercy
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and based on the award-winning nonfiction bestseller by Bryan Stevenson, the film stars Michael B. Jordan, Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and Academy Award winner Brie Larson.
A powerful and thought-provoking true story, “Just Mercy” follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.
The main cast also includes O’Shea Jackson Jr., Rob Morgan, & Tim Blake Nelson
Special Presentations
American Son – directed by Kenny Leon
Kenny Leon’s American Son, based on the acclaimed Broadway play, and starring Emmy-nominee Kerry Washington in a gripping story of an interracial couple trying to find their missing teenage son, will make it debut on November 1st following its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film
Based on the acclaimed Broadway play, the Netflix Television Event AMERICAN SON tells the story of Kendra Ellis-Connor (Emmy-nominee Kerry Washington), the mother of a missing teenage boy, as she struggles to put the pieces together in a South Florida police station. Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan and Eugene Lee also reprise their roles in the adaptation which presents four distinct viewpoints, while also navigating the unique dynamic of an interracial couple trying to raise a mixed-race son.
Dolemite Is My Name – directed by Craig Brewer
Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the film stars Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Snoop Dogg, Ron Cephas Jones, Barry Shabaka Henley, Tip ‘TI’ Harris, Luenell, Tasha Smith, and Wesley Snipes.
Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy) has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else. Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables. However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil. Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore’s Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era.
Waves – written and directed by Trey Edward Shults
Waves, written by Shults, is set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, and traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family— led by a well-intentioned but domineering father—as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss. The cast includes Emmy-winner Sterling K. Brown, Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Oscar-nominee Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell, and Euphoria’s Alexa Demie.
The future is bright for Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who seems to have everything he needs: a wealthy family to support him, a spot on the high-school wrestling team, and a girlfriend (Alexa Demie) he’s head over heels in love with. Committed to greatness and under intense scrutiny from his father (Sterling K. Brown), Tyler spends his mornings and nights training. But when pushed to the limit, cracks in the perfect façade of Tyler’s existence start to show, and the stage is set for a true American tragedy.
Synchronic – directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
When New Orleans paramedics and close friends Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) arrive on the scene for what seems like a typical overdose, they end up stumbling upon a bizarre plot that will take them down a most unexpected path.
The common denominator in a series of grisly, drug-related deaths is a synthetic narcotic known as synchronic, which has some extreme side effects that don’t just alter consciousness. When Dennis’ teenage daughter (Ally Ioannides) tries synchronic and goes missing, Steve, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, aims to discover the truth behind the killer drug and inadvertently sets off on a journey to find her — one that leaves him reckoning with his own identity. In what is either a bad trip or a breakthrough, Steve dives deeper and deeper, coming face to face with his place in history as well as the present.
Seberg – directed by Benedict Andrews
The political thriller “Seberg,”stars Kristen Stewart as Jean Seberg. The film co-stars Vince Vaughn, Jack O’Connell, Anthony Mackie, Margaret Qualley, Zazie Beetz, Cornelius Smith Jr., Tobias Truvillion, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root and Yvan Atta..
She made her screen debut at 18, playing Joan of Arc. By 21, she would be immortalized in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the film that launched the French New Wave. But Jean Seberg never quite took to stardom. She was restless. As the 1960s became more radicalized, so did she — to the extent that she became a person of interest for the FBI.
The film opens in May 1968. After years of living in Paris with her second husband, Romain Gary, Jean returns to Hollywood for solitude and work, but finds herself more engaged with the Black Panthers than Paint Your Wagon. Her support for the Black Power movement earns the notice of the Feds, who begin monitoring her every move, paying special attention to her affair with married activist Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie). Agent Jack Solomon (Jack O’Connell) is assigned to Jean’s file, but the more he immerses himself in her life, the more he empathizes with this woman whose privacy is slowly being destroyed.
Platform
Rocks – directed by Sarah Gavron
Rocks tells the story of a teenage girl who sees her foundation yanked out from under her, and must find help — and a new family — from her equally precarious friends.
Shola (Bukky Bakray), or Rocks, as she’s known, lives in a London council flat with her younger brother Emmanuel and their single mother. Mum is busy and stressed, leaving Rocks to spend all her free time with school friends. One day, she comes home to find her life radically altered: she is suddenly on her own with a child to take care of. Gavron could easily have steered Rocks into miserabilism, but delivers instead a surprising portrait of resilience. Rocks is mercurial, impulsive, and deeply sensitive — not unusual for her age, she sometimes makes desperately poor decisions, for what look to her like good reasons. When her closest friend Sumaya (Kosar Ali) tries to help, Rocks doesn’t know how to accept it, blinded by Sumaya’s two-parent household and relative comfort.
Masters
Zombi Child – directed by Bertrand Bonello
The film begins in 1962, and is based on the incredible real-life story of a Haitian man named Clairvius Narcisse (Mackenson Bijou), who suddenly falls dead on the street but is soon turned into a “zombi” when he is dug up from his grave and forced to work on a sugar-cane plantation.
Bonello then shifts to present-day France, and an elite boarding school for descendants of those who have been awarded the prestigious Legion of Honour. Here, a rebellious teen named Fanny (Louise Labèque) befriends one of the school’s newest students, Melissa (Wislanda Louimat), who moved to France when her parents died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. After recruiting her into a secret literary sorority, Fanny becomes obsessed with Melissa’s past and culture, and soon seeks out her voodoo mambo aunt to help solve her recent heartbreak.
Contemporary World Cinema
Atlantics – directed by Mati Diop
Atlantics landed in Cannes Competition this year and picked up the Jury Grand Prize, making Diop the first Black woman to win an award in the French festival’s 72-year history.
In Senegal’s bustling capital, Dakar, two young lovers sneak private moments with the urgency of youthful desire. Their gravitational pull towards each other is also based on knowing their time is limited, as Ada (newcomer Mama Sané) is soon to be wed to a wealthy but frivolous man. Meanwhile, Souleiman (first-time actor Ibrahima Traoré) hasn’t been paid for weeks and is forced to leave land for the sea in hopes of finding a better life. When he sets off, Ada is haunted by his memory and, then, perhaps more.
Flatland – directed by Jenna Bass
Following the murder of her husband, a young woman and her best friend flee across the South African Karoo, pursued by a police officer with demons of her own, in this neo-noir western feminist road movie grounded in the gender, racial, and class issues of contemporary South Africa.
The young mixed-race Natalie (Nicole Fortuin) is set to marry white policeman Bakkies (De Klerk Oelofse). When she soon ends up with blood on her hands, Natalie and her heavily pregnant Afrikaner best friend Poppie (Izel Bezuidenhout) flee on horseback for Johannesburg. Aided — but ultimately derailed — by a series of men, the pair must also evade the seasoned detective Beauty Cuba (Faith Baloyi), a Black woman battling demons from her own past.
Knuckle City – directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka
Opening in 1994, Knuckle City shifts between the childhood and adult lives of the sons (played as children by Inga Mtshizana and Elethu Mfombi) of legendary boxing champion turned gangster Art Nyakama (Zolisa Xaluva). Cut to 2019 and the boys have grown up to follow closely in the footsteps of their father.
Dudu (Bongile Mantsai) has become a womanizing professional boxer and Duke (Thembekile Komani) is now a career criminal, chasing money and thrills at every turn. But Dudu is about to age out before he’s had his chance at fame, and the fight promoters have a lot more faith in the young talent coming up behind him than they do in his comeback chances. With Duke set to be released after a three-year stint in prison, Dudu enlists the help of his brother’s criminal connections to try to get himself one last shot — but both end up with a much bigger fight than they bargained for.
One of South Africa’s most exciting and prolific new directors, Jahmil X.T. Qubeka returns to TIFF after Of Good Report (2013) and Sew the Winter to My Skin (2018).
Les Misérables – directed by Ladj Ly
When three cops of varying lawfulness cross paths with local toughs, the Montfermeil district of Paris violently descends into chaos in Ladj Ly’s Cannes Special Prize–winning debut feature.
Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, and Ly’s César-nominated short film of the same name, Les Misérables takes a provocative look into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police. It centers on Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who has recently joined the anti-crime brigade in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo set his classic novel Les Misérables. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga) — both experienced members of the team — he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When the trio finds themselves overrun during the course of an arrest, a drone captures the encounter, threatening to expose the reality of everyday life.
Our Lady of the Nile – directed by Atiq Rahimi
Set in 1973, this coming-of-age portrait follows a group of young Rwandan girls at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school, taking inspiration from true events that would come to foreshadow the 1994 genocide during the Rwandan Civil War. Many of the girls belong to elite families, while others hold less privilege; further division is sown by ballooning anti-Tutsi rhetoric under existing Hutu rule.
The cast includes Amanda Mugabekazi, Albina Kirenga, Malaika Uwamahoro, Clariella Bizimana, Belinda Rubango, and Pascal Greggory.
You Will Die At Twenty – directed by Amjad Abu Alala
The feature debut from Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala follows a child — portended to die at age 20 — as he and his mother navigate the unchartered space between coming of age and facing the end.
When searching for a blessing on the day of her firstborn child’s naming ceremony, Sakina (Islam Mubark) is instead given a curse.
A travelling sheik prophecies that her son, Muzamil (played first by Moatasem Rashid then as a teen by Mustafa Shehata), would die at the age of 20. In what is now a coming-of-death tale, a devastated Sakina is sentenced to mourn her son while he lives — an endeavour her husband could not stand to bear.
Growing up under the constant loom of death, Muzamil becomes increasingly curious about what it means to live beyond his mother’s confines.
Encouraged by local elders, the overprotective Sakina relents and allows her son to study the Quran with the other children his age. And in this newly found freedom, Muzamil finds friends, enemies, love, and tempters, though what he truly seeks is a sense of the present and a chance at the future.
Primetime
Briarpatch, starring Rosario Dawson.
The first two of Briarpatch‘s 10 episodes will world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 7, while the series itself will land on USA Network sometime in 2020.
Dawson stars as determined investigator Allegra Dill returning to her hometown to investigate the explosive murder of her sister. From mysterious deaths and corruption, to occasional car explosions and zoo animals on the loose, it’s a wild ride through the town of Saint Disgrace.
TIFF Cinematheque
A Dry White Season – directed by Euzhan Palcy
Palcy is notably the first black female director to be produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM), as well as being the only female filmmaker to have directed Marlon Brando, whom she urged out of retirement. She was also the first black person to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination.
A Dry White Season is Palcy’s adaptation of Afrikaner novelist André Brink’s tale of moral and political awakening in Apartheid-era Johannesburg. White, well-intentioned Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a South African–born schoolteacher forced to confront his privileged inertia after the brutal assault of his Black gardener’s son at the hands of white, government-backed authorities.
The cast includes Marlon Brando, Zakes Mokae, Jürgen Prochnow, Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon
Discovery
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson – directed by Ali LeRoi
A gay African American teenager is forced to relive, over and over again, the day he is shot and killed at the hands of the police, in Ali LeRoi’s feature debut.
Tunde Johnson departed this life 9:38pm, May 28th, 2020 at the hands of police officers in Los Angeles, California.
Perhaps the only fate worse than death is having to relive it more than once. Teenager Tunde Johnson (Steven Silver) becomes trapped in a bizarre time loop that has him experiencing his school day and horrific fate over and over again.
On the day of Tunde’s death — a number of events occurred: Tunde attended his film seminar, he visited his secret boyfriend Soren (Spencer Neville), and he found the strength to come out to his supportive parents. But high school is never easy: Soren isn’t ready to come out, and he’s “dating” Tunde’s best friend Marley (Nicola Peltz), making Tunde’s life as a gay Black man in America even harder — and more confusing — than it already is.
Sweetness In The Belly – directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
The immigrant romance drama sees Lilly Abdal (Fanning), “a woman caught between two places: one of her birth parents and the other, where she was adopted, raised and fell in love. Orphaned in Africa as a child, Lilly’s first experience of her parents’ homeland of England is as a refugee, escaping civil war.
As lost in this cold new world as her fellow immigrants, Lilly becomes the heart of this disenfranchised community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families. But as her friend Amina discovers, Lilly’s mission isn’t purely altruistic and a passionate lost love affair is revealed between Lilly and Aziz (Abdul-Mateen II), an idealistic doctor.”
The Lost Okoroshi – directed by Abba Makama
Haunted by dreams of an ancestral Okoroshi masquerade, a disillusioned security guard wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a mute, purple spirit, in Abba Makama’s surrealist romp through the sprawling city of Lagos.
The Lost Okoroshi follows Raymond (Seun Ajayi), a security guard whose main preoccupations are checking out women and figuring out how to escape the bustle of Lagos in favour of the more relaxed countryside. Despite, or maybe because of, his seeming averageness, he’s beset by surreal dreams where he’s haunted by a traditional Okoroshi masquerade (ancestral spirit).
One morning, Raymond wakes up to discover he’s been transformed into a purple spirit. Having lost his voice, he must navigate Lagos in this new form. His journey takes him across social milieux, to the club, and even into the world of a secret society bent on claiming the masquerade as their own.
TIFF Docs
The Capote Tapes – directed by Ebs Burnough
Answered Prayers was meant to be Truman Capote’s greatest masterpiece, an epic portrait of NYC’s glittering jet-set society. Instead, it sparked his downfall. Through never before heard audio archive and interviews with Capote’s friends and enemies, this intimate documentary reveals the rise and fall of America’s most iconic gay writer.
Ebs Burnough is the former White House deputy social secretary and senior advisor to Michelle Obama in brand strategy and strategic communications. He is now founder and president of EBSI, a marketing and communications firm. The Capote Tapes (19) is his directorial debut.
Paris Stalingrad – directed by Hind Meddeb
Documentarian Hind Meddeb takes her camera through the streets of the French capital’s Stalingrad district and meets many of the refugees struggling to make a home for themselves there, in this eye-opening exploration of the perils and perseverance that shape the migrant experience.
Paris is among the world’s top tourist destinations, known as the City of Light. But it’s also a destination for refugees fleeing poverty and persecution. During the summer of 2016, filmmaker Hind Meddeb and her co-director Thim Naccache trained their cameras on an area unseen by most tourists, the community of refugees sleeping on the streets in the district named Stalingrad.
Short Cuts
Four of the short films at the festivals are directed by women of color including Hiwot Admasu Getaneh, Karen Chapman, Zamo Mkhwanazi and Nicole Delaney
A FOOL GOD directed by Hiwot Admasu Getaneh
When young Mesi steps in for her squeamish brother to perform a traditional — male-only — ritual, she faces blame for the negative outcome. Instead, she defiantly questions the wisdom of her elders’ beliefs, in Hiwot Admasu Getaneh’s magical realist and gently irreverent drama.
MEASURE – directed by Karen Chapman, Canada
A nine-year-old boy gets suspended from school and embarks on a journey through the streets of Toronto — before returning home to face his mother — in Karen Chapman’s exploration of childhood, loss, and responsibility.
SADLA – directed by Zamo Mkhwanazi, South Africa
A teen boy runs errands while being followed by various figures of authority. As he shares his experience with friends, this tense and controlled drama deftly explores the cyclical effects of victimization on the wider community.
THIRSTY directed by Nicole Delaney, USA
A mosquito — hilariously voiced by Maya Rudolph — drinks the blood of a newly single and broken-hearted man and promptly falls in love with him, in Nicole Delaney’s fantastical comedy about being unconditionally accepted by those who we desire, no matter the species.
Midnight Madness
Crazy World – directed by IGG Nabwana
In the latest from Uganda’s gonzo action auteur IGG Nabwana, a gang of child-snatching mobsters make a fatal mistake when they kidnap the Waka Stars, a team of pint-sized kung-fu masters who soon turn their cunning wits and deadly skills upon their captors.
Crazy World opens with the notorious Tiger Mafia (a frequent Wakaliwood antagonist) embarking on a child-abduction spree. Intending to sacrifice children in a misguided belief that their blood contains magical properties, the criminals make a crucial mistake when they snatch the WAKA STARS, Uganda’s pint-sized kung-fu masters. Before long, these badass brats start applying their martial-arts prowess and cunning wits to escape their captors, while their desperate parents commence a rescue/revenge mission of their own.
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