TORONTO — A documentary series challenging problematic beliefs about Canada’s Black history and another centring the life experience of 11 First Nations in Quebec are among the latest additionsto the Toronto International Film Festival lineup.
The projects are among the nine television series screening as part of TIFF's Primetime program.
CBC’s “Black Life: Untold Stories" from showrunner Leslie Norville,is a reframing of Black history with Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder Sandy Hudson and former pro hockey player P.K. Subban among those attached as producers.
Meanwhile, Abenaki writer and directorKim O'Bomsawin looks to decolonize old ideas with four-part CBC series “Telling Our Story,” with a primarily Indigenous production team.
Other announced Canadian series include the Crave comedy "Bria Mack Gets A Life,” about a 25-year-old Black womannavigating a white world, created and co-directed by Sasha Leigh Henry.
Among the notable international projects is Netflix's “All the Light We Cannot See," based on the 2014 Second World War novel and co-created by Steven Knight and Canadian Shawn Levy. The cast includes Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie.
There's also "Expats," Lulu Wang’s followup to "The Farewell" starring Nicole Kidman as an expat in Hong Kong, as well as "Bad Boy," an Israeli series about a teen sent to a juvenile detention facility. The "Bad Boy" creative team includes Ron Leshem, who created the Israeli mini-series that inspired HBO’s "Euphoria."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2023.
The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version erroneously stated Leslie Norville is a director on “Black Life: Untold Stories." In fact, she is the showrunner.
