Toronto/CMEDIA: ‘For Viola’ screening series to Hot Docs after its temporary summer closure would reportedly return to Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Welcoming audiences on October 18 at 7 pm at the cinema for a free screening of the Canadian Documentary ‘We Will Be Brave,’ directed by D Chrisann Hessingan, follows the journey of Toronto’s Good Guise, a collective committed to sparking conversations around healthy masculinity through art.
Named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond For Viola’s Hot Docs’ screening series centring Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led stories and filmmakers seeks to affirm Hot Docs as a space of inclusion for BIPOC creators and audience members alike.
Supported by the Donner Canadian Foundation, all screenings in For Viola’s series are free of charge to facilitate in minimizing barriers to audience participation.
A recipient of the Hot Docs CrossCurrents Doc Fund ‘We Will Be Brave’ is the debut feature of Toronto-based documentarian Chrisann Hessing.
Delving into Black and POC men’s mental health in a way that is honest, vulnerable, timely seen on screen, the film follows the journey of Toronto’s racialized men including Black, brown, Latinx, cis, trans, queer, who are committed to sparking conversations around healthy masculinity through art.
Welcoming others to join in their mission in search for alternatives to shame and punishment, the artists in the collective share their unique lived experiences about photography and beatboxing to poetry and martial arts.
Intertwined with revelations about the unique mental health challenges faced by men of colour, who are often villainized in these conversations, the masculinity‘s true meaning and re-evaluations are explored
While exploring questions of fatherhood and father figures for men of colour, this intimate local story proceeds in a way that doesn’t hide the rough edges and also refuses to downplay the tenderness that is present.
A story about personal evolution, healing and an unlikely brotherhood forged in vulnerability, each of the subjects in ‘We Will Be Brave’ grapples with resolving the upheavals in their personal lives against a lack of resources and the burden of racialized discrimination.
Followed by an insightful conversation with the film’s director, Chrisann Hessing, and founding member of the Good Guise collective, Julian Diego the screening will be moderated by S-Quire Johnson, a multi-disciplinary artist and co-founder of The ANKOBEA Fatherhood Initiative.
Being presented free of charge, this screening’s audience members are invited to make a donation of $10 in honour of Viola Desmond, featured on the $10 banknote, at checkout to recognize the value of the work presented. Half the proceeds will be shared directly with the filmmakers, who also receive screening fees.
For more information and tickets, visit http://go.pardot.com/e/463832/s-on-films-fv-we-will-be-brave/l4dbm/710691729/h/kPd5a10cNTQ4_INpTkd82lc5wyVBHBe5EdeTC72G-N0
