Film screening: "Speakers for the Dead"
This is an in-person event
July 31, 2024
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Third floor program room
Registration is closed.
Event overview
July 31, 2024
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
In honour of Emancipation Day (August 1, 1834, the day that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire), join us for a screening of the documentary Speakers for the Dead (2000 | 49 minutes).
This documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments — including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate — add to the film's emotional intensity.
This work deals with mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.
Registration is recommended, but drop-ins will be allowed if space permits.
Questions? Email info@nvcl.ca or call 604-998-3450.
Registration is closed.