Race Film Project

Minutes from October 8, 2009

Attending: Sherene, Carl, Rinaldo, Judith, Yasmin, Jennifer

NFB Project on Whiteness

• Jennifer reported on two conversations with Ashifa Kassam of the NFB, who is working
on a proposal for the NFB for a film on whiteness
• Rinaldo and Sherene have also had conversations with Ashifa
• Ashifa interested in coming to our meetings; decided at this point that we will not invite
her
• Jennifer will keep in touch to see what happens with whiteness project

Project Team
• Jennifer was in touch with Bonita Lawrence, who opted not to be involved at this point;
and with Richard Fung, who asked about who will direct the film and who has not
responded with a definite answer
• individuals we might ask to participate on project, affiliation/location, and who will
follow-up
• Christine Welsh, Victoria, Jennifer
• Susan Dionne, York, Carl
• Roland Chrisjohn, New Brunswick, Jennifer
• Audrey Huntley, Toronto, Sherene (?)
• Shani Mootoo, Toronto, Jennifer
• Addison Duke, ?, Rinaldo
• Loretta Todd, Saskatoon, ?
• per a question asked at the last meeting, we discussed what each of us bring to the project
• Jennifer–commitment to see the project through; working on issues of race and pedagogy
for last several years
• Judith–relatively new to teaching about race; has questions about teaching this material;
has knowledge about NFB from several years ago
• Yasmin–talked about aspect of us as instructors watching films; we might want to start
with what we don’t want to see in films; need for focus on structural issues, rather than
individual (testimonies, etc.)
• Sherene–expertise on race issues, but not on film
• Rinaldo–shows lots of films in courses; he knows what he likes and thinks about how
films work; made example of seeing film Litany of Survival about Audre Lorde; has a
commitment to film and critically engaging in film; wants to construct a persuasive
narrative of some kind; wants to critically engage lives of Black people; to think about
how narratives work in Canadian nation state; how do people support categories that are
problematic–to begin to think about the “complicatedness of that”
• Carl–likes the idea of going beyond testimonials; teaches and in this sense is invested in
the psychology of things, the individual; is possible to go places with film you might not
go otherwise; the ways in which we bring different stories
RACE FILM PROJECT , OCT . 8 MEETING MINUTES 2

Content and Format of Film

• brief discussion of Harper’s comment that Canada has “no history of colonialism”–one
way to open film
• might be useful to amass critical work that addresses these issues
• one film that addresses race is Slaying the Dragon–this film does not get sucked into
individual narratives
• any filmmaker with whom we work will need examples
• how do we want to approach–how do we bring intersecting hierarchies in in a way that is
tangible and intelligible
• the issue of what people do with film is a question–people are not necessarily schooled in
terms of how to learn from film
• montage approach vs. personal narrative approach–latter often sets up victim vs.
oppressor frame
• montage offers point of repetition; if structured correctly, through montage, ideology can
come forward
• important to think about in what context film will be shown; what may appear stilted in
one setting may seem naturalized in another
• difficulty of montage approach related to copyright issues
• when filmmakers use montage approach, often have a strong theoretical vision
• Rinaldo considered what book he would like to see as a film, and thought about Said’s
Culture and Imperialism
• film not a neutral medium; can exercise its own power
• worth considering what “straight up” documentaries do and don’t do

Funding Issues/Questions
• possibility of Maytree Foundation–Rinaldo sits on this foundation’s steering committee
for their diversity project; they seem to talk about immigration and diversity without
talking about race
• SSHRC workshop grant–worth going for; could also make application stronger by
inviting student filmmakers (Yasmin mentioned Arshad Khan (Threadbare), Concordia,
Film Studies)
• if we do pursue a SSHRC workshop grant, a lot of work–worth planning on having the
meeting anyway (whether or not we get the grant)
• possible to do this on smaller scale (rather than large scale), related to the amount of work
and odds of getting the grant
• also discussed the possibility of a formal/extended discussion of race and film in Canada
at the next RACE conference
• the next RACE conference is in May (before Congress) in Edmonton
• Yasmin and Sherene will bring up the possibility of a focus on race for the RACE
meeting after the one in Edmonton; the 2011 RACE conference will be in Vancouver
• brief discussion about issue at Congress related to equity panels; probably not the best
venue
• MCRI–might be worth checking out the second project noted on the funding possibilities
RACE FILM PROJECT , OCT . 8 MEETING MINUTES 3

chart (title: Improvisation, community, and social practice)–P.I.–Ajay Heble, Guelph

• also might consider CURA, which requires a seven page letter of intent and the entire
budget up front
• both MCRI and CURA applications have very detailed requirements in terms of team,
etc.
• might check out U.S. foundations that have funded or might fund films (Spencer, Ford,
funder of Race Power of an Illusion, etc.)–Jennifer will follow up on this

Potential Questions/Discussion Points for Blog

• list of films with some way of summarizing/evaluating
• workshop/conference–who might attend, content, format, etc.
• discussion of MCRI, CURA
• content questions that are summarized above
• who our target audience is

Next Steps
• Jennifer and Judith will work on setting up the blog
• follow-up with potential project participants
• Christine Welsh, Victoria, Jennifer
• Susan Dionne, York, Carl
• Roland Chrisjohn, New Brunswick, Jennifer
• Audrey Huntley, Toronto, Sherene (?)
• Shani Mootoo, Toronto, Jennifer
• Addison Duke, ?, Rinaldo
• Loretta Todd, Saskatoon, ?
• Sherene and Yasmin will bring question about RACE conference to board
• Jennifer will check out possible U.S. foundations
• general agreement that the next meeting should be driven by grant deadline and activities

[reminder for Jennifer–Sherene on sabbatical winter 2010; Rinaldo possibly on leave Jan 2010 to
end of May 2010]