Open events

This session, in collaboration with The Film and Media Studies Association of Canada (FMSAC), aims to bring together two award-winning Black Canadian filmmakers to engage in a discussion about their work in conversation with the Black Canadian Studies Association's theme, 'Nah'. These two filmmakers' contributions have significantly widened the Black Canadian experience. Their presence at our annual meeting as keynote speakers in conversation will be a crucial and exciting discussion at a time when narratives about Blackness, representation, and creative expression have never been so front and centre in the Canadian discourse. Our conference committee has chosen the exclamation ‘Nah’ as an expression, response, and exhortation of Black refusals. As a colloquial use of language, this event aims to push the boundaries of how we contend with reckonings and re-imaginings at Congress 2023 in a cultural context where Blackness remains ignored, challenged, and in some cases, diminished by pervasive anti-Blackness, both in formal and informal settings. Through imaginative articulations of ‘Nah’ this BCSA-FMSAC event aims to delve into and depart from past/ongoing practices that precipitate the need for such refusals. This keynote will extend the conference theme while exploring questions about the current state of Black filmmaking in Canada, and its continued links with Black Canadian scholarship.