Black Bodies (film)

Black Bodies
Film poster
Directed byKelly Fyffe-Marshall
Written byKelly Fyffe-Marshall
Produced byTamar Bird
Sasha Leigh Henry
StarringDonisha Prendergast
Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan
CinematographyJordan Oram
Production
company
Sunflower Studios
Release date
  • September 11, 2020 (2020-09-11) (TIFF)
Running time
5 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Black Bodies is a 2020 Canadian short film, directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, and produced by Tamar Bird and Sasha Leigh Henry.[1] Inspired by a real-life incident when Fyffe-Marshall, Komi Olaf and Donisha Prendergast were travelling in California, and a woman in the neighbourhood called the police on them because she wrongly believed they were burglarizing their Airbnb rental, the film features Olaf and Prendergast performing spoken word pieces about the trauma of being victimized by anti-Black racism.[2]

The film premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival,[3] where Fyffe-Marshall was named the winner of the inaugural Changemaker Award.[4]

The film was named to TIFF's year-end Canada's Top Ten list for short films.[5] Fyffe-Marshall was subsequently awarded the Jay Scott Prize by the Toronto Film Critics Association.[6]

The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards.[7]

The film has been released to digital platforms as a bonus feature accompanying Charles Officer's feature film Akilla's Escape.[8]

  1. ^ Andrew Parker, "A Look at Short Cuts Programme 02 | TIFF 2020". TheGATE.ca, September 11, 2020.
  2. ^ Marivel Taruc, "Toronto filmmaker creates account of what it means to be Black in 2020". CBC News, September 11, 2020.
  3. ^ Jeremy Kay, "TIFF adds special events including new edition of Planet Africa, live talks series". Screen Daily, August 25, 2020.
  4. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter, September 20, 2020.
  5. ^ Victoria Ahearn, "Toronto International Film Festival releases Top Ten lists for 2020" Archived 2021-01-04 at the Wayback Machine. Squamish Chief, December 9, 2020.
  6. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' Named Best Picture by Toronto Film Critics Association". The Hollywood Reporter, February 7, 2021.
  7. ^ Naman Ramachandran, "‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Blood Quantum’ Triumph at Canadian Screen Awards". Variety, May 21, 2021.
  8. ^ Victoria Ahearn, "‘Black Bodies’ director Kelly Fyffe-Marshall making ‘ripples’ in Canadian film and TV". Toronto Star, July 7, 2021.