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Saturday, June 13
2:45 PM - 4:30 PM

Regal Gallery Place

701 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

for all screenings

True North

Film Languages

French, English

Director

Michèle Stephenson

Producer

Leslie Norville

Editors

Sarah Enid Hagey, Shannon Kennedy

Co-Editors

Shannon Kennedy, Sarah Enid Hagey

Cinematographer

Stephen Chung

Composer

Andy Milne

Contact

Leslie Norville studio112info@gmail.com

Set against the backdrop of 1960s Montreal, TRUE NORTH unearths two pivotal but underrecognized events, the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair, positioning the city as a powerful nexus in the global Black liberation movement. Through never-before-seen archival footage and intimate first-person testimonies, the film revisits a charged era of resistance, when Black students and activists challenged institutional racism, sparking reverberations across the globe.

Taking a hemispheric view of Black resistance, TRUE NORTH connects threads from the Caribbean, Canada, and the U.S., tracing the shared legacies of colonialism and state oppression. At the heart of the film are the voices of elders who lived through this period and whose contributions have largely gone unrecognized. Their stories ground the film’s narrative, offering a rare and poignant perspective on the era. Through their lens, the film becomes both an act of remembrance and a call to action for new generations.

Visually striking and emotionally resonant, TRUE NORTH is a love letter to 1960s Montreal and a radical reimagining of its place in history. With its bold artistic approach and commitment to truth-telling, the film invites audiences into an immersive experience that is as relevant now as it was revolutionary then.

Content Warning: This film contains discussions of racism and includes the use of racial slurs, including the n-word, in historical and contextual settings. These references are presented to accurately reflect lived experiences and documented events. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Michèle Stephenson

Director, True North

Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, artist, and author Michèle Stephenson draws on her Haitian and Panamanian heritage to transform nonfiction storytelling. Through a Black Atlantic lens, she reimagines narratives of resistance and healing, weaving fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms that center the Black Radical tradition and the lived experiences of the Black diaspora.

Her nonfiction films GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT and BLACK GIRLS PLAY: THE STORY OF HAND GAMES were both Oscar-shortlisted, with GOING TO MARS winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, and BLACK GIRLS PLAY receiving the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video.

Her body of work also includes THE CHANGING SAME, a magical realist VR installation that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Showcase and won Tribeca’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative, among other honors. Her newest work, TRUE NORTH: A MOVEMENT IN FIVE PARTS, is a creative nonfiction feature exploring the history of the Black liberation movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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