The American documentary filmmaker Michéle Stephenson is one of the most exciting directors in the non-fiction community. Usually collaborating with her husband, Joe Brewster, the duo studies the Black American experience in their films. In 2023, they delivered an impressive pair of projects: the feature Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and the short film Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games. Premiering the works in two crucial American film festivals, the first debuted at Sundance and the latter at Tribeca, the couple analyzed the Black experience in the United States in two different aspects. Hence, their filmography explores the story of the African diaspora in North America, also examining the background of Afro-Caribbean communities. However, in 2025, Stephenson released a solo project, True North, which continues her thematic interest but amplifies it to the neighboring country, Canada.
The director returns to the 1960s, an era of profound Apartheid in the American South, but presents a surprising intermingling of races in the Canadian territory. In one of the interviews, the subject narrates his memories of collective activities in the community centers, where Black and White youth groups would have fun by dancing the steps of Doo-Wop and R&B. Yet, his shock comes when a white friend of his tells him that he cannot come to his house, because a relative is visiting and hates Black people. At that moment, the subject becomes aware of the racial differences between the two central countries in North America. However, despite a peaceful living in the urban centers, the Doo-Wop would occur in the Toronto halls, Black immigrants would suffer with poor conditions in their houses in Nova Scotia. The lack of an appropriate heating system in the residences would expose them to the country’s severe winter, constituting a microaggression against that population.
Unlike her other work with her husband, True North features an unprecedented lyricism in her filmography. There are breaks between the conventional interviews and the exposition of her thesis. Meanwhile, the Black and White become prominent through the imagery of slave boats cruising the oceans, representing the transportation of the Black population from the African continent to the Americas. It has a particular sorrow in that black and white static of a boat sailing through the seas, silently nodding to the centuries of exploitation in the Slavery trade. It juxtaposes with the regard for Haitian immigrants, that is, the ethnic background of the director. Hence, it is a point of connection between her other films, such as Elena, which narrates the genocide of Haitians. The director returns to the genocidal discussion, particularly because her latest project portrays the veiled racism in Canada, a progressive country, but that hides a colonial, violent history with its indigenous populations.
Although it brings a distinctive lyric to her style, the film has a troubled structure. The central event, the 1969 Black protest at Concordia University in Montreal, solely appears in the one-hour mark of the project. Considered the main discussion of the film, the point is developed at length, which arguably takes too long to reach. Therefore, despite presenting a fascinating narrative of that protest in Canada, it lacks the engagement needed to engage with the rest of the film. Likewise, although it lacks direct citation, the narrated event reflects the overall atmosphere of the political environment at the end of the 1960s. The Black Panther movement in the United States would organize what the Canadian Black groups would practice on a minor scale. Thus, the radicalization of new students would occur on campus, urging the uniting of Black individuals and showcasing the organization’s communal benefits. Yet, the culmination of this political organizing lacks the energy to have a broader impact, particularly because Stephenson focuses on individual interviews, aiming to paint an overall canvas of the African diaspora across different Canadian provinces in the 1960s.
Finally, the latest work by Michéle Stephenson is slightly different from her other works, such as Going to Mars and Black Girls Play, which were more commercial documentaries about the Black experience. Thus, True North impresses for the lyrical beauty, demonstrating the director’s attempt to expand her visual storytelling. Nonetheless, it drags too much of the individual interviews, which are the central focus of the filmmaker, and the paramount event she approaches gets rushed. Still, it is a fascinating study on the racial history of Canada and its differences from the well-known racism in the United States.
True North is now streaming.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch, at the TIFF site for the title.
You might also like…
