True North
- Director:
- Michèle Stephenson
- Producer(s):
- Leslie Norville
- Footage Archive Researcher:
- João Vitor Corrêa / Jalana Lewis / Stefanie McCarrol / Valérie Lessard / Ayan Tani
- Footage Archive Producer:
- Juan Bello
- Archival Sources:
- National Film Board of Canada / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation / Archives Radio-Canada / Bell Media / British Pathé
- Production Company:
- Studio 112 Inc. / Revolution Remix LLC
- Country of Production:
- Canada / United States
- Original Release:
- 2025
Synopsis
Set against 1960s Montreal, TRUE NORTH uncovers two pivotal yet underrecognized events the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair, revealing the city as a crucial nexus in the global Black liberation movement. Drawing on never-before-seen archival footage and intimate first-person testimonies, the film revisits a charged era of resistance, when Black students and activists confronted institutional racism and sparked reverberations far beyond Canada.
Taking a hemispheric view of Black resistance, TRUE NORTH connects struggles across the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States, tracing shared legacies of colonialism, migration, and state violence. At its core are the voices of elders who lived this history and whose contributions have too often been erased. Their stories ground the film with clarity and urgency, offering a rare, lived perspective on a transformative moment.
Visually striking and emotionally resonant, TRUE NORTH is both a love letter to 1960s Montreal and a radical reimagining of its place in history. Through bold artistry and rigorous truth-telling, the film becomes an act of remembrance and a call to action, inviting new generations into an immersive experience whose lessons remain urgent, alive, and unfinished. It repositions Montreal as central, not peripheral, to Black internationalist histories.
