By Jericho Tadeo

As the Reelworld Film Festival celebrates the 21st year of its mission to change the face of the industry, a familiar visage is in the lineup for the hybrid online and in-person event running today (Oct. 20) to Oct. 27 from Toronto.

The fest’s 2014 Trailblazer Award winner Roy T. Anderson – a stuntman and filmmaker who launched his career in the city – is back with a new 85-minute docu-drama of Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey screening among 13 features, four shorts and 21 panels or Q&A sessions. The latter discussions, including Garvey’s chat with industry program manager Safia Abdigir on Oct. 25, will delve into Indigenous issues and climate action, race theory, Black history and education in Canada, and queerness and religion.

“We’ve come full-circle,” director/producer Anderson tells Playback Daily, in the anticipation of Ontario in-person premiere of African Redemption: The Life and Legacy of Marcus Garvey — founder of the United Negro Improvement Association which had 15 branches across Canada. Anderson wrote, directed, edited and produced under the Black Star line Films banner he founded with his wife Alison Anderson. (Black Star is also the name of the transatlantic shipping line Garvey founded in 1919.) A series of fundraisers, which began in Toronto, helped pay for the passion project.

The significance of being a Black director and making a film about an iconic but controversial Black figure in history isn’t lost on Anderson, particularly at a time when the film industry is seeing a cultural shift of equitable representation both in front of and behind the camera. “It’s a powerful symbol,” he says. “There are so many untold stories out there. And I would say to folks ‘think about the impossible as possible.’ “

The producer of two award-winning documentaries: Akwantu: The Journey (2012), and Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (2015), Anderson says the film’s development was a long journey. The idea of African Redemption began with a conversation between Anderson and Garvey’s son Dr. Julius Garvey who had seen Anderson’s directorial debut, “and on the strength of that, he contacted me and said, ‘Hey, listen, there’s a project that I’d like to get done and it’s about my father.’ ”

However, Anderson was wrapping up his second documentary and had to decline. “I said to Dr. Garvey: ‘I wish you luck, but I can’t do it.'”

Still, Garvey waited. A couple of years later, Anderson met with Garvey again, and the groundwork was laid the chronicle of the life and social impact of the civil rights activist. Shot in six countries from Jamaica to Ghana, with a stop in Nova Scotia, the film juxtaposes live-action sequences with photos and interviews with renowned world leaders, scholars and personalities. It is narrated by Emmy-winning actor Keith David  (a “consummate professional,” according to Anderson).

The film became deeply personal for Anderson during production. “Initially, I was going to trace the history of Marcus Garvey through [Julius]. But it didn’t turn out that way. I ended up being the main driver for this documentary.” African Redemption thematically completes the mission of spotlighting untold pieces of Black history that Anderson started with Akwantu and Queen Nanny and, in fact, related to the filmmaker’s own Jamaican ancestry.

Anderson’s aim was “to vindicate the legacy” of Garvey who dedicated his  life “to show that, from Africa, there was this glorious and rich history, which was something that was beaten out of African-Americans in the United States.” He adds he hopes audiences will be entertained by the film, but “most importantly, I hope they’ll be empowered.”