A film festival turns a well-timed spotlight on black voices in cinema

If ever there was a year for black voices in cinema to be heard loud and clear, it is 2020. This is the year the Black Lives Matter movement has gathered momentum in the United States following a series of incidents where African Americans have been the victims of police brutality. Protests, demonstrations — and sometimes, violent rioting and looting — have dominated headlines even through the Covid-19 pandemic.

As North America’s biggest film festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF, was in the right place at the right time to shine a spotlight on the community. As Cameron