First Fundraiser for Documentary Film About Marcus Garvey Held in Toronto

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Filmmaker, Roy T. Anderson and co-producer, Alison Anderson of Black Star Line Films who are working on the documentary film, "Marcus Garvey: The Untold Story."

The creators of the documentary film, “Marcus Garvey: The Untold Story,” have travelled to six countries and interviewed more than seventy-five people, with a few more remaining.

They need  $75,000 to complete the 90-minute feature-length film about Jamaica’s first national hero, Pan Africanist icon and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Roy T. Anderson, director, writer and producer, and wife, Alison Anderson, co-producer of Black Star Line Films travelled from their home in New Jersey to hold the first in a series of fundraising events for the film in Toronto.

The next fundraiser will be in either Harlem or Buffalo, New York on the weekend of August 18 to celebrate the Pan Africanist’s birthday.

Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica and died in London, UK on June 10, 1940.

“We’ve finished pretty much all of our interviews but I have three or four key interviews left,” Roy says, which include Chuck D of Public Enemy; Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters; and hopefully reggae singer, Chronixx, and one other in Jamaica.

Once these are done, he will concentrate on filming dramatizations and re-enactments that will help “to tell the story in a more meaningful way. Rather than just the still images on set, you’ll see moving images which I think is much more dynamic and hard-hitting.”

Anderson has a producer partner in Jamaica, Natalie Thompson, who is trying to secure funding locally for that; the other dramatization will take place in the US, a unique scene which involves the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Garvey met with one of its leaders so Anderson decided to include that encounter to provide context and advance the story.

Natasha Henry, president of the Ontario Black History Society and a historian, said it is crucial to document, preserve and share the long, rich history of Blacks in Canada.

“The history of Marcus Garvey in Canada, which links us to a wider global community, has much more to be unearthed.”

She noted that there were fifteen UNIA branches across Canada, including one in Toronto at 355 College Street.

“These spaces were important in nurturing Black intellectual thought, social and political activism, and rich Black cultural traditions.  Canada has an integral legacy in the Garvey movement that needs to be captured in this groundbreaking film project.”

The historian said after his 1927 deportation from the US, Garvey came to visit Canada through Montreal.

Though Canadian immigration banned him from speaking in public and ordered him deported back to Jamaica, until then they allowed him to visit Toronto where he received a big welcome at Union station. He was deported on November 7, 1928.

Garvey returned to Canada in 1936 using it as the UNIA headquarters until 1938.

 “Canada played an important role in keeping Garvey’s ideas on the international stage,” said Henry.

She noted that Garvey delivered speeches in cities like Windsor and St. Catharines and that “his most popularized words “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery” were spoken in Nova Scotia in 1937 and memorialized by Bob Marley in ‘Redemption Song.’”

The educator said one of the core tenets of Garvey’s philosophy was to advance the conditions of Africans by increasing racial pride and fostering a collective African memory that could only be accomplished through education.

“This film makes a major contribution to educating Black people, most importantly our children, sharing Garvey’s impact that spans just over 100 years.”

Anderson, a Hollywood stuntman, has directed, written and produced two earlier films, “Akwantu: the Journey” and “Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess.”

He described the work that he does with Alison as a labour of love because the films are self-funded and “are our children.”

“I can’t do this by myself so I’m reaching out,” said Anderson, noting that the project has the support of Dr. Julius Garvey, younger son of the celebrated Pan Africanist, who is featured in the film.

His goal is to complete the film by 2019 and to present it at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Narrated by legendary Emmy Award-winning actor, Keith David, the film will feature interviews and commentary from renowned leaders, scholars, and other prominent personalities such as: Dr. Garvey, actor Danny Glover, singer David Hinds (Steel Pulse); radio personality and dub poet, Mutabaruka; former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga; former United States Congressman, Charles Rangel; Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah; leading Garvey scholar, Professor Rupert Lewis; and white supremacist leader, Jared Taylor.

Anderson also interviewed Torontonians: Betty Clarke whose mother ran a bed and breakfast where Marcus Garvey stayed for several weeks in the summer of 1937; Canada’s first native-born Black judge, George Carter, 97, who was 16 when Garvey visited his church; entrepreneur and former owner of Flow 93.5 FM, Denham Jolly (whose memoir, In The Black, references Violet Williams, Garvey’s secretary in Toronto who rented Jolly a place in the 195Os); and Itah Sadu, owner of A Different Booklist.

"Marcus Garvey: The Untold Story" was also filmed in parts of Nova Scotia (Halifax, Glace Bay, Sydney, New Waterford) and Anderson interviewed several people such as: Theresa Brewster, chairperson for the Glace Bay UNIA Museum; John Tatrie, author, Redemption Song; MLA Tony Ince, Minister of African Nova Scotia Affairs. 

Garvey is much loved in that province. The filmmaker spoke with many folks about Garvey's historic speech in October 1937 that inspired Bob Marley's Redemption Song. 

[An edited version of this story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, June 7-13, 2018.]