What We Do

The Black Screen Office (BSO) works independently and in collaboration with screen industry decision-makers and creators to make Canada’s screen industries equitable and free of anti-Black racism. Through ground-breaking research, innovative workforce initiatives and education and advocacy, the BSO creates and supports opportunities for Black Canadians to have thriving careers in the screen industries and to share their onscreen stories globally.

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Kanaval

Kanaval is the story of one young boy’s journey from a small port town on the coast of Haiti in 1975, during the town’s celebrations of carnival, before a traumatic event forces him and his mother to flee to Quebec.

Official Selection, 2023 Toronto International Film Festival

Latest News

Read expert commentary on authentic content and learn about industry developments affecting Black Canadians.

BSO Gallery

The Black Screen Office participates in a number of events related to and in support of Canada’s film industry. Browse our photo galleries to live these events through images.

Contact Black Screen Office

Please get in touch for opportunities to work together, partner together, volunteer, or learn more. Volunteer opportunities include advocacy, policy, research, social engagement, fundraising, and more.

Celebrate

The Black Screen Office presents “My First Break,” a virtual campaign featuring profiles, interviews, and live discussions acknowledging the work of experienced and emerging talent within the screen industries. Every role big or small shines bright and we are here to reflect it to the world.

Whether at an emerging or senior level, we’ve all had our first break that gave us the encouragement to pursue a career in the screen industries. In that way, we are all the same.

Join us, as we help to share the story of several Black Canadians working within the screen industry.

Supporters

Rogers Group of Funds
Telefilm Canada
Canada Media Fund
RBC Foundation
Inspirit Foundation
TD Ready Commitment
Canadian Heritage
Canadian Media Producers Association
Black Business Initiative
Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Creative BC
Ontario Creates
MPA Canada
CBC
Bell Fund
Indigenous Screen Office

Land Acknowledgement

We would like to honour the land that we are on, which has been the site of human activity since time immemorial. The Black Screen Office HQ is located on the traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, Anishinabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and most recently, The Mississaugas of the Credit River First Nations

Ontario is covered by 46 treaties and other agreements, and is home to many Indigenous Nations from across Turtle Island, including the Inuit and the Metis. These treaties and other agreements, including the One Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, are agreements to peaceably share and care for the land and its resources. Other Indigenous Nations, Europeans, and newcomers, were invited into this covenant in the spirit of respect, peace, and friendship. 

We are mindful of broken covenants and we strive to make this right, with the land and with each other. 

We are all Treaty people. Many of us, have come here as settlers, immigrants, newcomers in this generation or generations past. We would like to also acknowledge those of us who came here forcibly, particularly as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Therefore, we honour and pay tribute to the ancestors of African Origin and Descent