From Melanie Patten of the Province:
‘Book of Negroes’ miniseries debuting Wednesday a saga of slavery and homecoming
Actress Aunjanue Ellis couldn’t let go of “The Book of Negroes” after she had read the final words of Lawrence Hill’s bestselling saga of slavery, segregation and redemption. Continue reading.
From Brian Bethune of Maclean’s Magazine:
Blood and belonging in the Book of Negroes
For a historical artifact essentially forgotten for more than two centuries, the Book of Negroes has taken on a remarkable contemporary life since it inspired Lawrence Hill’s award-winning and much-loved novel of the same name in 2007. Even its very title became a bone of politically charged contention. Now, both document and novel resonate more than ever, during yet another fraught period in American race relations, as Hill’s epic tale of freedom for some and slavery for others comes to TV in an exquisite six-part series showing on CBC in Canada and Black Entertainment Television in the United States. Continue reading.
Lost Girl, “It’s Your Lucky Fae,” Showcase
When an oracle goes missing, Bo poses undercover on a Fae dating website to lure the suspect.
Pirate’s Passage, CBC
Set in 1952 Grey Rocks, Nova Scotia — a centuries old town that was famous 250 years ago as a favoured port of pirates –Â PIRATE’S PASSAGEÂ follows the story of 12-year-old Jim. Fraught by the death of his father and forced to endure schoolyard bullying each day, Jim manages to carry on, buoyed by his optimistic imagination and fueled by his sense of adventure. His widowed mother struggles to keep their livelihood, the Admiral Anson Inn, from being sold. It is an ongoing battle until the sudden arrival of Captain Johnson, whose small sailboat has been thrown off course by a storm, changes the family’s life.
There’s no better way to learn about history than to be immersed in it. Literally. That’s what young Jim learns when Captain Charles Johnson sails into his life in Pirate’s Passage.
Based on the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning novel of the same name by William Gilkerson of Mahone Bay, N.S., CBC’s Sunday night animated TV-movie was produced, co-written and voiced by Donald Sutherland. Sutherland and Brad Peyton (Republic of Doyle) have weaved an entertaining story and, paired with exceptional animation from Sheridan College grads Jamie Gallant and Mike Barth, created one heck of a good time. (Check out the teaser below.)
Sutherland voices Captain Charles Johnson, a scallywag who magically jumps from the 18th century to 1952 Grey Rocks, N.S., where he sails ashore and befriends 12-year-old Jim (Gage Munroe, PAW Patrol). Jim has been assigned a school project on pirates, so Capt. Johnson’s arrival is fortuitous. Jim learns first-hand about pirates through the old codger’s stories, detailed adventures that not only entertain Jim (and viewers) but also educate via a stop amid the Vikings and a visit with Calico Jack (Paul Gross, Slings & Arrows). (Jim does, after all, have to learn enough to win over his teacher.) He’s also educated in how to handle bullies. Jim’s mother, Kerstin (Carrie-Anne Moss), learns that too; she’s battling with the town’s most powerful man, Roy Moehner (Kim Coates, Sons of Anarchy), who wants to buy her ramshackle inn and turn it into a luxury location.
Other Canadian actors voicing characters in Pirate’s Passage include Gordon Pinsent as the town barber, Megan Follows as saucy Meg O’Leary and Colm Feore as Jim’s father.
The A-list talent is almost outperformed by the animation, which takes on the effect–to me at least–of watercolour paintings on the move. Flying snow and seagulls a blurred shapes in the sky and piles of melting snow are smears of white on top of green grass. The characters move amid a cool palette of colour highlighted by stunning greys the make up the churning sea off the coast of fictional Grey Rocks.
I’ve never read Gilkerson’s book, but thanks to Sunday’s flick, I’m going to.
Pirate’s Passage airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBC.
From Bill Brioux:
There are still residents of Toronto who remember the old Sunnyside amusement park, a fabled midway that once existed on Toronto’s west-end waterfront in the days between the wars. A Coney Island of Canada complete with a merry-go-round (still turning in Disneyland), it was razed in the 1950s to make way for a place of little joy or amusement, the Gardiner Expressway.
The sun has long set on that Sunnyside, but this Thursday at 8 p.m. on City, a new Sunnyside emerges. It’s a sketch show, it’s a sitcom and it, too, is an amusement centre — although pretty much centred in the active minds of Dan Redican and Gary Pearson. Continue reading.
