While the events portrayed in Michèle Stephenson’s incisive documentary may technically be several decades in the past, TRUE NORTH’s lessons about racism in Canada can feel uncomfortably timely. In 1969, Black students at Concordia University in Montreal staged an occupation of a computer lab to protest the mishandling of racism allegations against a professor. Widely covered by the media and violently suppressed by the police, the episode exposed deeper-seated issues when it came to Canada’s history of bigotry and contemporary responses and attitudes toward the global movement for Black liberation. Through its bracing and compelling blend of new interviews and archival footage, Stephenson’s film erases any gulf between then and now, inviting a new understanding of a moment that badly bruised Canada’s self-image as a proud model of multiculturalism.

Director: Michèle Stephenson

Language: English, French with English subtitles

Runtime: 96 minutes

Content warning: racial violence, strong racial language

Leslie Norville, producer

Leslie Norville is an Emmy Award-winning producer and accomplished showrunner with a passion for bringing nuanced, character-driven stories to life that amplify the voices and experiences of people of color. Her work has been showcased at prestigious festivals worldwide, including TIFF, SXSW, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Doc NYC, and IDFA, and aired on major networks such as Disney+, PBS, CBC, Sundance Channel, and VH1.

Recent documentary projects include the Oscar-shortlisted and multi-award-winning The First Wave (Neon/National Geographic) and the eight-part series Black Life: Untold Stories for CBC. Other notable credits include the feature documentary A Ballerina’s Tale about Misty Copeland, the first African American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre; Brooklyn Boheme; Disdain the Mundane (part of ESPN’s Emmy Award®-winning 30 for 30 shorts series); Finding the Funk (co-executive produced by GRAMMY Award®-winner Questlove); and Any Given Day, which premiered at Hot Docs 2021. She is currently producing True North, an archival documentary directed by Michèle Stephenson (Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project) about the Black Liberation movement in 1960s Montreal, Canada.

Norville is an alumna of the Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Fellowship. In 2023, Playback Magazine named her Showrunner of the Year, and in 2024, she received the Dear Producer Award.