Invisible City (film)

Invisible City
Directed byHubert Davis
Written bySondra Kelly
Hubert Davis
Mehernaz Lentin
Produced byMehernaz Lentin
Gerry Flahive
Hubert Davis
CinematographyChris Romeike
Edited byHubert Davis
Music byFraser MacDougall
Michael White
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • May 2, 2009 (2009-05-02) (HotDocs Film Festival)
Running time
76 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Invisible City is a 2009 documentary film by Hubert Davis about young Black Canadian men at risk in Toronto's Regent Park district. Davis spent three years filming two boys in their final years of high school.[1]

The primary subjects of the film are Kendell and Mikey, students at Nelson Mandela Park Public School.[2] Invisible City follows their struggles with academic and behavioral issues, and their sense of futility.[3]

Invisible City is produced by Industry Pictures/Shine Films in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.[4]

Reception

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Invisible City received the Best Canadian Feature Documentary award at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[2][5] In announcing its decision, the Hot Docs festival jury stated:

The Award goes to a film that weds form and content with extraordinary grace and intelligence. It is no small feat to maintain a focus on the raw material of real human experience while honouring the documentary as a cinematic art form. Because it does all these things, and because it maintains the dignity of its subjects’ lives while asking difficult questions about the conditions under which those lives are lived, the jury has chosen Hubert Davis’s Invisible City as the best Canadian feature.[6]

The film opened theatrically at the Royal Theatre in Toronto in February 2010, before premiering on TVOntario.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Brown, Phil (February 3, 2010). "Invisible City: A story of Regent Park as told by two of its own". Metro News. Toronto: Free Daily News Group Inc. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  2. ^ a b Bracken, Kasandra (February 4, 2010). "Black and White and Invisible All Over". Torontoist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  3. ^ Cranston, Michael (February 3, 2010). "Invisible City". Eye Weekly. Retrieved 4 February 2010.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Invisible City". Film website. National Film Board of Canada. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  5. ^ "Film about Toronto's Regent Park earns Hot Docs award". CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. May 8, 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  6. ^ Knegt, Peter (May 9, 2009). "From a "Village" to a "City": Hot Docs Awards Their Best". indieWire. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
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