Jennifer Hodge de Silva[1]
Born(1951-01-28)28 January 1951[1]
Montreal, Quebec, Canada[1]
Died5 May 1989(1989-05-05) (aged 38)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada[1]
NationalityCanadian
EducationBachelor of Arts (Honours) in Fine Arts (1974)
Alma materGlendon College at York University
Known forfilmmaking
Notable workHome Feeling: A Struggle for Community (1983)[1]
MovementBlack liberalism[2]
SpousePaul de Silva in 1982[2]
ChildrenZinzi de Silva
Parent(s)Mairuth Vaughan Hodge Sarsfield and Cullen Squire Hodge[2]

Jennifer Hodge de Silva (28 January 1951 – 5 May 1989) was a Canadian filmmaker.[1][2] Her film, Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community, revealed tensions between and police and residents of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. The residents were mainly immigrants from Jamaica and Africa.[2][3] She worked consistently with national organizations such the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). She was the first black filmmaker to do so.[4][5]

Career

In 1978 she worked with Terence Macartney-Filgate on the film Fields of Endless Day as assistant director and associate producer while she was a student. The next year she worked with him again as associate producer of the CBC documentary Dieppe 1942.[2] She covered stories about the lives of Chinese-Canadian immigrants and Indigenous artists and covered social issues in diverse neighbourhoods.[5][6]

Hodge de Silva directed a number of films during the 1980s that established the dominant mode in African Canadian film culture. Working exclusively in the documentary and often on sponsored films, she staked out a set of concerns and a mode of production that might be termed black liberalism.

— Bailey 1990

Cameron Bailey, a Canadian film critic and artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, acknowledged her work in his 1990 article later published in a film anthology.[7][8]: 94 [9] In his 1990s publications Bailey honoured the work of black filmmakers such as Jennifer Hodge de Silva. The forms of production in which she worked were 'marginalized'. At times she made films that were sponsored for organizations such as of Education and the John Howard Society.[8][9][10]

Home Feeling: A Struggle for Community

Her 1983 documentary Home Feeling: A Struggle for Community,[11] examining the relations between the police force and the black community, continues to be used in classrooms to this day.[5]

Personal life

Jennifer Hodge de Silva comes from a family of women social activists — her grandmother, Anna Packwood and her daughters, Mairuth Vaughan Hodge Sarsfield (married to Cullen Squire Hodge) and Lucille Vaughn Cuevas.[12]

Selected filmography

  • Jennifer Hodge and Roger McTair (1983). Home Feeling: A Struggle for Community (film). Toronto: National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 14 April 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leslea Kroll; Andrew McIntosh (12 March 2007). "Jennifer Hodge da Silva". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jennifer Hodge de Silva (1951-1989) Documentary Filmmaker, Celebrating Women's Achievements, Library and Archives Canada, retrieved 14 April 2016
  3. ↑ Jennifer Hodge; Roger McTair (1983), Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community, National Film Board of Canada 57 min, retrieved 14 April 2017
  4. ↑ Jennifer Hodge de Silva: Screenings for social change, Black History Month showcase: In celebration of those who changed history in the shadow of racism, The Fulcrum Canadian University Press (CUP) University of Ottawa, 16 February 2017, retrieved 14 April 2017
  5. 1 2 3 Amanda Parris (10 February 2017), 7 African-Canadian female filmmakers you need to know: These are the Canadian movies to watch during Black History Month and beyond, CBC Arts, retrieved 14 April 2017, Hodge's best-known work, [Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community (1983)] was one of the first attempts to explore the deep-seated tension between black communities and the Toronto Police Services. Through candid interviews, the film reveals the systemic racism of the police force and the rage that simmered in the largely immigrant community of Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood.
  6. ↑ Cameron Bailey, 1990, "A Cinema of Duty: The Films of Jennifer Hodge de Silva", CineAction
  7. ↑ "Cameron Bailey named artistic director of Toronto International Film Festival". National Post. 14 March 2012. Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  8. 1 2 Bailey, Cameron (1999). Armatage, Kay; Banning, Kass; Longfellow, Brenda; Marchessault, Janine (eds.). A Cinema of Duty: The Films of Jennifer Hodge de Silva. Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women's Cinema]. Toronto: University of Toronto. pp. 94–108. ISBN 0802041205.
  9. 1 2 Cameron Bailey (1990). "A Cinema of Duty: The Films of Jennifer Hodge de Silva". CineAction. winter (23): 4–12.
  10. ↑ Bailey, Cameron (1992). "A Cinema of Duty: The Films of Jennifer Hodge de Silva". International Review of African American Art. Hampton, Virginia: Hampton University. 10 (1): 51–59. OCLC 38561280.
  11. ↑ Jennifer Hodge and Roger McTair (1983). Home Feeling: A Struggle for Community (film). Toronto: National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  12. ↑ Flynn-Burhoe, Maureen (2003). "Positive Presence of Absence: A History of the African Canadian Community through Works in the Permanent Collection of the National Gallery of Canada". Ottawa, Ontario: Carleton University, cited in Collections Canada.
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