Dear Jackie

by Henri Pardo
Dear Jackie by Henri Pardo
Product Availability
Institutional, Community Screenings, Broadcast, Theatrical, Educational, Festivals, VOD
About the Film

DEAR JACKIE is a cinematic letter to Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball and a civil rights activist who broke the colour barrier when he joined the minor-league Montreal Royals in 1946. For a short time, the impossible seemed possible in a segregated North America. But did Montrealers use this historic moment to perpetuate a myth of a post-racial society? 

Through eloquent interviews, archival footage, and powerful vérité moments shot in lustrous black and white, director Henri Pardo masterfully threads together fragments of the past with the present-day realities of Little Burgundy, once known as the “Harlem of the North”. DEAR JACKIE unfolds as an intimate correspondence with Robinson that unravels the myth of a post-racial society, and is a testament to the triumphs and resilience of a community whose stories reveal the insidious racial inequalities in Montreal and Quebec as a whole.

2021  ·  1h30m  ·  Canada
English, French
Festivals and Awards
2023
Junction North International Documentary Film Festival, Official Selection
2023
Fade to Black | Fondue Au Noire , Official Selection | Cinema en ligne
2023
World Community Film Festival, Official Selection
2023
Reframe Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
African Diaspora International Film Festival, Official Selection | US Premiere
2022
Cinema Politica Concordia, Official Selection
2022
Guelph Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
Reelworld Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
Lunenburg Doc Fest, Official Selection
2022
Festival International du Film Black de Montreal, Out of Competition
2022
St LouisDocs, Closing Night Film
2022
Sheffield DocFest, Official Selection | International First Feature Competition
2022
Calgary Black Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
Hamilton Black Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Official Selection
2021
Recontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), Magnus Isacsson Award
2021
Recontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), Official Selection | World Premiere
Screenings
March 29, 2023
Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal (Montreal, QC, Canada)
March 21, 2023
Maison de la culture Claude-Leveille (Montreal, QC, Canada)
February 28, 2023
Public Service Alliance Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada)
February 23, 2023
Sudbury Indie Cinema (Sudbury, ON, Canada)
February 9, 2023
VIFF Centre (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
February 4, 2023
World Community Film Festival (Courtenay, BC, Canada)
February 3, 2023
Champlain College St. Lambert (Saint-Lambert, QC, Canada)
January 26, 2023
Reframe Film Festival (Peterborough, ON, Canada)
January 16, 2023
Cinedit (Riviere-du-loup, QC, Canada)
December 2, 2022
West Island Black Community Association (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Montreal, Canada)
November 26, 2022
African Diaspora International Film Festival (New York City, NY, US)
November 24, 2022
Centre Greene (Montreal, Canada)
November 14, 2022
Cinema Politica Concordia (Montreal, Canada)
November 10, 2022
Guelph Film Festival (Guelph, Canada)
October 16, 2022
Reelworld Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
September 27, 2022
Lunenburg Doc Fest (Lunenburg, Canada)
September 21, 2022
Festival International du Film Black de Montreal (Montreal, Canada)
September 6, 2022
Cinéma Paraloeil (Rimouski, Canada)
September 1, 2022
Community Premiere: Union United Church Anniversary Screening (Union United Church, Montreal, Canada)
August 4, 2022
Cinéma sous les étoiles (Parc Molson, Montreal, Canada)
August 19, 2022
DOXA Documentary Film Festival Outdoor Screenings (Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, Canada)
July 13, 2022
Cinéma sous les étoiles (Parc Saint-Gabriel, Montreal, Canada)
June 26 - June 27, 2022
Sheffield DocFest (Sheffield, United Kingdom)
June 17 - July 15, 2022
Cinéma Public (Montreal, Canada)
June 18 - July 12, 2022
Cinémathèque québécoise (Montreal, Canada)
June 17 - July 7, 2022
Cinéma du Musée (Montreal, Canada)
June 18 - 26, 2022
Cinéma Moderne (Montreal, Canada)
May 26 - 29, 2022
Calgary Black Film Festival (Calgary, Canada)
May 25 - 30, 2022
Hamilton Black Film Festival (Hamilton, Canada)
May 14, 2022
St. Louis Docs (St. Louis, Senegal )
May 14, 2022
DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Vancouver, Canada)
November 14 - 17, 2021
Recontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), Online (Montreal, Canada)
November 11, 2021
Recontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) (World Festival Premiere)
Credits
Director
Henri Pardo
Writer
Henri Pardo
Editor
Dominique Sicotte
Producer
Katarina Soukup
Production Company
CatBird Productions
Cinematographers
Alex Margineanu, Vanessa Abadhir
Original Music
Ramachandra Borcar
Sound
Catherine Van Der Donckt, Stéphane Barsalou, Lynne Trepanier, Benoît Dame
Art Direction
Marc-Alain Félix
Narration
Henri Pardo
With the participation of
Ivan Livingstone, Jaz’marie Whyne, Beverly Jones, Ethel Bruneau, Suzanne Bruneau, Majiza Philip, Charlene Hunte, David Shelton, Ronald Jones, Leslie Jones, Dezy Jones, Jesse Chase, Pat Dillon-Moore, Fo Niemi, Keith Riley, Shaheed Livingstone

Shot in stark and highly effective black and white, the documentary takes both a searing and stirring look at life and racism in the city, past and present.

It’s through these Black voices—expressed truthfully, articulately, with dignity, and from the heart—that Canadians can learn the true history of their country.

Pour la beauté de sa cinématographie, pour l’étendue et la variété de ces propos révélateurs, cette fresque cinématographique méritait amplement le prix Magnus-Isacsson décerné aux derniers RIDM.

About the Director

Henri Pardo

Portrait of Henri Pardo
Photo of Henri Pardo by Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptiste

Henri Pardo is a graduate of the Institute of Image and Sound (Inis) in 2005. Henri wrote and directed the short film Sous-bois, which was funded by SODEC, and produced and directed the documentary series Black Wealth Matters. In 2016, Henri founded Black Wealth Media, a production company dedicated to developing and producing Afrocentric movies and film series.

More recently he worked as a producer developing four fiction web series, and has also produced the feature documentary Afro-Prosperity. In 2019, Black Wealth Media received funding from the CBC and the Corus Fund for the development of a documentary series on the history of African Canadians.

Henri has received support from the Documentary Chanel for the feature documentary Dear Jackie, which is produced by Katarina Soukup of Catbird Productions, as well as support for the writing of the feature film Kanaval, which is financed by Sodec and produced by Yzanakio films.

Henri has sat on the Doc Québec Executive Committee, a chapter of the Documentary Organization of Canada. He is a founding member of Black on Black Films, the filmmakers collective of Afrodescendants. He regularly participates in many panels on cultural diversity.

 
Other films by Henri Pardo

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