Anne Pick, vice president of Real to Reel Productions Inc., a small, independent film company, has seen the decline over the last 20 years. “There’s money in the system, but it’s triggered by broadcasters. And broadcasters are bailing on one-off docs because mainstream television wants light and fluffy entertainment.”

For those of us who like to work on feature projects covering important social issues, this is a serious problem. In conversations with a few producers, my film has been described as “controversial”, “a powder keg” and as a “hot button topic” one producer didn’t want to “touch with a ten foot pole.”  When I pitched “A Past, Denied: The Invisible History of Slavery in Canada” to a Canadian broadcasting company (I’m refraining from naming names), the creative head of their digital channels replied:

I did read your proposal and while  ”A Past, Denied: The Invisible History of Slavery in Canada” sounds very worthwhile, I’m afraid it does not fit into our current programming strategy for XXXXXXXXXXX – too much history I’m afraid.

Really? A discourse on the absence of Canada’s 200+ year history of slavery from history textbooks and classrooms, and how this absence has had a real impact on social issues in our contemporary time period is “too much history”, eh? (If you’ve read this site’s home page—the text for which is taken directly from the proposal document—you may have noticed that the phrase “explores how a false sense of history…impinges on the present” in the opening paragraph.)

So those of us who endeavour to tell stories that those in power are too scared to tell have to resort to alternative means of production, which includes alternative means of financing. It doesn’t mater how (relatively) cheaper technology has become, how democratized the means of production is as a result, or how D.I.Y. you are—making a documentary film is still an expensive process. Getting over this obstacle is where the alternative means of financing comes in to play.

In addition to filmmakers going into debt themselves trying to fund their project with their own bank accounts and credit card(s), crowdfunding is rapidly becoming a method of financing for indy filmmakers. It basically works like this: instead of trying to get large chunks of money from a few corporate/governmental sources, a project raises funds in smaller varying amounts in the form of donations from many private sources… specifically ordinary people who want to lend their support to a project they believe in and want to see get made.

This is where you come in. I have been thus far getting by on my own wallet and the kindness/cooperation of others, but at that rate this movie will likely never see the light of day. In order to complete production it needs an injection of cash in order to finish shooting all the interviews and pay for other archival and artistic additional work that needs to be done. To that end, I am asking you to visit the “A Past, Denied” crowdfunding page at indiegogo.com. Here you can see what various donation levels (as low as $5) and perks/incentives are being offered by me. There is a secure form for processing payments. Indiegogo is a well respected crowdfunding resource and I wouldn’t be using them if I didn’t trust their service.

If you believe in the mission of this film—to speak the truth about Canada’s past as well as its present, to illuminate the roots of racism and privilege in our society—then I ask you to please seriously consider donating to this project. Please help me make 2011 a good year in the fight for truth.

Thank you and Happy New Year.
Mike Barber

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

There are so many great causes out there asking you for money, and in this economy it’s even harder to give. Regardless, I am asking those of you who believe in this film and who have the means to make a donation, even if it is a modest one. Everyone who makes a donation will be credited both on this website and in the end credits as supporters of the project (unless you specifically request anonymity… or wish to give in someone else’s name).

Using the button on the right will take you to PayPal’s secure interface to make a donation. Please note: this film is not affiliated with any non-profit organization, therefor donations likely have no tax benefits. Arzher Productions is the name of my production company (thus the arzher.com email address). Please be sure to include your first and last name and your city to be credited on the site and in the film credits!

Thank you again for all your love and support. Sincerely,

Mike Barber
Director, A Past, Denied: The Invisible History of Slavery in Canada

These past two interviews have been two years in the making. It was late November 2007 when I initially contacted Dr. James Loewen and Dr. Raymond Winbush about being in my documentary. At the time, I figured that finding support for a project such as this one would be relatively easy. I assumed that either the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) or the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) would be eager to participate in the production of a documentary taking aim at confronting the lie in our historical narrative that we are a country free of the racial past that embroils our southern neighbours even to this day. I assumed that I would be ready to begin photography as early as Summer 2008. How naive was I!

So here we are, winter 2009. Progress is being made, slowly but surely. Back in March 2009 I was able, with the great help of Randal Martin, to shoot an interview with Dr. Dorothy Williams (who is featured in the first teaser) in Montreal. These two most recent shoots were made with the help of Adam Reuter (camera op) and Michelle Farrell (Absolute Independent Pictures equipment rental) of the Baltimore area. The world of independent filmmaking is built and sustained by the spirit of co-operation and giving and all three of these individual embody this spirit.

Thursday (3 December, 2009), was my shoot with sociologist and historian James W. Loewen. Dr. Loewen is the author of such great books as “ Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong,” “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong,” and “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism” (all three of which I consider to be required reading for anyone and everyone interested in social justice issues or just history in general). Scheduling issues resulted in an interview that was shorter than I would have liked—about 25 minutes total of recorded footage—but I am still thrilled to have had the opportunity to sit down with Loewen and get what I did.

On Saturday (5 December, 2009), was my interview with scholar/activist Raymond Winbush. Dr. Winbush is Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, editor of  ”Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations” and author of “Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade” and “The Warrior Method: A Parent’s Guide to Rearing Healthy Black Boys”. We sat down for about an hour and a quarter for a fantastic and inspiring interview.

I’m going through the interview material over a very large cafe mocha, drinking in every word along with the coffee-choclate blended goodness. The road ahead is still long. Without any real  financial support at the moment, I rely on my own financial health (for what it is) to keep things going. I will spend some time over the next few weeks cutting something together to present to the Canadian film industry powers-that-be and hope that it will entice them out of their complacency and inaction. Stay tuned.

Making movies is fun.

So far I have been blogging more on news items regarding racism than I have about the actual film. Filmmaking is a slow and painstaking process (but we love it regardless), so it can be expected that there is more to blog about that is happening in the day-to-day, real-life-o-sphere than about the progress of a currently self-funded, independent documentary.

That said, I’m looking forward to getting a little teaser (not to be confused with a trailer) out in the next week or so. I’m also working on lining up some interviews down in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. are for mid November. I’m not going to let anything out of the bag as to who these people would be or on what they would be discussing on camera. I will say that even if I manage to only get one of the three on camera (during this trip) I will be a very happy man.

Stay tuned.