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In the new CBC series, The Porter, part of the action takes place in a lively night spot called Club Stardust. Its a gathering place for many of the characters in the series, a hotspot in Montreals Black neighbourhood of St. Antoine in the roaring 1920s. Early on in the story, the scenes in the club are electric and energetic; full of dancing, music and general revelry.

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For R.T. Thorne and Charles Officer, the two filmmakers who took turns directing episodes of the series in Winnipeg, filming those big production numbers was a great way to bring the unique culture of a very specific time and place to vibrant life. The Porter is a serious drama with a serious message that will hopefully help bring a long-neglected part of Canadian history to light. But that doesnt mean it had to be grim.

Some of the first days on set was with our amazing, beautiful, Black community that came out to Winnipeg to be our background players, says Thorne. I wouldnt even call them background players, they were community players because they came out, got all dressed up. Our production designer (Rejean Labrie) transformed one of our little Winnipeg neighbourhoods into this beautiful Montreal neighbourhood. Just standing there with all these people around us, you felt like you were transported back to another era. Its challenging, too, because sometimes you want to turn the camera to the side and you cant because theres a Ford Focus there. But its such an immersive feeling. Its just gratifying.

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The Porter, which begins airing Feb. 21, is a drama based on real events. It tells the story of Black train porters, best friends and First World War veterans Junior Massey (Ami Ameen) and Zeke Garrett (Ronnie Rowe Jr.), who take very different paths after the preventable, on-the-job death of a fellow worker makes them realize the need to take action to improve their lives. Both are intelligent and ambitious. But Junior uses his savvy to enter a precarious world of gangsters and bootlegging, while Zeke attempts to organize a labour union. Their stories intertwine with a colourful ensemble of dancers, Chicago kingpins, brothel workers, Black Cross nurses, racist bosses and the ruthless head of the Cross Continental Railway.

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While the series explores the barriers the porters face on the path to a better life and shines an uncomfortable light on Canadas often shameful history of racism, both Thorne and Officer were determined to present fully formed characters and a vibrant community that did more than simply survive the injustices they were born into.

We really wanted to bring forth a picture of the past that maybe people havent seen before, full of colour and life and humanity, Thorne says. Sometimes there are historical dramas but they can feel like they are from another time. They can feel cliched in their representation of people and society. We really wanted it to have something fresh to it and focus on the humanity and ambition of these people from this time period.

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We have the awareness of Indigenous stories and how they have been sorely lacking from the canon or fabric of this country, Officer adds. The same goes for the Black Diaspora: the Caribbean lineage, the Americans who have come here from the South. Canada has such a rich history and lineage that all connects to the idea, the concept of freedom when you really break it down. We are beyond the Underground Railroad.

Its interesting, the Underground Railroad is a coded language for something and we actually presented a story that exists on the railroads this network that exists through North America through our ancestors. So its a great honour to bring this to the public and add it to the Passchendaeles and all these stories that have, God bless them, left out our existence.

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Born in Calgary and raised in Toronto, Thorne created the Hulu/CBC Gem young-adult sci-fi series Utopia Falls and directed music videos for Cardinal Offishall and Simple Plan and episodes of Degrassi: The Next Class and The CWs Kung Fu reboot.

Officer was a former hockey player who was drafted by the Calgary Flames and played for a Flames farm team in Salt Lake City before an injury led him to switch gears and become a filmmaker. His films included the 2020 drama Akillas Escape, a crime film set in Toronto and New York about an urban child soldier; and his acclaimed 2008 feature debut Nurse.Fighter.Boy, a romantic drama about an ailing mother who enters into a relationship with a boxer. He also directed The Skin Were In, a documentary based on the powerful book by Desmond Cole that looked at the history of racism in Canada, which some Canadians refuse to acknowledge.

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As a series, The Porter doesnt sugar-coat its portrayal of Canada in the 1920s as a racist, classist and misogynist society. But Thorne says it was important for the filmmakers to go beyond that. Suffering and injustice were only part of the story.

Were going to show that, yes, he says. But in that, were going to show that it didnt define the world for the people who lived back then. They just lived through it. They also lived their lives. They danced until the nightclub kicked them out. They had meals with their families. They had joy and they had dreams and ambitions. Regardless of how the world was treating them, they would chase after those things. And its because they did those things and because they made the changes in the world like the Black labour movement we are standing on their shoulders.

The Porter debuts Feb. 21 on CBC.

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The Porter takes a rare look at the injustices, triumphs of Canada's Black Diaspora in the 1920s - Calgary Herald

Category: Diaspora
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