It is plain that historical past is a vital a part of sports activities. Stories informed by sports activities have the ability to problem uncomfortable truths about what Canada has been, and is instructive when deciding what path anti-racism and inclusion initiatives ought to transfer inside sports activities landscapes throughout the nation.

I get pleasure from watching sports documentaries and have been fairly moved by filmmakers utilizing their artwork to inform tales from their communities and experiences that usually go unreported. 

Black Life: Untold Stories is a collection of eight episodes that tells tales of Black people and communities, and explores all the pieces from slavery in Canada — sure, there was very a lot slavery in Canada — to migration, the justice system, and sport leagues and formidable athletes.

Recently I noticed episode six referred to as More Than A Game. It airs Wednesday, Nov. 29 and is offered now on CBC Gem. It was directed by Thyrone Tommy and is insightful, highly effective and shares the voices of among the most prolific athletes Canada has ever identified, in addition to their descendants.

I do not usually take notes whereas watching movies, however as I screened this one, I wrote down quotes, names and dates and it felt prefer it was a vital historical past lesson I by no means received to study. I’ve actually felt this manner relating to Indigenous tales and why I by no means realized about residential colleges and the generations of harmless kids who have been abused and ripped from their households within the title of colonization. Why did I by no means study this in my public training? 

WATCH | ‘I need audiences to expertise what it is prefer to be a Black athlete’:

‘I want audiences to experience what it’s like to be a Black athlete’ | Black Life: Untold Stories

Featured VideoCanadian movie director Thyrone Tommy shares his imaginative and prescient for ‘More Than a Game,’ the sixth episode of CBC docuseries Black Life: Untold Stories. Watch the complete docuseries on CBC Gem.

In Canada, we regularly mistakenly see ourselves because the place the place Black slaves escaped the terrors of slavery within the United States.

When Dr. George Elliot Clarke, poet laureate, says within the movie “We need to know all the history that is incumbent upon us to know. ‘Cause if you don’t know it, you’re gonna be tricked, bamboozled, fooled into thinking that things are okay when they’re not okay,” I let loose a puff. I used to be shocked by this straightforward proclamation, but in addition have been fascinated with why it applies to sports activities a lot.

Like many issues, sports activities and the existence and illustration of Black athletes may be very a lot about context. Does it make Canada look good? No, not all the time. But it provides us the much-needed context to work with as a way to progress. 

The movie options good Black teachers like Dr. Ornella Nzindukiyimana, whose voice I instantly acknowledged because the movie started. She is an skilled on Black sport historical past and significant race idea and I’ve adopted her work for years.

There are the tales of boxer Sam Langford, baseball participant Earl (Flat) Chase, sprinters Valerie Jerome and Crystal Emmanuel, and hockey participant P.Okay. Subban. While Subban can be listed as an government producer of the episode, his story is deeply related to the theme. Producer Leslie Norville informed me through e-mail that the inclusion of Subban’s tales of being a Black hockey participant in Canada was a manufacturing resolution and separate from his work as an EP.

The means that Subban has been woven into the story connects with the Jerome siblings working observe within the Fifties in North Vancouver and with Chase, a pitcher who performed with the Chatham Coloured All-Star staff within the Nineteen Thirties. According to the movie, Chase “hit the longest home run in every park he played in.”

There are moments of glory and achievement, but in addition components the place these unimaginable athletes have confronted probably the most merciless abuse and maltreatment. We can argue that it does not occur anymore — it does — or we will watch this movie and hear whereas studying the methods during which we will empower Canadian sport with an arsenal of gifted athletes no matter their hues.

Telling tales of marginalized communities usually includes hardship and it’s a tough steadiness to inform these tales with out making it trauma porn for audiences who will not be accustomed to non-public tales. I wrestle with this generally after I write as a result of though I imagine in perseverance and progress, expressing the urgency and significance to acknowledge somebody’s life expertise is difficult. Tommy manages to maintain us engaged and enthralled whereas amplifying essential factors and making a fantastically produced movie. 

More Than A Game just isn’t a movie that dismisses the connection of individuals and their love of sport. In truth, sport is central to the story as a result of it’s the basis and a part of the identification of all of the individuals featured. And sport is one thing that we will agree we love and desirous to make it stronger in Canada is one thing that unifies us.

I’ve spent plenty of time previously 20 years unlearning and relearning. Sports historians supply viewers a lot wealthy details about Canada whereas Tommy takes us on a journey that dives deeply into the way in which that sports activities are structured and the way even media has traditionally handled Black individuals in Canadian sport.

If we love one thing, we need to make it higher, proper?

More Than A Game provides us a chance to not solely take out our pens and study correctly, but in addition deeply replicate on what we would like for sports activities in Canada, and what we would like for ourselves.