Roger McTair
Directing
Biography
Trinidadian-Canadian writer, documentary filmmaker, and poet.
Known For

This feature documentary takes us to the heart of the Jane-Finch "Corridor" in the early 1980s. Covering six square blocks in Toronto's North York, the area readily evokes images of vandalism, high-density subsidized housing, racial tension, despair and crime. By focusing on the lives of several of the residents, many of them black or members of other visible minorities, the film provides a powerful view of a community that, contrary to its popular image, is working towards a more positive future.
Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community

In this short documentary, five black women talk about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s black people and the legacy of their community elders. Produced by the NFB’s iconic Studio D.
Older, Stronger, Wiser

Part 2 of the "Hymn to Freedom" TV docuseries on the Black experience in Canada, Sylvia Hamilton documents the history of Black immigration and community in Nova Scotia.
Against the Tides: The Jones Family
The film explores issues of racism in daycare and early education. Includes footage of children of diverse backgrounds in daycare, elementary school, on playgrounds, and interviews with education workers, parents and experts.
Children Are Not the Problem
A retrospective documentary of the life and work of Jennifer Hodge, a black filmmaker living and working in Ontario and Quebec. Film includes footage of her funeral service, her family, friends and coworkers; clips from her films; and a memorial weekend at her family's home, Innisfree.
Jennifer Hodge: The Glory and the Pain
Features pregnant mothers Marsha Baker, Shaheera Bieber and pregnant couple Claire Prieto and Roger McTair. Also included in the footage are interviews with Dr. J.E. Milligan of the Toronto Women College Hospital and a fitness classes for pregnant women at the Toronto Women's Club.
It's Not an Illness

This documentary pays tribute to a group of Canadians who took racism to court. They are Canada's unsung heroes in the fight for Black civil rights. Focusing on the 1930s to the 1950s, this film documents the struggle of 6 people who refused to accept inequality. Featured here, among others, are Viola Desmond, a woman who insisted on keeping her seat at the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946 rather than moving to the section normally reserved for the city's Black population, and Fred Christie, who took his case to the Supreme Court after being denied service at a Montreal tavern in 1936. These brave pioneers helped secure justice for all Canadians. Their stories deserve to be told.
Journey to Justice
The film follows the stories of men and women who work with steel drums in various capacities, including a steel drum tuner, university and primary school students performing on steel drums, as well as two steel drum orchestras.
Different Timbers
North Buxton, near Chatham, Ontario, has been a black settlement since the middle of the last century, when it was one of the destinations of escaped slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad. Prieto and McTair went to Buxton to record one year's 'homecoming,' and came back with a celebratory reminder of the long history blacks have had in Canada. -- Images Festival
Home to Buxton
This film revisits many of the subjects of Jennifer Hodge's 1983 documentary "Home Feeling." The film explores how life has changed over the years for residents of the Jane Street and Finch Avenue area in Toronto, Ontario. The film explores issues of racism, police brutality, urban housing, and immigration.
Jane Finch Again!

This documentary explores the state of black women's roles and lives in Canada during the 1970s.