Selwyn Jacob is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

documentary filmmaker whose work has often explored the experiences of

Black Canadians Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

as well as other stories from Canada's multicultural communities, as both as an independent director and since 1997 as a producer with the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

(NFB).

Background

Selwyn Jacob was born in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

, West Indies in 1941. Jacob attended a teacher's college there before traveling to Canada in 1968 to complete a Bachelor of Education at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

in Edmonton. While in Edmonton, he was influenced and mentored by film producer, author and broadcaster Fil Fraser. After graduation, Jacob completed a master's degree in film studies at the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of Sound film, talkies, the school descends from America's first ...

Directing

It was while teaching in Lac La Biche, Alberta in the late 1970s that Jacob had the idea for his first film: a documentary about black immigrants from Oklahoma who settled in

Amber Valley Amber Valley is a local government district with borough status in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. Its council is based in Ripley. The district covers a semi-rural area lying to the north of the city of ...

, Alberta, which after several years of research was completed as ''We Remember Amber Valley'' (1984). Jacob said that he was the only Afro-Canadian film director in Alberta at the time. Jacob's subsequent directorial credits include ''The Saint from North Battleford ''(1989), a portrait of

Rueben Mayes Rueben A. Mayes (born June 6, 1963) is a Canadian former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) from 1986 to 1993. He played college football for the Washington State Cougars, earning consensus ...

; ''Carol's Mirror'' (1991), an educational film about racism and equality; ''Al Tasmim'', a film about Canada's oldest mosque; and '' The Road Taken'' (1996), a documentary about the history of Black railway porters, which received the Canada Award from the

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian cinema of Canada, film industry and television in Canada, television industry professionals ...

Producing

Jacob's interest in Black Canadian non-fiction storytelling continued as NFB producer, supplemented by a notable range of films by Asian Canadian filmmakers from Canada's western provinces, exploring their communities' culture and histories, as well. His NFB producing credits include ''The Journey of Lesra Martin'', about

Lesra Martin Lesra Martin (born April 11, 1963) is an American-Canadian lawyer, motivational speaker and writer. He is perhaps best known for helping to bring about the release of former boxer Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter. Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter Mar ...

, a Canadian youth who helped to free Rubin "Hurricane" Carter from prison; ''Jeni LeGon: Living in a Great Big Way (1999)'', a portrait of

Jeni Le Gon Jeni LeGon (born Jennie Ligon; August 14, 1916 – December 7, 2012), also credited as Jeni Le Gon, was an American dancer, dance instructor, and actress. She was one of the first African-American women to establish a solo career in tap da ...

, a Vancouver resident who had been one of the first Black women entertainers in Hollywood to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio; ''John McCrae's War: In Flanders Fields (1998)'', a look at Canadian army doctor

John McCrae Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918) was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing th ...

, who wrote the poem, "

In Flanders Fields "In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend ...

"; Colleen Leung's ''Letters from Home'' (2001); Linda Ohama's '' Obāchan's Garden'' (2001); Ling Chiu's ''From Harling Point'' (2003), about the first Chinese cemetery in Canada; Eunhee Cha's ''A Tribe of One'' (2003); and '' Mighty Jerome'' (2010), a documentary film about African-Canadian track star Harry Jerome directed by Charles Officer. In 2014, Jacobs produced ''

Ninth Floor ''Ninth Floor'' is a 2015 National Film Board of Canada documentary film written and directed by Mina Shum about the 1969 Sir George Williams affair, a student occupation led by Black West Indian-born students to protest alleged racism at the Mont ...

'', directed by

Mina Shum Mina Shum (born 1966) is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, ''Double Happiness (film), Double Ha ...

. The film documents a 1969 Montreal student protest against racism known as the Sir George Williams Affair, and was filmed in Montreal on the 45th anniversary of the event. It was an event Jacob had been aware of at the time, as a number of its participants had been from Trinidad—including one from his home village—and Jacob has stated that it was always his intention to make a film about the incident.

References

External links

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Selwyn Jacob
at the Canadian Archival Information Network {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Selwyn Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to Canada Black Canadian filmmakers Film producers from Alberta Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers National Film Board of Canada people Canadian Screen Award winners Film directors from Alberta Cinema of British Columbia University of Alberta alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Trinidad and Tobago film directors Living people 1941 births Black Canadian screenwriters