Brothers Alfons and Amos Adetuyi are this year's Reelworld Film Festival Visionary Award winners
November 29, 2021
‘Whose idea is this’?
Stunned by the question posed by a national broadcaster executive after walking into a boardroom nearly 25 years ago to pitch a television show they developed, award-winning producers Amos and Alfons Adetuyi glanced at each other in bewilderment.
My reaction was, ‘Is this a trick question’?” recalled Amos.
“Back then, broadcasters in Canada just weren’t looking at Black folks as being particularly creative and being able to bring stories to the table. Things have obviously changed.”
Amos is the Chief Executive of Circle Blue Entertainment and the producer of the groundbreaking television drama series, ‘Diggstown’, that is airing on CBC and BET while Alfons has produced and/or directed over 100 hours of prime-time features, documentaries, dramas and lifestyle series, selling to over 60 countries.
The brothers were recognized with the Visionary Award at the 21st annual Reelworld Film Festival that ended on October 27.
The award is bestowed on individuals advocating for artists of colour in the entertainment industry.
“You are part of those visionaries that just knew the industry wasn’t doing anything to help,” said Festival founder Tonya Williams during a webinar conversation with the brothers. “Every production that both of you have done, you have launched the careers of so many people from actors to cinematographers and directors. Your shows are some of the first launching pads for a lot of people out there.”
Alfons’ company, Inner City Films, specializes in international co-productions and, in 1997, initiated the Canada and South African audiovisual co-production treaty that paved the way for collaboration between the two countries on film and television productions. The first-ever co-production treaty signed by South Africa lasted until 2003.
People of colour in the film and television industry, he said, have always been underestimated for what they can do.
“I remember bringing some of the South Africans to meetings for a show we were trying to do,” Alfons noted. “They were backing us with the finances. When the broadcaster here asked the guy how much there was in his division to put into media, they thought they had heard $40 million. The South African guy, who was in charge of this fund, looked up and said ‘no, $400 million’. There was just this unbelief that Black people could have this kind of power to invest.”
Born and raised in Sudbury, the brothers credit the late John ‘Jack’ Smith, who created a special arts program at Sudbury High School, for igniting their passion for film and television.
“We were doing small films and even a cable television show when we were in high school,” said Alfons who directed ‘Love Jacked’, a Canadian romantic comedy. “When some of the graduates from our school came back from this college in London and showed their films which were remarkable, I said that is where I want to go as I want to get that kind of equipment and teaching as soon as possible.”
Alfons graduated from London’s Fanshawe College film program and the Canadian Film Directors Lab.
“Getting into the lab then was only by invitation,” the oldest of six siblings pointed out. “It was a real difficult time because they weren’t taking too many people. They were only taking those that had already done something. However, there was a desire at that time to bring people of colour into the program.”
After completing Fanshawe College Music Industry Arts program, Amos headed a full-service advertisement agency, focusing on music videos and commercials production before starting his production company in 2011.
Two other brothers are also in the film and television industry.
Amos (l) and Alfons Adetuyi were recognized with Visionary Awards at this year’s ReelWorld Film Festival (Photo contributed)
Robert is a screenwriter and director who moved to Hollywood in 1992 and Tom is a producer with Inner City Films.
Their Nigerian-born father Joseph Adetuyi, who died in 2006 at age 85, served with the British Merchant Marines during World War II. When his ship stopped in Montreal on the way back to England, he saw an International Nickel Company (Inco) advertisement seeking mechanics to work on big engines. He called the office in Sudbury and was told he was hired and they would send a taxi to take him to Northern Ontario.
The family patriarch was Inco’s first Black employee in the mid-1940s and a concert producer.
Independent filmmaker Mina Shum was the recipient of the Award of Excellence that honours Canadian industry leaders whose creative excellence has positively impacted the representation of Canada’s diversity nationally and globally.
She has written and directed award-winning films that’s premiered at major festivals.
Shum wrote and directed the 2015 National Film Board of Canada documentary, Ninth Floor, which told the story of Canada’s largest student occupation at Sir George Williams University.
Suspecting unfair grading by their Biology professor, six Caribbean students lodged a protest in 1968 with the university that agreed to establish a committee to investigate the allegations. Eight months after the matter wasn’t resolved, nearly 400 students occupied the computer lab on the university’s ninth floor.
During the 14-day protest, they destroyed about $2 million in computer equipment.
Shum dedicated the award to her parents, who migrated to Vancouver from Hong Kong a year after her birth in 1966, and film industry professionals, audiences and collaborators.
Mina Shum was the recipient of this year’s ReelWorld Film Festival Award of Excellence (Photo contributed)
“In my immigrant parents understanding, an Award of Excellence is a top honour and, if you are giving it to their daughter, you are kind of giving the award to them too,” the 2021 Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction in a Drama Series nominee said. ‘This is for my mother who enchanted me with classic bedtime stories when I was five and told these stories in Cantonese and broken English with such joy and humour that it was infectious. This is also for my father who had the courage to leave his home country to start a new life in a new country. Without all the hard necessary stuff he taught me, I am not sure what would have become of me.”
Each year, Trailblazer Awards are presented to racially diverse professionals in the Canadian media and entertainment industry.
The 2021 winners are Carson Ting, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Gyimah Gariba, Amber Sekowan-Daniels, Shivani Sani and Alicia Harris.
Alicia Harris (Photo contributed)
“This award truly means a lot to me,” said Harris, a 2016 Ryerson University School of Image Arts graduate whose thesis film ‘Love Stinks’ won Best Director and Best Production. “Being in this industry can be very isolating at times. Many times, I am the only person of colour or Black woman in the room. This award is a reminder that there’s a strong community behind me.”
“With Wonder’, a 75-minute documentary directed by three-time Canadian Screen Award nominee Sharon Lewis, was this year’s festival Audience Choice Award winner. The film takes an intimate look at the journey of members of the queer Christian community of colour and their attempts to answer the question, ‘Can you be both Christian and queer’?
Founded in 2000 by Williams, the Reelworld Film Festival and Reelworld Screen Institute are the largest national platforms dedicated to supporting minority Canadian filmmakers and artists.
