TIFA Presents: Lawrence Hill in Conversation

Lawrence Hill and Damon D’Oliveira

TIFA Presents: Lawrence Hill in Conversation

Lawrence Hill and Damon D’Oliveira

5:00pm

Sunday, November 8, 2020

45 mins

Pull up a chair and settle in for a casual conversation between accomplished creatives—and good friends—writer Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes) and producer Damon D’Oliveira (Conquering Lion Pictures). The collaborators will discuss the moment they first connected during the CBC Radio recording of Hill’s first novel, Some Great Thing (1992), and how they’ve come to work together since then on more projects for film & television.

This candid conversation will explore Hill’s prolific storying of the Black experience in North America, and the recurring themes of race, identity and belonging in his extensive body of work, including Any Known Blood (1997) and Black Berry Sweet Juice (2001). Hill will also share his early experience in writing, including how his parents unintentionally inspired his career, his start in journalism, and the risky decision to move to Europe and pursue his lifelong dream. You’ll discover how The Book of Negroes was brought to life on the page and the screen, and get a glimpse of Hill’s passion for empowering Black actors, promoting literacy, and of the exciting projects he’s working on next.

This event is presented in partnership with FLUP: The Literary Festival of the Peripheries, in Brazil.

FLUP Logo

Pull up a chair and settle in for a casual conversation between accomplished creatives—and good friends—writer Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes) and producer Damon D’Oliveira (Conquering Lion Pictures). The collaborators will discuss the moment they first connected during the CBC Radio recording of Hill’s first novel, Some Great Thing (1992), and how they’ve come to work together since then on more projects for film & television.

This candid conversation will explore Hill’s prolific storying of the Black experience in North America, and the recurring themes of race, identity and belonging in his extensive body of work, including Any Known Blood (1997) and Black Berry Sweet Juice (2001). Hill will also share his early experience in writing, including how his parents unintentionally inspired his career, his start in journalism, and the risky decision to move to Europe and pursue his lifelong dream. You’ll discover how The Book of Negroes was brought to life on the page and the screen, and get a glimpse of Hill’s passion for empowering Black actors, promoting literacy, and of the exciting projects he’s working on next.

This event is presented in partnership with FLUP: The Literary Festival of the Peripheries, in Brazil.

FLUP Logo

Featured Authors

Lawrence Hill is the author of 10 books, including The Book of Negroes, The Illegal, and Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. His 2013 Massey Lectures were based on his book of essays Blood: The Stuff of Life. His books have been read around the world. His essay about his mother, “Act of Love: The Life and Death of Donna Mae Hill” appeared in the Globe and Mail in 2018, and enriched a national conversation about medically assisted dying. He is completing a novel for children, and teaches at the University of Guelph.

Read more about Lawrence Hill

Under Conquering Lion Pictures and Flimshow Inc., Damon D’Oliveira has produced some of Canada’s most innovative films. His first feature, RUDE, premiered at Cannes in 1995. Other films include Poor Boy’s Game, Lie With Me, H and The Grizzlies. Recently, he executive produced Honey Bee with Martha Plimpton and The Rest of Us with Heather Graham. Damon’s 2015 award-winning miniseries adaptation of The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, debuted to historic ratings on the CBC and BET. It earned two U.S. Critic’s Choice Television Awards nominations, four NAACP Image Awards and was a finalist for the 2016 Peabody Award.

Read more about Damon D’Oliveira

5:00pm

Sunday, November 8

45 mins

What to read

The Book of Negroes by ,
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