The courtroom drama Foster Boy, starring Matthew Modine, Louis Gossett Jr. and Shane Paul McGhie is set to open the virtual Toronto Black Film Festival on Feb. 10.
The indie, executive produced by Shaquille O’Neal and directed by Youssef Delara, will launch the 9th edition of Canada’s biggest showcase of Black cinema, organizers said on Tuesday.
And the festival will close with Mia Donovan’s Dope is Death, a documentary about Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of Tupac Shakur, and fellow Black Panthers creating the first acupuncture detoxification program in the U.S. in 1973 to help heroin addicts deal with withdrawal symptoms.
Toronto’s Black Film Festival will stream in all 51 world premieres and 27 international premieres, having booked titles like Lanie Zipoy’s The Subject, starring Jason Biggs and Aunjanue Ellis; Amy Jephta’s Barakat; Mauli Junior Bonner’s Green Flake; and Derrick Perry’s Pink Opaque.
The Canadian festival will also include online panels on Black entrepreneurs, the Black Lives Matters movement and racism in the Canadian fashion industry.
The Toronto Black Film Festival is set to run from Feb. 10-21.
