Excellence and Vulnerability: A Conversation With Filmmaker Alison Duke

Let's Talk with Che Marville

In today's episode, Che spoke to award-winning writer-producer-director and passionate storyteller/activist Alison Duke. Alison is committed to telling stories of resistance and change. Alison Duke has made life telling the stories of others, she rarely talks about herself but in this conversation, Che had a chance to discover some of the motivations behind this great Canadian Filmmaker, Storyteller and Producer. Recently, she co-wrote and co-produced the television documentary Mr. Jane and Finch (19) directed by Ngardy Conteh George which garnered two 2020 Canadian Screen Awards: the Donald Britain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary and Best Writing for a Documentary. During the same timeframe, she directed Cool Black North (19) a two-hour television documentary special for CityTV/Rogers about the unique and vibrant Canadian Black Community and its role in our country’s contemporary identity.
Alison discusses her unique path into documentary filmmaking and the relationship between starting off as an athlete and evolving into a filmmaker. She was even inducted into the University of Windsor Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 for the sport of basketball. She got her start directing and producing documentaries with the hip hop cult classic, Raisin’ Kane: a rapumentary (00). From there she worked as a segment producer and field director on syndicated factual and lifestyle shows. Eventually, she made her way to social issue docs; A Deathly Silence (03). She also collaborates with other filmmakers as a producer; Andrew Nisker’s Garbage: The Revolution Stars at Home (07), Dany Chiasson’s My Joan of Arc (08) and Thomas Allen Harris’s Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photography and the Emergence of a People. Inspired by Ava Duvernay, #metoo and the reality that opportunities for women behind the camera in Canada are long overdue, Alison hired five Black female Canadian directors to helm short films for the Akua Benjamin Legacy Project (16) which celebrates the legacies of Canadian-based black activists Dudley Laws, Charles Roach, Rosie Douglas, Marlene Green and Len and Gwen Johnson. And now Alison is more focused on fictional storytelling and movie making. And for the record, Che and Alison are third cousins, they met in their late teens. Take a listen to the conversation, tell us what you think and share the podcast.