TIFF Canadian spotlight: Mina Shum and ‘Ninth Floor’

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing with hundreds of movies set to unspool through Sept. 20. Here’s a look at a Canadian project trying to break through at the 11-day movie marathon:

Film: “Ninth Floor”

Synopsis: This feature-length documentary examines the Sir George Williams University riot of February 1969, when a protest against a professor’s racism exploded into a 14-day student occupation at the Montreal school.

Director: Mina Shum

Hometown: Vancouver

Age: 49

Past work: “Double Happiness”

The film’s origins: “The National Film Board had been trying to work with me for a while and we’ve been looking for something that I could really get behind. Selwyn Jacob, the producer at the film board, experienced the fallout of this 1969 Sir George Williams event as a student. He brought this film to me and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to make this film but I think you should make this film.’ I read about it and I saw the words: charges of racism. That they charged racism, these immigrant students charged racism. That blew my mind. Because when I encounter racism — and I do — I wouldn’t necessarily have the balls to actually call it out like that. So I wanted to celebrate them but also look at how things have changed, or haven’t, today.”