Selwyn Jacob
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Selwyn Jacob | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 (age 84–85) Trinidad, West Indies |
| Education | BEd, University of Alberta; film studies, USC School of Cinematic Arts |
| Occupations | Filmmaker, film producer |
Selwyn Jacob (born 1941) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker whose work has often explored the experiences of Black Canadians as well as other stories from Canada's multicultural communities, as both as an independent director and since 1997 as a producer with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
Selwyn Jacob was born in Trinidad, West Indies in 1941.[1] Jacob attended a teacher's college there before traveling to Canada in 1968 to complete a Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. While in Edmonton, he was influenced and mentored by film producer, author and broadcaster Fil Fraser. After graduation, Jacob completed a master's degree in film studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.[2][3]
Directing
It was while teaching in Lac La Biche, Alberta in the late 1970s that Jacob had the idea for his first film: a documentary about black immigrants from Oklahoma who settled in Amber Valley, Alberta, which after several years of research was completed as We Remember Amber Valley (1984). Jacob said that he was the only Afro-Canadian film director in Alberta at the time.[2][3]
Jacob's subsequent directorial credits include The Saint from North Battleford (1989), a portrait of Rueben Mayes; Carol's Mirror (1991), an educational film about racism and equality; Al Tasmim, a film about Canada's oldest mosque; and The Road Taken (1996), a documentary about the history of Black railway porters, which received the Canada Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.[3][4][5]