After launching on Hot Docs at Home, we're thrilled to bring our free For Viola screening series to the Cinema with this Hot Docs 2021 award-winner and audience favourite.

Josiah Wilson was adopted as a baby in Haiti and raised in an Indigenous family in Calgary. Years later, Josiah’s non-Indigenous ancestry sees him disqualified from an Indigenous basketball tournament, depriving him of the chance to play the game he deeply loves and creating national news in the process. In the aftermath of this hurtful rejection, he embarks on the difficult path of healing from his past to find his footing in the world. A Top 10 Audience Favourite and winner of the Special Jury Prize for Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2021, this honest portrayal of identity and complicated family dynamics boldly asks us to create space for non-linear paths to self-acceptance, while revealing the empowering experience of being accepted and loved by your community.

Live post-screening discussion with director Yasmine Mathurin, and For Viola programmers Dawnalda Brennan and Julian Carrington.

For Viola: Hot Docs' screening series centering Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led stories and filmmakers, named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond. This series seeks to affirm Hot Docs as a space of inclusion for BIPOC creators and audience members alike. In order to minimize barriers to audience participation, all screenings in this series are free of charge.

While this film is presented free of charge, if you wish to extend your support, please consider a donation of $10 in recognition of the value of the work presented, and in honour of Viola Desmond, featured on the $10 banknote, at checkout. Half the proceeds will be shared directly with the filmmakers, who also receive screening fees.

View our health & safety measures here: bit.ly/3BMQ03u