‘Scarborough’ film highlights community supports
Movie that debuted at TIFF presents namesake through unfiltered lens
Toronto-made film “Scarborough” debuted at TIFF on Friday and a movie that champions community programs couldn’t be more timely, its creators say.
“Scarborough” is the movie adaptation of Catherine Hernandez’s award-winning 2017 novel of the same name. The film highlights the resilience of three fictional Scarborough families as they struggle to access safe housing, mental health care, food and other basic needs. Most of it was set and filmed in the Kingston-Galloway/West Hill neighbourhood.
At the heart of the plot is a children’s literacy program, which all three kids and their parents attend regularly to read and play. Ms. Hina (Aliya Kanani) leads the program and makes genuine connections with the kids and their parents, despite warnings from her jaded supervisor not to become too familiar with the families.
Hernandez says the film’s debut came at the perfect time: “Scarborough” is premiering not only during back-to-school week, but also amid a global pandemic that has highlighted the importance of community building and the front-line workers who work in marginalized neighbourhoods.
“The precarious nature of the lives of social workers when they see an election and when they know that their jobs are actually at risk; the years that it takes for them to gain the trust of the communities that they
for this film to be released.”
Shasha Nakhai, the film’s codirector, agrees and adds that the movie’s depiction of childhood rife with societal challenges is evergreen.
“There’s a timelessness and a relevance to all of the intersecting issues that (“Scarborough”) deals with that makes it relevant
now and for a very long time to come,” Nakhai said.
Thanks to its documentarystyle filmmaking, “Scarborough” presents its namesake through a raw, unfiltered lens that allows tender moments between characters to stand out.
In one scene, Edna (Ellie Posadas)
lovingly teases her son, Bing (Liam Diaz), about his interest in sainthood as a career path shortly after he catches her weeping alone at the nail salon she worked at: a male customer she was giving a manicure to made uncomfortable sexual remarks at her. “Isn’t it a job to do saintly things while alive?” Bing asks his mother, who then reminds him that “it’s not a job until you’re dead.”
This was all by design. Hernandez was unsatisfied with the polished reels filmmakers would send her in hopes of turning “Scarborough” into a movie. So Hernandez turned to Nakhai and Rich Williamson; she’d worked with both directors previously for their 2013 film “Paruparo.” The duo agreed to shoot the fictional tale like a documentary and to have Hernandez write the script.
“I’m so very grateful because now when I watch the film, it’s exactly what I wanted,” Hernandez said. “I wanted it to feel as if you were a fly on the wall during these conversations and I’m hoping that audiences will feel that as well.”
Casting the films’s three young stars included the actors’ real-life parents and guardians. Because the film deals with heavy topics like abuse, neglect and grief, Nakhai and her team wanted to make sure the children had access to adults who were open to discussing these themes with them in a safe space.
The crew also made sure the kids had fun, both off-screen (Williamson had frequent lightsabre battles with the children) and during filming (Anna Claire Beitel, who plays Laura, was ecstatic to see movie magic while filming a scene where Nakhai flicked pasta sauce at her face, which was later edited to look like Laura’s father throwing a pot of pasta at her).
“(Williamson) and I would always be so serious on set, because of course, we’re taking this very seriously. But it was wonderful to work with children because they would remind us to have fun,” Nakhai said.
Toronto-based entertainment distribution company levelFILM has now acquired the Canadian distribution rights for the movie.
Hernandez is thrilled to be representing her hometown on the big screen. She hopes that the film leaves fellow Scarborough residents feel seen and proud of where they’re from.
“I’m excited for them to feel like they’re on the screen and that they matter because they matter to me — that’s a reason why I wrote the book in the first place,” Hernandez said. “This film is just like a love letter that will last forever.”