For Viola

A new and important screening series centering Black, Indigenous, and People Of Colour (BIPOC)-led stories and filmmakers, named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond. The 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 presentations in this series will be free of charge.

While For Viola will always be presented free of charge, if you wish to support the series, 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. As a non-profit, Hot Docs relies on donations like yours to continue to develop and expand inclusive programming and reach wider audiences. Half the proceeds from all donations will be shared directly with the filmmakers, who also receive screening fees. Thank you for your consideration.

<< Return to Hot Docs’ Anti-Racism statement.

Who Was Viola Desmond?
Viola Desmond (1914–1965) was a Black Nova Scotian entrepreneur and pioneer in the struggle against anti-Black racism in Canada. In 1946, Desmond was arrested and jailed when she refused to leave the whites-only seating area of a Nova Scotia cinema and was subsequently convicted and fined. In one of the first known legal challenges to racial segregation in Canada, she fought to overturn her conviction. Though her conviction was not reversed in her lifetime, she received a posthumous pardon from the Nova Scotia government in 2010.

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