CANADA LEE
NATIVE SON
Directed & Produced by Marco Williams
Produced by Kenny Kilfara and Jonathan Skurnik
Canada Lee, Native Son tells the inspiring story
of the pioneering African American athlete,
musician, actor, producer and activist who
poured his talent into fighting for racial
and economic equality.
CANADA LEE
NATIVE SON
Directed & Produced by Marco Williams
Produced by Kenny Kilfara and Jonathan Skurnik
Canada Lee, Native Son tells the inspiring story of the pioneering African American athlete, musician, actor, producer and activist who poured his talent into fighting for racial and economic equality.
Canada Lee was an indomitable presence in socio-political and artistic circles during the 1940s and early 50s. He mentored Sydney Poitier, collaborated with Orson Wells and Alfred Hitchcock, worked with Eugene O’Neill, Lee Strasburg and Stella Adler and was friends with cultural luminaries like Charlie Chaplin, Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Paul Robeson. With an uncompromising stance on progressive issues, an unquenchable voice and unarguable talent, Canada Lee became a power on the national stage. Tragically, at the height of his career, Lee’s uncompromising stance on civil rights prompted the U.S. Government to defame his reputation and destroy his career. Lee died in 1952 at the age of 45 and remains all but forgotten. Canada Lee, Native Son endeavors to reclaim the legacy of a great performer, patriot and pioneer.
Canada Lee was an indomitable presence in socio-political and artistic circles during the 1940s and early 50s. He mentored Sydney Poitier, collaborated with Orson Wells and Alfred Hitchcock, worked with Eugene O’Neill, Lee Strasburg and Stella Adler and was friends with cultural luminaries like Charlie Chaplin, Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Paul Robeson. With an uncompromising stance on progressive issues, an unquenchable voice and unarguable talent, Canada Lee became a power on the national stage. Tragically, at the height of his career, Lee’s uncompromising stance on civil rights prompted the U.S. Government to defame his reputation and destroy his career. Lee died in 1952 at the age of 45 and remains all but forgotten. Canada Lee, Native Son endeavors to reclaim the legacy of a great performer, patriot and pioneer.
Canada Lee, Native Son Teaser Trailer (TRT: 3:05)
Canada Lee, Native Son Teaser Trailer
(TRT: 3:05)
Crew
Marco Williams, Director Producer and Writer
Williams brings a breadth of experience to the project as an award-winning filmmaker and educator. His directing credits include Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities; The Undocumented; Inside the New Black Panthers; Freedom Summer; I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education; Two Towns of Jasper; The Spiritual Deficit and The American Dream; In Search of Our Fathers; and From Harlem to Harvard, among others. He has won numerous awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a George Foster Peabody Award, an Alfred I duPont Silver Baton, a Pan African Film Festival Outstanding Documentary Award, the Full Frame Documentary Festival Spectrum Award, and the National Association of Black Journalists First Place Salute to Excellence Award. He is a Professor at Northwestern University’s Department of Radio, Film and Television and is a Professor in Residence at Northwestern University in Qatar. He was a Professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, at Duke University, and at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
www.marcowilliams.com
Kenny Kilfara, Producer and Writer
Kilfara is an educator, producer, and director who has been immersed in the world of Canada Lee since 2003, when he first interviewed Lee’s widow, Frances Lee Pearson, as part of a master’s thesis project. Over the years he developed a close relationship with Pearson and other family members, and gained unfettered access to Lee’s story. He helped Pearson conduct research on her husband at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and is on the Board of Trustees for the Canada Lee Heritage Foundation. He has taught filmmaking, screenwriting and theatre at the collegiate and secondary level for twenty years.
www.kilfara.com
Jonathan Skurnik, Producer and Writer
Jonathan produces, directs and shoots award–winning documentaries for broadcast and educational distribution. His films tell the stories of people and communities struggling to overcome oppression to reach their highest potentials. In addition to his documentary work, Jonathan founded three foundation-funded grassroots outreach and engagement projects that provide transformational educational experiences through facilitated screenings and discussions and immersive digital resources on the web. Jonathan also directs short fiction films, is a film professor at UCLA and Chapman University and works as a visual artist.
www.jskurnik.com
News
National Endowment for the Humanities Funding
In May, 2023, we received production funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which allowed us to resume production in October, 2023. This followed our NEH development funding in 2021, resources that enabled us to write a script and complete other crucial pre-production tasks.
More Development Funding
In years 2021/22, we were fortunate to receive development funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities and The William Greaves Fund.
