Niaflix: A Special Screening of Becoming a Queen (2022) & Patty Vs. Patty

It’s Caribana season, and we’re celebrating with a double feature! This month, join us for a screening of Becoming a Queen and short film Patty vs Patty directed, written and produced by Chris Strikes.

This month’s Niaflix screening showcases the vibrant journey, cultural legacy and importance of Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival and Toronto’s 1985 Patty Wars.

Important Details

Time: 7:30pm – 10pm

Location: 524 Oakwood Avenue

About the Films

Becoming a Queen

BECOMING A QUEEN takes us inside Toronto’s world-famous Carnival, an annual celebration of Caribbean pride and identity in this ultra-multicultural city. Among the biggest events of its kind in the world, Toronto’s Carnival draws participants and tourists from across the Caribbean, Europe, and all over North America. BECOMING A QUEEN invites viewers to experience Carnival through the eyes of Joella and her tightknit team. It’s the celebration of the year, suffused with meaning and significance. And at its centre is the King and Queen competition that Joella has been preparing for. This is where the real artistry of Carnival is.

There is a lot more to BECOMING A QUEEN than amazing outfits, glamour, and pageantry… this film is a profound discussion of Caribbean diaspora identity and culture in the 21st century.

Patty Vs. Patty

PATTY vs. PATTY is a short documentary that revisits Toronto’s bizarre “Patty Wars” of February 1985, when Canadian federal food inspectors deemed the beef patties Jamaicans know and love to have been illegally named “patty”. Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, a “beef patty” in Canada was defined as the meat that goes inside of a burger and only that. Despite the fact that patties of the tropical Caribbean island had been sold in Canada since the influx of Jamaican immigrants in the 1960s, the name was thought to be too confusing for (white) Canadian society.
Food inspectors threatened fines of $5,000 (today over $11,100), as vendors resisted, and refused to sell the savory snack under any other name. Through media coverage and community uproar, the now dubbed “Patty Wars” quickly got spicy. Politicians got involved. Lawyers got
involved. Both the Canadian and Jamaican government got involved. A “Patty Summit” was held in search of a resolution in attempts to avoid an international “crisis” between Canada and Jamaica. Told from the perspective of Michael Davidson, the fresh-faced manager of Kensington Patty
Palace, PATTY vs. PATTY weaves together first-hand anecdotes, archival footage and satirical reenactments to remember a story of bureaucracy gone wild and community resistance with one of the most popular snacks at the heart of it all.

About the Series

NiaFlix: A Night at the Centre is a monthly movie night series that centers movies, films and black storytellers that showcase Black Artistic Expression. Featuring carefully curated films by multidisciplinary artist Darynel Weekly, each night will transport you through stories that blend nostalgia, art, and culture, giving you that cozy Netflix vibe right at Nia Centre!

About the Director, Writer & Producer Chris Strikes

Chris Strikes is an award winning director who began his career in music videos working with top Canadian and international artists, including Nelly Furtado, Kardinal Offishall and Machel Montano. In 2013, Chris was MMVA nominated for Pop Video of the Year for “Turn It Up” by Kardinal Offishall. In 2017 Chris’ animal awareness music video “Chains of Silence” for Stephanie Braganza won Best Music Video at both the Global Music Awards and the Merit Awards of Awareness. Strikes expanded to producing and directing short narrative films, which have screened in festivals in Cannes, London & Manchester UK, Toronto, Halifax, Hamilton and LA.

In 2019, Strikes was accepted into the HotDocs Accelerator Fellowship. He was also one of only six recipients of HotDocs’ first CrossCurrents Canada Fund, with his first feature length documentary BECOMING A QUEEN. In the same year Strikes was also accepted into Reelworld’s E20 program.