2023

S1.E1 ∙ Down: Canada's Black Caregivers

Sun, May 28, 2023

For Black people in Canada, underrepresentation in society is commonplace, which is a reality experienced with deeper complexity in the black disability community, particularly among caregivers. Ugandan-born filmmaker Moses Latigo Odida, whose three-year-old was born with Down Syndrome, wants to confront negative attitudes and practices that ostracize Canada's Black caregivers. The title 'Down' is a homonym that hints at black caregivers feeling emotionally 'down' because of the challenges they face, while remaining 'down' for the responsibility of raising their loved ones, including those born with Down Syndrome.

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S1.E2 ∙ Why Education Matters for Black Caregivers

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

After migrating from Uganda, filmmaker Moses Latigo Odida attended a top Canadian university where a professor taught that Black people like him were biologically less intelligent than other people. Today, Moses must confront such racial stereotypes as he raises his daughter, who was born with Down Syndrome. Interviews with two academic experts involved in the education and medical systems illustrate how education can be used as a tool for either dehumanizing or empowering Canada's minority under-served communities like Black caregivers.

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S1.E3 ∙ Wonderfully Made

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

While coming to terms with a diagnosis of clinical depression, Moses Latigo Odida became a father to a beautiful girl born with Down Syndrome. As he adjusts to his new responsibilities as a Black caregiver, he discovers negative assumptions and stigma around mental illness, in addition to dehumanizing views about disability in some segments of his Black community. As a filmmaker determined to challenge these negative tropes, Moses interviews other Black caregivers who share their own experiences, and learns from them.

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S1.E4 ∙ Isolation

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

For many Black caregivers, feelings of isolation are often felt in two major respects; first as a Black person due to systemic racism which ensures their exclusion from society, and as a caregiver due to society's lack of understanding of their daily responsibilities. In Nova Scotia, one woman shares her experience of feeling isolated from her community while growing up as the primary interpreter for her mother who was born deaf. Another woman in Ontario shares the choices she had to make, in the form of sacrifices, when she became her brother's primary caregiver after losing both her parents. In both cases, these experiences have resulted in feelings of isolation from their immediate and broader community, which makes complicates their roles as caregivers to their loved ones.

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S1.E5 ∙ Down

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

Although experts agree that mental illness is at a crisis level within Canada's Black community, this is a reality that remains critically under-acknowledged. Black caregivers are directly impacted by this situation, as their responsibilities are often undertaken in isolation. Clinically depressed filmmaker Moses Latigo Odida is determined to be a healthy father to his daughter who was born with Down Syndrome, and looks to his Black community to support. Through interviews with caregivers and experts, Moses highlights the role of community can play in supporting Black caregivers living with mental illness while providing care to their loved ones. A call to collective action is emphasized as preferable to facing these challenges in isolation.

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S1.E6 ∙ Ubuntu

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

The African organizing principle of 'Ubuntu' (I am because we are) reflects the collectivist approach to life that most Black people live by, where it is understood that a healthy and prosperous life is best lived in community. Community is where knowledge is learned about shared, and problems are solved. Yet this is not the experience of all Black people. Lacking support and facing isolation on the beautiful island on which she grew up, a woman in Victoria, BC must come to terms with the impact of her isolation from a supportive Black community as she provides care for her father who was diagnosed with dementia. By sharing such stories, the 'Down' series highlights the need for efforts to be made to build networks of support for Black caregivers.

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S1.E7 ∙ Kuumba

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

Children and adults living with disabilities are often assumed to be incapable of participating in society. For two young Black men in Ontario, encouragement and support from their families and communities empowers them to participate in annual charity events that focus on strengthening the Black community. For caregivers, it is always a joy when loved ones are seen expressing themselves in community initiatives. This is central to the Swahili principle of 'kuumba,' which encourages collective responsibility to leave community better than we find it. The 'Down' series demonstrates the impact that strong community support can have on caregivers and their loved ones.

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S1.E8 ∙ My Village

Sun, Jan 21, 2024

When his daughter was born with Down Syndrome in 2020, Ugandan-born filmmaker Moses Latigo Odida was coming to terms with a diagnosis of clinical depression. Determined to be a healthy father to his beautiful daughter, Moses embarked on a Canada-wide journey to find a Black community of people like him to support him through his new role as a Black father. Upon reflection on his journey from Ontario to Nova Scotia and British Columbia, he shares three key themes that emerged through this journey: that everyone is created equal and should be treated as such; that the crisis of mental illness in the Black community must be acknowledged; and that there is beauty in the resilience of Black people in the face of oppression. The 'Down' series features stories of Canada's Black caregivers that reveal the complexity of their realities and the need for support as they provide care to their loved ones.

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