''Loyalties'' is a 1999 Canadian documentary film directed by

Lesley Ann Patten Lesley Ann Patten is a film director, screenwriter, and producer whose first feature documentary '' Loyalties'' won the 1999 Canada Award. Early life Patten grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the granddaughter of Rear Admiral Stanley F. Patten w ...

about two women—one white, one black—who discover that they are related due to the legacy of

slavery in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...

. In 1995, Dr. Ruth Whitehead of the

Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, part of the Nova Scotia Museum, is located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. The museum includes collections and exhibits concerning the natural sciences as well as artifacts of cultural significance to N ...

in Halifax met

Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though t ...

graduate student Carmelita Robertson, who happened to mention that her relatives came to

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

from

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

Black Loyalists Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with the Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term refers to men who escaped enslavement by Patriot masters and served on the Loyalist side because of the Cro ...

in the late 18th century. Whitehead, whose own family also came from South Carolina, realized that she recognized some of the names of Robertson's ancestors, and together the two women journey to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

to explore their shared past. The film also exposes strains in the personal relationship between the two women, with Whitehead descended from wealthy slave owners, and Robertson the descendant of their slaves. ''Loyalties'' is co-produced by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

and ZIJI Film & Television Productions.

Awards

In 1999, ''Loyalties'' received the

Canada Award The Diversity Award is presented by Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour excellence in English-language television programming that "reflects the racial and cultural diversity of Canada." It was introduced in 1988 as the Multicultural ...

from the

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals, most notably through the Canadian Scre ...

and was named Best Social Issue documentary at

Hot Docs The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...

. The following year, it received the

Golden Sheaf Award Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

in the category of Best Multicultural/Race Relations documentary.

References

External links

* * 1999 films 1999 documentary films Documentary films about slavery in the United States Canada Award-winning shows National Film Board of Canada documentaries Documentary films about women Films set in Charleston, South Carolina Black Loyalists African-American history of South Carolina 1990s Canadian films {{Africandiaspora-stub