Director Lee Daniels is shown in this file photo. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Chris Pizzello, file
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Director Lee Daniels is shown in this file photo. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Chris Pizzello, file |
TORONTO - Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels will be in Toronto on Tuesday to take part in a panel discussion celebrating Black History Month.
The American filmmaker will be joined by Canadian directors Norman Jewison and Clement Virgo ("Poor Boy's Game") at the event, which is being hosted by the Canadian Film Centre.
The trio will lead a discussion at a downtown theatre on black representation in cinema.
Daniels is the director of the acclaimed "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," which garnered six Academy Award nominations last week.
The nod for Daniels made him only the second black filmmaker to be nominated for best director in the 81-year-history of the Academy Awards. The first was John Singleton, who was nominated in 1992 for "Boys N the Hood."
Spike Lee has never been nominated for best director - only for screenwriting and documentary Oscars.
The discussion with Daniels, Jewison and Virgo will be followed by a screening of Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night."
The 1967 film, about racial relations in a small Mississippi town, won five Oscars.
Jewison's other films include "Moonstruck," "The Hurricane" and "Fiddler on the Roof."