Clement Virgo. - ContributedBy Eddie J. Grant,
Freelance Writer
TORONTO:
JAMAICAN FILMMAKER Clement Virgo did not make it to the podium at the Genie Awards to collect the three awards won by his film, Love Come Down. It was the second most honoured film of the night.
The big winner of the night was the movie Maelstrom, which took five awards.
The 21st annual Genie Awards ceremony was held at the Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto. It attracted the who is who of the Canadian film and entertainment industries. The awards ceremony was broadcast live on CBC television.
Virgo, who came to Canada at age 11, has made such movies as Save My Lost Nigga Soul, The Planet of Junior Brown and Rude, his first feature film produced in 1995. That film won the award for The Best Canadian Film at the Atlantic Film Festival.
Love Come Down, which was nominated in nine categories of the Genie Awards, tells the story of two brothers one black and the other white in their early 20s. Each has been the other's keeper since tragedy tore the family apart more than a decade ago.
Martin Cummins won the award for best supporting actor in the movie.
Virgo, along with fellow Jamaican, Stephen Williams and Colina Phillips, are among the few prominent black directors who are making inroads into the Canadian film industry.
Martin Mann's film 'Grass' was voted best documentary. According to him: "I have been smoking marijuana since the '60s and I don't see myself as a criminal. Further, the government has no business dealing with what people do in their own homes."
Actor Sandi Ross said some agencies censored the part of the film that showed someone smoking the weed.
The Genie Awards were created in 1993 by the Directors Guild of Canada.
