The Black Invitational Basketball Tournament was a gift Bryan Darrell left to the black communities of Nova Scotia. Bryan took some time to tell me about the first year “Tournament” was held and the reason he started it.

How did you spend your Canada Day weekend?

We were on the Commons in Halifax Nova Scotia working with a great crew shooting the Canada Day concert. Big shout outs to Chuck Calder at 45 North Broadcast Group, Sean Senechal from Cafe Media Solutions, Danny Leadley from Cameraman.ca and Ian Barker for coming together and providing great coverage of the concert.

If you were involved in, went to cheer someone on, refereed in, volunteered at, DJ’ed, BBQ’ed, witnessed your best friend get dunked on or have some great pics or video get back at me.

There are some stories that I think should be told and some histories that should be recorded and archived. That is what led me to begin “Breaking Ice”, The Birth of a Canadian Surf Culture. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to dig into a project like that. Freelancing, teaching, and raising a young family takes up an incredible amount of time. Anyone who has ever made a documentary knows the work and care that needs to go into the process to make something that does your subject justice.

Well, here I go again. I’ve started the process of researching the over 40 year history of the Black Invitational Basketball Tournament in Halifax. This is a daunting task but I believe that this story should be told. I’m asking anyone out there that has information, contacts, or has played, coached, organized, refereed, volunteered and even spectators to let me know if you are interested in talking with me over a coffee.

I’d like to build a series of video short stories as teasers in hopes to eventually find funding to help this project come to life. I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Video Editing Tips and Tricks from Oscar-Nominated Editor Joe Walker

Testimonials are a great add on to any company website. Video testimonials are even better. Seeing someone who is completely satisfied talking about their experience working with a fantastic company speaks to your audience. It reassures them you’re the right choice.  If you’ve done great work and clients would like to recognize you for that, give us a call. We’ll bring the lights, camera, microphones and even a teleprompter if needed.

With a little time off over the weekend I went back to revisit my final documentary project at Vancouver Film School from 2005. It’s a short doc called “Bleeding Blue Walls” that I co-created with Rosan Sashida Duffour. It’s a historical piece about the history of Canada’s oldest blues bar The Yale. My favourite part is still the narration by the late, great Jack Velker. Enjoy the watch!