Written and Directed by Stefan Verna
Produced by Ariel Nasr
Starting with the searing archival footage that documents one of Montreal’s most notorious police shootings, Stefan Verna gives light and voice to an NDG community that is still struggling with loss. Montclair Street is deceptively calm and quiet today, yet the residents remember what happened on the night of August 17, 2018. They were permanently marked by the killing of Nicholas Gibbs, a 24-year-old Black man and father of 3, who was shot to death by Montreal police in the street outside his home. Nicholas was unarmed, and in the midst of a mental breakdown. Witnessing such violence has powerfully changed lives. For some residents, it has led to an awakening around issues of police violence and anti-Black racism. This urgent short documentary is constructed from firsthand accounts from Nicholas’ family and neighbours who witnessed the shooting in real time. Participants include Nicholas’ mother who has moved in order to raise her grandson in a home less steeped in tragedy. Neighbours have fled the memory too, including the Black man who created the influential documentation of Nicholas’ killing and now fears police harassment. Others, once passive observers, have become agents of change. Tying their together these stories and testimonies, a memorial event unites the community on the site of a street art intervention. Montclair & de Maisonneuve is transformed overnight by a graffiti art project. Both a memorial and a bold act of resistance, the large ground-mural includes each of the last footsteps that Nicholas took, on the site of his killing, visually plunging the viewer into the various systemic factors that led to his death. Will progressive policing with de-escalation and mental health protocols become standard to protect Black lives? If so, when? These are some of the questions raised in this haunting short documentary.