"In her first feature-length documentary, director Mina Shum (Double Happiness) takes a penetrating look at the Sir George Williams University riot of February 1969, when a protest against institutional racism snowballed into a 14-day student occupation at the Montreal university.
"The complexity of activism is the subject of the powerful debut documentary feature from director Mina Shum (Double Happiness). The film begins with Expo '67 and its rosy vision of Canada as preternaturally tolerant, but the Caribbean students who came to Canada to study in the late 1960s were hardly welcomed with open arms. As one subject explains, Canadians are racist, but they feel the need to apologize for it. Not all felt that need, however: a lecturer at Sir George Williams College treated his black students so differently from his white ones that they took their grievances to the administration. After several disastrous missteps by the university, the school's computer department was occupied and a lengthy standoff ensued. Expertly combining archival footage and recent interviews to craft a portrait of genuine heroism, Ninth Floor is a timely reminder of the importance of civil disobedience, particularly in times when governmental powers go unchecked." - Steve Gravestock
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