Ron Fanfair (1991)

Film about outrageous incident by Ron Fanfair
(Share, December 5, 1991)
Out of the Blue, a 30-minute documentary recounting the experiences of a Black teenager who was arrested by the police while attending church three years ago, was enthusiastically received at its premiere last Thursday.

Julian Dedier and his younger brother Terrence, along with three other Black youths and a South Asian boy, were arrested by Metro Police on January 8, 1989, during a service at the Malvern Christian Assembly church. The incident took place after a vendor at the Pickering Flea Market was assaulted and robbed of $4000 by a group of young people. Police went to the church after a cab driver reported dropping off some young people there who he said resembled the bandits. Dedier, 23, is now pursuing medicine at Northwestern University in the United States.

The film was produced by Trindadian Richard Fung, a close friend of the Dedier family. Some of it was shot in the Dedier’s backyard in Scarborough and at Stoney Lake.

Fung emigrated to Canada in the 1960s and pursued his education at the Ontario College of Art and the University of Toronto. The talented director recently completed two experimental documentaries which will be shown shortly. They are The Way to My Father’s Village, which focuses on the children of immigrants, and My Mother’s Place, which traces his mother’s family history and the culture of Trinidad and Tobago. Fung’s father was born in China and his mother in Trinidad and Tobago.

The premiere screening of Out of the Blue was presented by the Cross Cultural Communication Centre and the Organization of Parents of Black Children. A discussion, led by Dedier, community activist Lennox, Farrell and Avvy Go, a Chinese lawyer working on police reform, followed the screening at the Toronto Board of Education auditorium, which was attended by about 500 people of various ethnic backgrounds.

The production was financially assisted by the Ontario Arts Council and the Department of the Secretary of State.