‘For the Culture with Amanda Parris’ returns to CBC for a second season

By Neil Armstrong

Season two of “For the Culture with Amanda Parris’’ on CBC Gem started streaming last Friday, and lovers of documentaries that probe issues with insightful questions in creative ways will be in for a treat.

Parris, a Toronto-based playwright, producer and host, travelled across North America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa to delve into topics impacting the Black community. The series pulls conversations out of group chats and brings them into the mainstream in an engaging and thoughtful way.

This season includes conversations with actor, director, author and activist David Harewood (Homeland, Supergirl, Psychosis and Me), and two-time WNBA champion and Toronto Tempo General Manager Monica Wright Rogers.

Parris explores topics such as Black men’s mental health; the cost for kids worldwide pursuing an elusive hoop dream; imagining a future beyond police and prisons; Black food sovereignty; the impact of tourism and Black travellers on Black countries; and the idea of “strategic singlehood’’ for a growing number of Black women.

“It’s about asking questions and finding the right people on the frontlines to help respond to those questions and push us to the next better question to ask. My hope is that we’re not talking about the same thing over and over again; we’re pushing the conversation forward,” says Parris, who admits it is a bit of a selfish project because she usually has many ideas prepared.

She is constantly saving ideas sparked by conversations, social media, and things she overhears in everyday life. While waiting for news of renewal, she kept thinking about new topics, so when season two discussions began, she says, “I was like, I have lots of thoughts.’’

She had ideas for five episodes and worked with her team of researchers and writers on others, including “Beyond Happily Ever After,’’ which explores why Black women are choosing “strategic singlehood’’ and redefining intimacy and love; and “Black Men’s Mental Health,’’ in which she examines how anti-Black racism in the UK, US and Canada affects diagnosis and treatment.

The 13-month creative process, from ideas to final edits, along with coordinated planning and block shooting, resulted in incisive episodes worth watching.

Among the things she learned was that Black men in the UK are sectioned 3.45 times more often than white people, meaning they are detained against their will in mental health hospitals. She heard frequently about healthcare providers labelling them “Big, Black and Dangerous,’’ along with issues of overmedication and questionable diagnoses.

Parris noted that Canada does not track race-based health data, making similar claims harder to verify. In Jamaica, she found that many care models created under the colonial system still need adjustments to become true spaces of healing.

She hopes the series helps move conversations forward. For example, through season one’s “Black Maternal Health’’ and this season’s “Black Men and Mental Health,’’ she wants people to understand fields often clouded by medical jargon and to gain language and strategies for addressing these issues.

Working with production partners OYA, an award-winning Black-led company co-founded by Alison Duke, and Montreal-based Noble Television helped Parris explore new stories affecting the Black community across the diaspora.