Tag: Cheryl Foggo

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VIFF Interview: Cheryl Foggo on her film ‘John Ware Reclaimed’

Cheryl Foggo / John Ware Reclaimed

John Ware Reclaimed is a look at one of the least told types of stories in Canada, that of black history. John Ware himself is a locally famous figure and telling his story has been a lifelong interest of Canadian historian and writer Cheryl Foggo, who wrote and directed the film. I have already watched and reviewed it, and spoiler alert: it’s good.

I was able to sit down with her over Zoom this week to speak about the film, Black Canadian history, and the stories that get told.

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VIFF Review: ‘John Ware Reclaimed’ looks to change the conversation about the famous black cowboy

John Ware Reclaimed

A famous person you have probably never heard of. This is the description that Cheryl Foggo gives John Ware, an African-American cowboy who migrated north following the American Civil War and became one of the earliest ranchers in what is now Alberta. He is the namesake of two mountains and a creek.

As with many people who have places named after them, we only ever hear the stories we tell about them, and those stories are often, in a word, shallow. John Ware is no exception. Much of what we know comes from the book John Ware’s Cow Country by former Lt. Governor of Alberta Grant McEwan. It’s well-intentioned enough, but it was still written by a white man in the 1960s and is tainted by the cultural attitudes of the day.

Who was this man really, though? For a man steeped in local legend, what do we really know about him? Canadian historian, playwright, and filmmaker Cheryl Foggo aims to discover this with John Ware Reclaimed.

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