It was 1946, preceding the civil rights movement, when the world caught a glimpse of what life could be when ‘there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation.’ An American named Jackie Robinson signed with the Montréal Royals, making him the first Black man to play Major League Baseball. He was hailed a hero by all Montréalers—a milestone that was later canonized in a Canadian Heritage Minute. Did this mark a turning point for race relations in North America? Or did it merely feed the myth of a post-racial paradise?

This is the central point of contemplation in Henri Pardo’s Dear Jackie. Part social documentary and part essay film, Pardo narrates an open letter to the hall-of-famer to describe what life was like in Montréal for the Black community at that time, specifically in Little Burgundy, where the Black community had lived since the 1800s. Using archival footage and photography with contemporary interviews, Pardo brings to light the social historical perspective of that summer of ‘46 beyond the Canadian Heritage Minute.