This previous summer time, it was the fiftieth Anniversary of the Apex Invitational Golf Event, based in 1974 by a younger black resident of Truro, Darrell Maxwell. Through the years, this occasion has grown into a sort of homecoming, celebrating the black communities round Truro, and their contributions, and bringing households and associates collectively from throughout.
Darrell Maxwell has fond recollections of rising up subsequent to the scenic golf course within the coronary heart of the central Nova Scotia city of Truro, regardless that he wasn’t allowed to play there due to his race.
The 78-year-old Ottawa resident recalled in a latest interview that a few of his earliest recollections are linked to the Truro Golf Membership, which runs parallel to a small, little-known historic Black group often known as “The Island.”
Maxwell’s lifelong love affair with golf started at age 5, when he began caddying on the membership for a gaggle of white, feminine golfers, incomes 50 cents for 9 holes. On the time, being a caddie was the one approach for him to entry the golf course.
“It was proper in our yard and it was a playground for me, however we had been restricted to caddying,” he mentioned. “(Black) folks from our group labored on the golf membership, however we had been forbidden to be members.”
The evolving relationship between residents of The Island and the golf course is the topic of a brand new documentary by Halifax-based filmmakers Brittney Gavin and Amy Mielke. “Apex: The Black Masters” will start streaming on CBC Gem on Friday. It describes how the world’s Black group went from being barred from the membership to internet hosting a golf match on the greens for the final 50 years.
Directed and produced by Brittney Gavin and Amy Mielke of A+B Roll Movies, “Apex: The Black Masters” premiered on CBC Gem on January 31, 2025.
The movie is the brainchild of Gavin, who grew up within the Halifax space however spent many summers of her youth visiting her grandmother, who lived within the small group composed of 28 homes alongside West Prince Road, adjoining to the golf course. The district acquired its identify, The Island, many years in the past as a result of it was typically remoted by flooding during times of heavy rain.
As a filmmaker, Gavin mentioned she needs to inform the story of lesser-known Black communities in Nova Scotia after having spent a lot of her early 20s dwelling in Toronto and Calgary. “I used to be actually shocked at how few folks knew that there are Black folks in Nova Scotia and that we’ve these traditionally Black communities,” she mentioned.
The province has greater than 50 historic Black communities established by Loyalists who fled america within the many years following the American Revolution.
Gavin mentioned she was in search of a hook to inform the story of The Island and located it through the fiftieth anniversary of the group golf match that Maxwell based in 1974, and which has turn into an area establishment. Generally known as the Apex Invitational, the newest match was held in early August 2024.
Gavin mentioned that whereas golf is the way in which into the movie, it’s not essentially its important focus. “I don’t know something about golf, nor am I a golfer, nevertheless it (the match) is an annual homecoming for the Black communities of Truro.”
The movie’s wider focus is made evident by one of many first of a number of interviews within the 22-minute documentary. Golf match committee member Jude Clyke emphatically established that he’s not a golfer.
“The very first thing he mentioned to me was, ‘I don’t give a rattling about golf,’” mentioned Gavin. “He’s like a really community-minded particular person and so I preferred having somebody who might characterize that social lens.”
Within the movie, Clyke stresses that lately the golf match has established a scholarship fund for younger Black college students from Truro and the broader Colchester County, who need to pursue post-secondary research. Greater than 140 scholarships have been given out since 1998 totalling over $113,000.
Maxwell, who was the primary to interrupt the golf membership’s color barrier when he grew to become a member in 1961 on the age of 14, mentioned he’s gratified to see how the match has developed since its inception. “We began off fairly humbly after which it proceeded to catch hearth and it become greater than only a golf match,” he mentioned. “I’m simply thrilled to see the development and the introduction of the scholarship fund.”
Maxwell mentioned that originally he simply needed to share his love of the game with youthful athletes locally after a enjoying profession that noticed him win the provincial junior championship and Nova Scotia Golfer of the 12 months in 1965.
“I needed to encourage the youthful ones … to pursue their desires and allow them to know that golf was now not an elitist recreation or a recreation that they had been forbidden to play,” he mentioned.
Gavin mentioned the movie captures a “full circle” second when the golf membership, which was based in 1905, holds a reconciliation ceremony with the group and makes Maxwell the sixteenth honorary member in its 120-year historical past, celebrating him for his expertise and contributions to the membership.
“I’m simply actually completely happy that they helped us inform the story, that they noticed the significance of that,” Gavin mentioned.
