Casting call goes out for Winnipeg-filmed CBC drama The Porter

A major casting call is going out to Winnipeg's Black community as production is about to start on the largest Black-led TV series ever produced in Canada.

CBC and the online streaming service BET+ areco-creating the new drama series The Porter, about the world's first Black union created by railway workers from Canada and the United States.

Inspired by real events and set in the roar of the 1920s, the eight-episode serieswill followthe journeys of an ensemble cast of characters "who hustle, dream, cross borders and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation on and off the railways that crossed North America," states a release about The Porter.

Earlier this month, theseries unveiled itsleading cast. It includesAml Ameen (I May Destroy You), Mouna Traor (The Umbrella Academy) and Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Pretty Hard Cases).

The show is set primarily in Montreal, Chicago and Detroit, but is being filmed in Winnipeg. It begins shooting next month.

On Friday, the call for thefirst round of general casting went out to the public.

"It's been such a long road this has been, like, 11 years of my life getting to where we are now," said Arnold Pinnock, one of the series' co-creators.

"So it's exciting. I mean, we have a long road ahead of us, but a long road that I'm looking forward to every single day."

The producers are looking to castbackground actors andhope members of Winnipeg's Black community apply. Pinnocksaidthey are looking for a broad range of people.

Application formsand more information can be found on thecasting company's website.

"From top to bottom,from yourtoddlerthat you can't get away from the video games to your grandfather who can't get off of his La-Z-Boy, we want them all. We want everyone," Pinnocksaid.

"This is a celebration for Winnipeg. Come out and celebrate yourselves."

Porters fought for equality, dignity

The story the series tells is about the fight for equality and dignity, particularlyby the American and Canadian men who worked as railway porters. For the women in their lives, who face sexism and colourism, it's a movement to claim their independence and identity, says a news release.

"What they did in Canada or in North America, I mean, theyliterally changed policy. They banded together north and south of the border to create the biggest and the first Black union of its kind in the world,"Pinnocksaid over the phone from Toronto.

When he first learned the story of the porters, "that just stopped me in my tracks," Pinnocksaid. "And I was like, OK, this is where I want toput my energy towards.

"Black people walking the streets every dayshould know that they have a stake in this land the very streets that they walk especially Winnipeg.They are weaved into the fabric of this flag."

A porters' union, theOrder of the Sleeping Car Porters, was formed by four men inWinnipeg in 1917.

The OSCPlater voted to support white workers in theWinnipeg General Strike of 1919. Ninety-nine porters joined the 30,000 workers who walked off the job on May 12.The majority of those men weren't hired back after the dust settled.

"The birth of the union is Winnipeg. That's where these meetings started off," said Pinnock.

"That's why, when we were fortunate to know we were shooting in Winnipeg, I was like, are you kidding me? Because it's got such a heritage of movement and of bonding together to form this union that I just thought, of course we should be filming in Winnipeg.

"It was definitely meant to be."

• WATCH | Sleeping car porters and Black immigration to Manitoba:

CBC Archives (2000): Sleeping car porters and black immigration to Manitoba

5 years ago

Duration 9:29

In this piece from 2000, CBC reporter Sandra Batson covers immigration of black communities to the Prairies and the struggles they encountered in Canada.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.