Charles Officer, the award-winning Canadian director, producer, and writer whose work extended to documentaries and television, often focusing on the voices and characters of Black people, died at his home in Toronto on Friday.

Officer, who was 48 years old, died after a long battle with illness, according to his business partner at CaneSugar Filmworks, Jake Yanofsky.

Yanofsky remembered his longtime creative assistant as a giant in the Canadian film and television scene who will be sorely missed by both audiences and industry workers.

Yanofsky told CBC Toronto in an interview on Sunday: "He had a way of communicating with people, listening to the people who hear people and interacting with them," "I think he will be remembered a lot because he said important things in his work. And because he took a stand."

Officer produced the CBC television series The Porter and directed feature films from the crime drama Akilla's Escape to the documentary Unarmed Verses, which tells the story of Toronto Community Housing residents who were uprooted during the revival of their neighborhood.

Officer also directed four episodes of The Porter. The CBC/BET drama centered around a group of sleeping car porters — the first Black-led union in North America — won 12 awards at the Canadian Screen Awards in April, including Best Original Music, Production and Costume Design, Best Writing, and Best Drama Series.

Yanofsky said when he first met Officer, the first thing he noticed was that he was a great person.

"Even before we started talking about working together and collaborating as production partners. I saw it as, 'Oh, this is the person you want to get to know.'

He described Officer's work as a shared voice that could not be heard in the Canadian film scene.

Yanofsky added: "He struggled hard and put a lot of time and energy into composing those stories."

The Porter was the largest Black-led television series ever created in Canada.

Yanofsky said: "Obviously Charles grew up as a little Black kid in Toronto, so he would speak to it in the most beautiful poetic way possible because he was a screen poet."

Director Romeo Candido, who knew Officer for more than a decade, told CBC News that his friend set the standards for what people in the industry hope to achieve.

He continued, "He had a natural talent, he had charisma... many of us were playing catch-up with Charles."

"He truly highlighted untold stories and made them dramatic and dynamic. He celebrated people who could not be seen without that. So I think it’s up to the rest of us who are still here to pick up where he left off and continue." Telling stories about these communities that would not see the light of day without that."

The Toronto International Film Festival remembered Officer's film as a major Canadian talent, while the National Film Board expressed sorrow over his loss.

Officer’s first film, Nurse.Fighter.Boy, premiered in 2008 at TIFF and was nominated for 10 Genie Awards, a precursor to the Canadian Screen Awards.

His fellow director and film school colleague Sarah Polley said in an Instagram post that Officer created masterpieces.

She wrote, "This is a great loss. For all of us. And a call, in his great absence, to rise to the level of his optimism, dedication, constant uplifting of others, and mastery of his craft."