Caribbean Tales

Tanya Mullings

Queens of Our Music:  On Sunday, August 1st, 2010, from 3 pm to 7 pm, the CaribbeanTales Film Festival presents an extraordinary and entertaining line-up of films called Queens of our Music – in celebration of Caribbean and Caribbean-Canadian Divas who have rocked the mic from Toronto to Havana, and back.

The afternoon kicks off with Music Is My life, an intimate portrait of the Canadian-born singer Tanya Mullings who has won the hearts of fans all across Canada and the Caribbean. The daughter of the late great Jamaican reggae music producer Karl Mullings, the film reflects on her art and on the influence of her famous father.

Macomere Fifi

 At 4 pm, Stepping Out, directed by Mars Horodyski, features Toronto-based singer Saidah Baba Talibah. The daughter of legendary Canadian jazz singer Salome Bey and the equally respected Kittitian music producer Howard Matthews, she is veritable Canadian music royalty.  Her extraordinary talent has allowed her to carve her own niche in this competitive contemporary market.

At 4:25 pm, Blood directed and produced by Cayman-based filmmaker Judy Singh features popular Canadian-Jamaican dub poet D'bi Young, with performances by the Cuban female Hip Hop Group Las Krudas. The film is part extraordinary music video (shot on locations around Havana, Cuba) and part entertaining after-dinner

conversation between D’bi and her friends.

Dbi.young.anitafri

At 6:50 pm, the screening will be followed by an in-person Talk-Back session with special guest Tasha Rosez  - the reggae DJ, who will provide some insight into the issue of women in the music business.

Fresh New Voices and Visions in Caribbean Film and Television: On Monday, August 2nd, 2010, from 2:30pm to 5pm, CaribbeanTales presents Fresh New Voices and Visions in Caribbean Film and Television, featuring several Canadian premieres.

Tribes by Ras Kassa

Jimmel Daniel - Power of The Vagina

WORKSHOPS August 1, 1-4pm

CaribbeanTales presents An Introduction to Animation -  Sponsored by Toon-Boom. 

Venue: The Brigantine Room

Computer animation is one of the most exciting applications spawned by the advent of computer technology. This hands-on course introduces participants to some basic concepts. Suitable for all ages.

The CaribbeanTales Annual Film Festival is founded by accomplished Toronto-based Trinidadian filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, whose most recent award-winning feature film A Winter Tale has won international acclaim. She is the President and Artistic Director of the two companies she created: Leda Serene Films and CaribbeanTales.  Her recent projects include HeartBeat – a documentary series profiling Caribbean musical creators; Literature Alive, a many faceted multimedia project profiling Caribbean authors; and the Gemini-nominated Lord Have Mercy!  Canada’s landmark multicultural sitcom originally created for Vision TV, Toronto1, APTN and Showcase.

CaribbeanTales is Canada’s premier multimedia company that creates, markets and distributes educational films, videos, radio programs, audio books, theatre plays, websites and events, to showcase the rich heritage of the Caribbean Diaspora worldwide.

CaribbeanTales’ mandate is to foster and encourage intercultural understanding and citizen participation through the medium of film, contributing to an inclusive Canadian society.

Frances-Anne Solomon.

The complete list of films being screened is online here. 

This stellar collection of films  include six feature films and several shorts. On Wednesday April 28 at 6pm, the Opening Film is Stephanie's Black's masterful "Africa Unite". Part concert tribute, part Marley family travelogue, this electrifying film follows the Marleys on their first-time-ever family trip to Ethiopia to commemorate Bob's 60th birthday. Stephanie Black will be in attendance to participate in a talk-back after the film. (View the trailer for Africa Unite)

This will be followed at 8pm by "Calypso Dreams" (dirs Geoffrey Dunn and Michael Horne). Executive produced by music legend Eddy Grant, with narrative commentary by David Rudder, this authoritative documentary captures rivetting performances and original interviews with a host of legendary Calypso performers, including the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Lord Superior, Black Stalin, Mighty Bomber, Lord Blakie, Singing Sandra, Mighty Terror, Lord Kitchener, Lord Pretender, and Harry Belafonte. "Calypso Dreams is far and away the best film ever made about calypso…."(View trailer Calypso Dreams)

On Thursday April 29th at 6pm, Michelle Materre, curator of the"Creatively Speaking" screening series, will present Life Lessons, 4 short films by New York-based filmmakers of color. A Departure from A Love by Ishmael Islam, follows a young man's walk through his beloved Brooklyn while reciting spoken word to a lover, while, The Lesson Plan by Eddy Duran follows a Brooklyn school teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as he constructs an unusual Lesson Plan for students, drawing on letters by 18th century slave owner William Lynch, (after whom the term "lynching" was coined). This film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2009. As well, Sticks and Stones by Rehema Imani Trimiew exposes biases in the NY education system that prejudices black kids; and, Premature by Rashaad Ernesto Green tells of Tisha, a streetwise Bronx teenager from the Bronx, who gets unexpected news.

Friday April 30 at 6pm begins with 3 stunning shorts from the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago : Directions by Renee Polonais, winner of the audience award at the T&T film festival 2008, is a hilarious look at the roundabout ways some Trinidadians give street directions, while Invisible by Multimedia artist Elspeth Duncan focuses on a woman called "Veronica", and her daughters, facing the bitter effects of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago. As well, Mami Wata is an evocative film exploration of Shango ritual, by Yao Ramesar one of the most accomplished and prolific Caribbean directors, who has made dozens of films on the people, history, and culture of Trinidad.

This will be followed at 8pm by Rain, director Maria Govan’s powerful debut feature, that follows a teenager Rain who goes to Nassau to find her mother, and discovers her living in a desperately poor, AIDS-ravaged neighborhood. One of the first films to be produced indigenously in the Bahamas, Rain reflects a striking visual contrast between the idyllic tourist setting and the harsh realities of everyday Bahamian life.

On Saturday May 1st, at 4.pm, two short films: The Legend of Buchi Fil by Surinamese filmmaker German Gruber, draws on slave folklore to tell the story of the strongest of the slaves whose will was only crushed when his beloved wife was killed. And, Drummit2Summit by Christopher Laird, "one of the most important and prolific filmmakers of the English-speaking Caribbean"(Richard Fung) records the events of 18th April 2009, when a group of protesters holding a public event in Port of Spain, Trinidad, during the 5th Summit of the Americas, faced down pressure from armed riot police, using drums, song, and the power of the media.

At 6pm, The Closing Feature is Carmen and Geoffrey by filmmakers Linda Atkins and Nick Doob, a beautiful documentary about the work of two exceptional artists - dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade and Trinidadian dancer, choreographer, director and designer Geoffrey Holder -  and the fifty-four year long love affair and creative partnership that sustained their accomplishments. Linda Atkins and Nick Doob will attend the screening and and Talk back afterwards.

Also this month, CaribbeanTales partners with the Festival International du Film Panafricain in Cannes, France to bring a number of Caribbean titles to screens there, including Roger McTair's Journey to justice; Fabulous Spaces, an exploration of the work of science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson; Blood Dub and the Matriarch - Judy Singh's stark biopic of dub artist dbi.young. anitafrika; Jab by Alex Deverteiul; Gathering the Scattered Cousins by Akin Omotoso; What My Mother Told Me and I Is A Long Memoried Woman by Frances-Anne Solomon; Celebration by Yao Ramesar; Crack House by Camille Selvon Abrahams; and Glory to Gloriana by Lenny Little White, and many more. For the full festival programme, please click here.

CaribbeanTales is Canada’s premier multimedia company that creates, markets and distributes educational films, videos, radio programs, audio books, theatre plays, websites and events, that showcase the rich heritage of the Caribbean Diaspora worldwide.

CaribbeanTales’ mandate is to foster and encourage intercultural understanding and citizen participation through the medium of film, contributing to an inclusive Canadian society. Available for interviews: Frances-Anne Solomon,  Kamau Brathwaite, Stephanie Black, Nick Doob and Linda Atkins, Michelle Materre, etc.

For media inquiries please contact: Pennant Media Group Kevin Pennant :  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text74600 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Toronto 416.596.2978 Los Angeles 818.748.7517

Dec 8th 2009

Click here to go to the Best of CaribbeanTales 2010 website.

The creative industries of film and television will receive a boost this February when CaribbeanTales, a Toronto-based multimedia company, brings together formidable local, regional and international partners to showcase, discuss and promote Caribbean film at “THE BEST OF CARIBBEANTALES FILM FESTIVAL AND SYMPOSIUM” that will take place at the Olympus Cinema, Sheraton Center and at UWI Cave Hill from February 23rd to March 2nd, 2010. The Festival kicked off with a Media Launch on December 8, 2009 at 1.30pm at the Errol Barrow Center for Creative Imagination, UWI Cave Hill.

The event’s Director is accomplished Toronto-based Trinidadian filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, whose most recent award-winning feature film A Winter Tale, has won international acclaim, and who has been a visiting lecturer at UWI. She said: “February is Black History Month and it is fitting for us to mark this with a celebration of film, to start the year with a bang and to push the discussion forward about how we can create here a sustainable and profitable industry”.

The festival is incredibly proud to partner with a number of local organisations including One Caribbean Media, that will co-host a Symposium on Global Distribution; the Shridath Ramphal Center at UWI, that will co-host a Film Market at the Festival; and the Barbados Film and Video Association, whose president Penelope Hynam said: “I am delighted that Barbadian audiences will get to see some of the wonderful films we saw at the Caribbean Tales Festival in Toronto this year, including a fantastic cross section of work by our most important filmmakers from around the Diaspora.” 

For its fourth fabulous year, the CaribbeanTales Film Festival returns with four days of exciting programs, celebrating local
and international Caribbean cinema.

As Canada’s premier standalone Caribbean film festival, CaribbeanTales presents the best Caribbean films from around the world at the William Doo Auditorium (45 Willcocks St.) this July 9th to 12th 2009.

Download your SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE (pdf) here.

Tickets available at
UofTtix Box Office
(416) 978-8849

uofttix.ca 

  University of Toronto's Central Box Office Open Mon-Fri 11am-5pm in Hart House, University of Toronto

THURSDAY, JULY 9th, 2009

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM, 45 WILLCOCKS ST, TORONTO

  _____________________________________________________

12:00 p.m.

Filmmakers' VIP Welcome Lunch 

@ GSU PUB

Join us to welcome our valued filmmakers to the 4th Annual CaribbeanTales film festival!

We are very excited that this year the festival welcomes delegations and participants from Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, Jamaica, Curacao, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.

Our special guest internationally renowned Martinican filmmaker Euzhan Palcy.

Sponsored by: Smiley's Catering

_____________________________________________________

Industry Series

Our industry Series features presentations and contributions from filmmakers, academics and industry leaders, in a Round Table format. 

 1:30 p.m.

Making Films in Canada  - Round Table

Led by:

Lea Marin and Anita Lee - Producers from the National Film Board of Canada.

Karen King, Production Executive, Global Television.

Andy Marshall - Creator/Producer, Soul, Vision TV    

 2:45p.m.

Marketing and Navigating the Film Festival Circuit - Round Table

Led by:

June Givanni - International Festival Programmer

Hayet Benkara - International Industry Consultant

Kevin Pennant  - Publicist, Pennant Media Group

Kirk Cooper - Independent Programmer/Publicist

 4:00p.m.

Art For Social Change - Round Table 

Led by:

Christopher Laird  - Co-Founder and Managing Director, Gayelle The Channel, Trinidad

Christopher Laird is the Founder/ CEO of Gayelle The Channel, and the co-founder and M.D. of Banyan Productions. "One of the most important filmmakers working in the Anglophone Caribbean" (Richard Fung, leading Toronto critic & award-winning video-maker).  

Dr. Gladstone Yearwood, Director - Errol Barrow  Center For Creative Imagination, UWI Cave Hill, Barbados   

Gladstone Yearwood  is an important scholar in the study of African American and Diaspora film. His books include Black Film as Signifying Practice: Cinema, Narration, and the African American Aesthetic Tradition and Black Cinema Aesthetics.  He has curated numerous film exhibition programs.

_____________________________________________________________

5:00 p.m.

Opening Night Reception

Hosted by The Consulate General of Barbados, Toronto

 7:00 p.m.

Where do White People go When the Long Weekend Comes? The Wondrous Journey of Delroy Kincaid - Powys Dewhurst, Canada & Dominica 2008, 7mins

Delroy, an artistic 8 year old black child from a tiny seaside village in the Caribbean immigrates to a ‘First World’ inner city. He begins to wonder where his white friends disappear to for the holidays. His imagination comes alive as the film explores the black immigrant child's experience while celebrating cultural differences in a whimsical fantasy using a unique blend of simple animation, illustration, projection and live action. 

Powys Dewhurst is a Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, his interests lie in fantasy, magical realism and science fiction and using those to explore social issues some some level involving race and identity in unique ways, even controversial ones

GATHERING THE SCATTERED COUSINS - Akin Omotoso South Africa  2008 15mins

Akin's mother’s sudden death from cancer takes him on a psychological and physical journey across the Atlantic, to his mother’s birth home Barbados, a paradise island where he always found comfort as a child.

Akin Omotoso was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and a West Indian mother. He is a well-known actor in South African film and television. GATHERING THE SCATTERED COUSINS is his first documentary.

CARMEN AND GEOFFREY - Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob, USA 2009 70mins

This beautiful feature documentary is about the work of two exceptional artists, Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, who stepped forward in the 1950's to play a vital part in the newly energized world of American modern dance. It is also about a  fifty-four year long love affair and the creative partnership that sustained their accomplishments. 

The film was directed by the husband and wife team of Nick Doob and Linda Atkinson.  Linda, a student of Carmen de LaVallade, first met Carmen and Geoffrey while she was studying acting at the Yale School of Drama. She began directing in 1983 and worked at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Indiana Rep, the Peterborough Players, WestBank Theater Bar and for NBC’ s Another World. Nick Doob has been director, cinematographer and editor on numerous award-winning films, including From Mao to Mozart, which won an Oscar.   In 2000 he won an Emmy as a producer on American High, the acclaimed verité TV series.  Currently he is directing and producing a 90 minute film for HBO about Alzheimer’s.

 _______________________________________________________________

FRIDAY, JULY 10th, 2009

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM, 45 WILLCOCKS ST, TORONTO 

YOUTH DAY

Sponsored by the Toronto Federation of Co-operative Housing 

12:00 p.m

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

THE CRACK HOUSE- UWI Students Stop Motion Michelle Chin, Caroline Singh & Laurel Bristol

A University of the West Indies Student short that looks at a day in the life of some Caribbean Chickens.

WHERE I'M FROM (Music Video) Cabral "Larc" Trotman, Canada, 5 mins

The socio-political music video "Where I'm From" by recording artist Black-I tells the story of ghetto youth in Toronto from the inside out via. Mega City News, a television network created by the community to inform and educate.

The son of Barbadian parents, Cabral "Larc" Trotman was born in Toronto, and became interested in films during a grade 11 Media class.  That spark ignited his interest in Filmmaking which evolved to a responsibility to share stories and perspectives relevant to his community. LARC is currently a Technical Officer for the Film Unit at the University of the West Indies, Barbados and is in production with his first Bajan drama "Back Shots".

A WINTER TALE – Frances-Anne Solomon Canada 2008 103mins

This multi-award-winning audience favorite tells the emotional story of a Black men's support group that meets in a Caribbean Takeaway restaurant, in the wake of the death by gunfire of a young child in Toronto's Parkdale community.

Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning Filmmaker, Writer and Producer in Film, TV Radio and theatre. Born in England to Trinidadian parents, she trained in Theatre at the University of Toronto, before moving to Great Britain where she built a successful career with the BBC as a Drama Producer in Radio and Single Drama. She returned to Canada in 2000 and continues to create, direct, write and produce film television theatre and new media projects through her company, Leda Serene Films. Her last feature film, A Winter Tale won many international awards. In 2002, she established CaribbeanTales, to create multimedia projects aimed at the educational market, and  she is the Founder and Director of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival. She is currently in development with her new project LOCKDOWN.

3:00 p.m.

MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL WEARING MY HYJAB -  Mary Wells, Jamaica, 10 mins

Sudani is a Muslim in a very Christian school and society as a result, she’s different, fortunately her difference wins her new friends and teaches them tolerance. This film is part of a childrens live-action drama series called: “Scribble A Story.” 

Mary Wells is an independent Director, Writer, Producer with twenty years  experience in TV & Film production mainly in documentaries. She has travelled widely and worked  in the USA, Europe, the Caribbean and Southern Africa. She is currently in production with her first feature film "Kingston Paradise".

NOT INNA DAT - Lisa Wickham, Trinidad and Tobago 2008 20 mins

Through the eyes of Youth in underprivileged areas, this documentary goes on a journey to two districts of Trinidad impacted by violence; Caledonia & Enterprise Chaguanas. With the assistance of popular entertainers, the Youth give views on gangs, violence & death, why they turn to violence and ways that violence can be stopped. Includes a music video from RIZON (a conscious artiste) who implores youth to think twice before choosing a life of crime because we “Not Inna Dat”.

Lisa Wickham is a formidably talented Media Producer, Director and TV Personality based in Trinidad. She began her career on television at the age of six, as the host of the weekly children's show "Rikki Tikki" (1973-1985). She is currently the CEO of Imagine Media International Limited, best known for its line of television productions under the E-Zone Entertainment brand, which has been syndicated throughout the Caribbean and in the US on BET J. She is the founder-publisher of E-Zone the Mag! and the Caribbean Film and Media Academy, a training institution. In 2007 and 2008, she Produced and directed (for both stage and television) the highly acclaimed Annual COTT Music Awards.

SOUL - Andy Marshall/Vision TV, Canada, 2009, 45 min

SOUL tells the story of  Mahalia Brown.

A young gospel singer with the Keystone Sanctuary Youth Choir, Mahalia has an unforgettable voice and an overwhelming passion for music. It's her elixir of life.

It's also her potion for commotion. When she puts it out there, nobody can resist

Andy Marshall recently produced “Acalanto” and “A Silent Wish” (both Dir. Mateo Guez) and “Where Do White People Go When The Long Weekend Comes? The Wondrous Journey of Delroy Kincaid” (Dir. Powys Dewhurst). He is the co-creator of SOUL, a one-hour drama produced by Halifax Film Co. for Vision TV, on which he held the titles of Creative Producer, Writer, Actor and co-Songwriter. Born in Trinidad, Andy holds a BA in Music, and an MFA in theatre from York University. He graduated from the 2003 Canadian Film Centre’s Producers Lab, and is currently in development on the feature film, Innocent.

 12:00pm  

ANIMATION WORKSHOP Pre registration required

'Intro to Animation Basics'.

1) Short History of animation using projections and short sample films
2) Basics of Animation
3) Some Simple principles involved in animation
a. Squash and Stretch - 'Bouncing Ball Excercise'
b. Timing - 'The Growing Flower Excercise'
c. Movement - The Worm Excercise.

This workshop could take from 2 - 4 hours               

OUTCOME
1) A basic feel for the art of animation and an introduction to its principles.
2) 3 short animated pieces demonstrating what was taught.
3) An introduction to the animation software.
4) A eyeopener to a possible future career.

CAMILLE SELVON ABRAHAMS  is an award winning multi-media producer & animator who returned to Trinidad & Tobago after spending five years honing her animation and multi-media production skills in the United Kingdom.  She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Media and Communications specializing in animation and in her final year won the London-based Royal Television Society Award for best animation. 

She is the Founder and Creative Director of Full Circle Animation Studio based in Port of Spain Trinidad,  a state-of-the-art-design studio that focuses on animation, new-media production and training.

She is also the founder of the annual Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival (www.animaecaribe.com) , the Caribbean's first and only standalone animation festival, now in is its seventh year.

Camille lectures at the University of Trinidad and Tobago

_____________________________________________________

5:00 p.m.

TRINIDAD NIGHT - VIP MEET & GREET

Consulate General of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Toronto

AT THE GSU PUB

_____________________________________________________  

 7:00 p.m

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

DEEPER SHADOW SONG. Animation. Coretta Singer aka SIREN Jamaica, 3 mins

A music video that takes the viewer into a paradoxical world where love, sex & technology fuse.    

BOB, Animation. Full Circle Studio & Camille S Abrahams Trinidad and Tobago 4min

Short on HIV AIDS and its issues in the workplace.

INVISIBLE, Elspeth Duncan, Trinidad & Tobago, 11 mins

Veronica and her four-year-old daughter are HIV positive. Her eight-year-old son is not. As the small family faces the bitter effects of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago, one is driven to ask which is the real disease: HIV/AIDS or ignorance?

CELEBRATION, Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 15mins

An epic montage of Trinidad and Tobago's culture

SEA IN THE BLOOD. Richard Fung, Canada, 26 min. 2000

"Forcefully moving, but made with a feather-light touch, Sea in the Blood manages gracefully to speak of illness and a brother’s absence at the end of his sister’s life; of colonialism and incipient political awareness; of growing up as a young gay man in a homophobic society;  of a lover’s fears for his partner’s health." - Chris Gehman

Trinidad-born Richard Fung is a Toronto-based videomaker and writer. His work explores the intersection of race, sexuality and representation, and has been widely screened internationally.  He has lectured and taught across North America and is the recipient of many awards, including Rockefeller and  McKnight Foundation fellowships, The 2000 Margo Bindhardt Award and The Bell Canada award for excellence in media arts.

"Richard Fung has emerged as one of the most challenging, provocative, thoughtful and engaging experimental artists anywhere." 

DRUMMIT2SUMMIT - Christopher Laird, Trinidad and Tobago, 2009, 45 mins

On the 18th April 2009 The Rights Action Group and Fishermen and Friends of the Sea  held a public event in the St. James Amphitheatre, Trinidad. This event, called ‘Drummit2summiT’ was to facilitate the expression by community organizations of concerns they thought were being ignored at the 5th Summit of the Americas, which was being held at a luxury waterfront development on the other side of the city attended by the heads of all the governments in the hemisphere (except Cuba).

The event had no sooner begun than the police started applying increasing pressure to stop the proceedings until the amphitheatre was invaded by armed riot police. This confrontation was witnessed by the national community as the event was being carried live on Gayelle the Channel and soon many of the other radio and television stations were taking Gayelle’s live feed and people started to come to the amphitheatre in support of the activists.

Gayelle’s documentary seeks to capture the essence of this afternoon which outraged and opened the eyes of a nation.

SCREENING ROOM 2  

MAMI WATA - Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 15mins

Winner, Paul Robeson Awards; Critic's Choice Global Africa

Robert Yao Ramesar is an award-winning Ghanaian-born, Caribbean filmmaker/photographer. His work has been broadcast and exhibited in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean, including multi-channel cable simulcasts. In, 2001 he was one of twelve international artists to take part in the Big River 2 biennial workshop, and exhibited motion picture work as well as sculpture and mixed media works.

BLUE OPERA - Ayodhya Ouditt Animation, Trinidad and Tobago 4 min

An animated music video for 3Canal that revovles around an idea of evolution and constant change.

ALL OF EMILY - Elspeth Duncan, Trinidad and Tobago, 11mins

Emily’s last wish of her husband (Elliot) - to divide her ashes equally between himself and her best friend (Jessica) - goes unfulfilled, as Elliot is unwilling to share his wife, even in death.  The plot revolves around the widower’s interaction with his wife’s urn.  As events unfold and secret aspects of Emily’s life are brought to light through the pages of her diary, Elliot is driven to do the unthinkable.

Elspeth Duncan is an independent Trinidadian multi-media artist (writing, music, interactive conceptual art, photography, art-video, film/documentary making). She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows and has won awards for both her photography and her film work (which has been screened at various international film festivals).

WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS - Marsha Pearce, Trinidad & Tobago/Jamaica, 2008, 91 mins

This documentary explores Caribbean identity through the images and sounds of a ubiquitous feature of contemporary popular culture: the music video. Focusing on the English-Speaking Caribbean, this work wrestles with issues of self, as music video directors, producers and artistes share their views on the complexities of portraying Caribbean people and life using the moving images and sounds of the music video format. Is Caribbeanness too fluid to be pinned down? How can Caribbean identity stand up – in the context of globalisation – to foreign influence in the form of such dominant communications technology as satellite television and cable networks? The documentary puts the medium of television at the heart of discussions as it tells a story about struggle – a universal struggle, but one that has a resonant sound in the hearts of Caribbean people who have not had the power to control information and communications technology.

SCREENING ROOM 3

SMALL THING MENTALITY - Animation, Seon Thompson,  Trinidad and Tobago 6 min

This film explores the local phrase ‘small ting’ and how it is used in various situations within caribbean society. The narrator explains how a ‘Small ting’ is really a ‘Big ting’ for the person under pressure.

BABY DOLL MEETS MIDNIGHT ROBBER Carnival Intervention for the "At Risk" - Dara Healy, Trinidad and Tobago, 2008, 28mins

The ‘Baby Doll' carnival character in the play graphically and powerfully explores the core themes of HIV/AIDS, appropriate and safe sexual behaviour teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, peer pressure and ‘Right Choices'.

The language is that of the ‘now' youth, but the production is rooted in the Carnival tradition that is so Trinidad and Tobago, so Caribbean and which now resonates internationally.

FINDER OF LOST CHILDREN - Ricardo Scipio, Canada, 2009, 100 mins

Maya and Angie are half-sisters who meet at the funeral of their estranged father. Angie is a flamboyant wannabe-Trinidadian living inToronto. Maye lives in Vancouver and is a successful homeopathic doctor with an overbearing mother, Daphne. After discovering the existence of other half-siblings, Angie persuades Maye to go on a road trip to find them.They meet several and find amazing similarities and differences. But what they all have in common is the hole left in theirhearts from their father’s absence.

Trinidad-born, Toronto-raised, Ricardo Scipio is a filmmaker and photographer. Loosely based on his own family experience, Finder of Lost Children is his third feature film.

Followed by Q & A with Ricardo Scipio

9:00 p.m.  

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

BACHANAL - Music Video,  Lisa Wickham,Trinidad and Tobago 2009 - 4 mins

If you’ve never experienced ‘J’ouvert’ in Trinidad Carnival, get ready to be fully immersed! This video taps into the energy and vitality of the J’ouvert (day open) ritual.

NOT INNA DAT - Lisa Wickham, Trinidad and Tobago 2008 20 mins

INSATIABLE SEASON - Mariel Brown, Trinidad and Tobago, 2007,  52 mins

"The Insatiable Season is ... a film that, simply and appropriately, finds joy in the mundane romance of putting a mas together, from the conceptualising of the band to the construction of the costumes . . . and yes, in the end, to wining down to the ground come Carnival Tuesday. . . This is a highly enjoyable film, not least for the bits of candour it is so adroitly able to capture." --The Caribbean Review of Books, August 2008

Mariel Brown is the director of SAVANT, a company that has been working in television and print since 1997. She has produced features for TV6 and the WITCO Sports Foundation Awards, and her programmes have been broadcast on CNN and CARIBSCOPE. Mariel is the creator of Sancoche, Makin' Mas, Island Hop and Life Stories television series designed with Caribbean content for a Caribbean audience. The Insatiable Season is her first feature documentary, and won best Documentary at the T&T Film Festival. She is currently working on her second feature about Trinidadian jeweller, Barbara Jardine. 

Q & A with Lisa Wickham

9:00 p.m. 

DON'T STOP, Lisa WIckham, Trinidad & Tobago 4 mins

This romantic music video explores the love relationship between Shurwayne Winchester and his ‘East Indian beauty’ whom he spots as she works the catwalk at a high-end fashion show. Don’t Stop is a beautiful and organic production that showcases the East-Indian heritage of Trinidad and Tobago as well as some of its lovely locations.

BLU IN YOU - Michelle Mohabeer, Canada, 50 mins

A poetic-essay mediated through the lens of a female observer, who watches conversations between a writer (Nalo Hopkinson) and a visual arts curator (Andrea Fatona).  The aesthetics and conversations in Blu In You employ a visual/aural poetics to politically challenge early ethnographic tropes of the colonist gaze; to engage a cultural history of the black female body, marked by violence, but also celebrated in art and culture. The conversations bridge historical and contemporary art and cultural figures such as the “Hottentot Venus,” Jeanne Duval, Josephine Baker and Dorothy Dandridge. 

Dr. Michelle Mohabeer is an award-winning Toronto-based video artist, film scholar and writer; her work has been exhibited at festivals, conferences, and galleries across North America, Europe, India, Australia, the Caribbean and Japan.  She is a lecturer in Film/Media Studies, in the Humanities department at University of Toronto. Her films have been profiled in numerous collections including Film Fatales, The Romance of Transgression in Canada, North of Everything, The Bent Lens, Women’s Experimental Cinema and Queering Canada.  

FREEDOM WALK - Chris Laird, Trinidad and Tobago, 2008, 100 mins

At one minute past midnight on the 29th of February 2008, Errol Fabien began walking from Icacos (the furthest point from port of Spain) in Trinidad to the capital city, Port of Spain, in 24 hours. The walk celebrated 20 years drug free for the popular actor/Comedian and television personality. It symbolized how far his journey has been, One day At A Time. Called The Freedom march, it was also dedicated to drug demand reduction and together with a telethon on the same day raised in excess of $400,000TT. At each stage of the walk Errol was joined by hundreds of people who walked silently in support. On the last leg Errol was also joined by the President of the Republic and his wife. This film documents the walk and captures the tremendous and intensely emotional reaction this initiative stimulated in the national community.

Q&A with Christopher Laird, Michelle Mohabeer

9:00 p.m.  

SCREENING ROOM 3

AND LIFE WENT ON. Animation, Maryam Mohajer Iran 4 mins

A moving portrayal of life inside a bomb shelter.
 

AWAKE. Animation, Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago 7mins

Music video for singer Ella Andall.

THE CAGED BIRD, Andre Johnson, Trinidad & Tobago, 28mins

As sheltered teenage girl goes off to live on campus, she releases her pet bird Bernie, who much to her dismay, is promptly killed. On campus she succumbs to the glitz and glamour of party life and becomes a crack addict trading all her valuables especially those pertaining to her studies like her laptop and even her books in return for crack. At her lowest point, crack-dealers suggest that she have sex with their dog in return for crack. She reflects that “A Caged Bird was never meant to be set free”, as she sees the similarity of fate between her and her dead pet bird. 

ONE NIGHT IN PIARCO, Animation, 4 mins

A mosquito and his family trip to piarco Airport, turns out to be more than they could chew.

I IS A LONG MEMORIED WOMAN, Frances-Anne Solomon, UK/Trinidad & Tobago, 1991

Winner of the Gold Award for TV Performing Arts at the international New York Film Festival. Adapted from the award-winning book of poems by Guyanese writer Grace Nicholls this extraordinary video chronicles the journey of the unnamed African woman from her homeland in Africa to slavery in the Caribbean. It interweaves an original music score and fantastic choreography to tell this evocative first person narrative, which culminates in a personal liberation.

AFTER PARTY ! 

AT GSU PUB

SATURDAY, JULY 11th, 2009

12:00 p.m.  

LUNCH WITH EUZHAN PALCY

   Euzhan Palcy, our Guest of Honor

AT GSU PUB

Sponsored by: Smiley's Catering

Join us for an intimate lunch with one of the most accomplished and celebrated  filmmakers working today. 

Martinique-born EUZHAN PALCY, was the first black female director  to be produced by a major Hollywood studio.

Her first feature, “Sugar Cane Alley” (1983) won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion, and Best Lead Actress Award, and the Cesar Award (the French equivalent to our Academy Award) for best first feature film. Robert Redford hand picked her to attend the 1984 Sundance Director’s Lab, becoming her “American Godfather.”

Marlon Brando was so moved by her next project, “A Dry White Season” (1989), and her commitment to social change that he came out of a self-imposed retirement, agreeing to act in the film for free. Also starring in the film were actors Donald Sutherland and Susan Sarandon. Brando’s performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Her other works include “Ruby Bridges” (1998) the compelling, the story of the little New Orleans girl who was the first to integrate the public schools.  “The Killing Yard” (2001),starring Alan Alda and Morris Chestnut. “Parcours de Dissidents”, narrated by Oscar-Nominated and esteemed French actor, Gerard Depardieu. And the French three-hour period pieceset in the 17th century, “Les Mariees de I’isles Bourbon” (The Brides of Bourbon Island) (2007).

In 1994, she was honored with the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order Merit) from French President,Francois Mitterrand.  In 2001, she was presented with the Sojourner Truth Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2004 she was the recipient of the famous French Metal of Honor.

1:30 p.m.

A DRY WHITE SEASON – Euzhan Palcy (USA) 1989 Marlon Brando, Susan Sarandon, Donald Sutherland

Schoolteacher Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) has been insulated all his life from the horrors of apartheid in his native South Africa.  When the son of his black gardener is arrested and killed, Ben promises his servant that he will look into the incident.  He discovers that the boy was killed simply to gratify the violent urges of Captain Stolz (Jurgen Prochnow), a "special branch" policeman. At long last he has gotten a glimpse into the truly arbitrary and violent nature of the system he has so long benefited from, and he hires Ian Mackenzie (Marlon Brando) to prosecute the killer. This situation turns Ben into a radical firebrand, which alienates him from his white friends and neighbors, as well as members of his family.

"Euzhan Palcy, a remarkable talent, keeps her undeniably powerful film ablaze with ferocity and feeling." - Peter Travers

Q&A with Euzhan Palcy

DEEPER SHADOW SONG, Coretta Singer aka SIREN, Animation, 4 mins

A music video that takes the viewer into a paradoxical world where love, sex & technology fuse.  

RUM SHOP- Gladstone Yearwood, 50mins

The Barbadian rum shop is a complex and unique institution – a place to shop, lime, eat, share drinks, debate and slam dominoes. It is an icon of Barbadian society, vying only with churches for the most numerous non-residential buildings. Before radio and TV came to the island, before the nightclubs and retail centers, the church and rum shop were the only two centers for sociability. Despite many social changes, its primary function of providing a comfortable environment in which Bajans can shop or pass the time, has not changed.

TOUCHING NICKON David Graham and Leslie Chin, Jamaica, 50 mins

Produced in 2007 after 3 years of determination and hard work, Touching Nickon is a groundbreaking Jamaican documentary that tackles the stigma, discrimination, social disruption, alternative healing, cultural acceptance and the personal impact of HIV/AIDS in the island of Jamaica.

The film starts with children born with the disease that are left up to the benevolence of the nation to render love and care and a ‘normal’ environment.

The feature ventures off into a rural community and into the home of siblings who have lost both parents to HIV/AIDS, capturing their attempts to accept, rationalize and get past how something so relatively unheard of in their ‘neck of the woods’ could come and deal such a savage blow upon their happiness.

BLOOD DUB 7 THE MATRIARCH D'Bi YOUNG -Judy Singh, Canada, 2006. 24mins

Dub poet d’bi.young shares the screen with her mother, Anita Stewart, emphasizing the importance of family and heritage in her work. 

A FANTASTIC SPACE - NALO HOPKINSON - Frances-Anne Solomon/Ngardy Conteh, Canada, 2006. 24mins

She has been called a sci-fi writer, a speculative fiction writer, a fantasy writer, a fabulist, and somehow none of these terms seem to do her justice. Her work combines Caribbean and Canadian culture, mixes her life story with folklore, blurs the boundaries between the real and the fantastic, and takes place in an invented urban landscape that reflects her hybrid history.

MISS LOU: THEN AND NOW, Frances-Anne Solomo/Leonie Forbes/Regan Macaulay, Canada, 2006. 24mins

Louise Bennett is a Jamaican icon. The country’s leading author, poet, and comedienne, ‘Miss Lou’ pioneered the use of the Jamaican language, raising the patois dialect to an art level and reflecting the truth and essence of Jamaican life. Louise reflects upon her rich life story and her illustrious body of work

3:30 p.m. 

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

THE SADHU OF COUVA - Yao Ramesar, Trinidad & Tobago, 2002. 6 mins

RAIN - Maria Govan, Bahamas, 2008, 100 mins

Director Maria Govan’s powerful debut, one of the first feature films produced indigenously in the Bahamas, shows a darker side of the country that tourists rarely see. A teenager named Rain has lived her entire life with her grandmother on a tiny rural island in the Bahamas. When her grandmother dies, Rain goes to Nassau to find her mother, Glory, whom she has never met. Rain is devastated to discover that Glory lives in a desperately poor, AIDS-ravaged neighborhood called “The Graveyard”. With no strong maternal role model in her life, Rain must look within for strength and discovers she has a gift for running.

Toronto International Film Festival - Official Selection

Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles - Best New Director/First Film Award

International Women's Film Festival, Creteil - "Graines de cinéphage" prize (awarded by the young audience) 

SCREENING ROOM 2

B.C. Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 4min

The film reverberates the affirmation of Ivan Van Sertima; of an African presence in the New World before the arrival of the Europeans.

REUNION, Frances-Anne Solomon, UK, 1992. 25mins

In 1943, three hundred middle class "coloured" women from across the West Indies were recruited to the ATS, a branch of the British Army. This documentary documents for the first time the contribution of these women to WW2.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE - Melissa Gomez - Antigua & UK 2007

Share and Share Alike explores the relationships between three Antiguan brothers and celebrates their unique way of fighting for a brother diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Melissa is a trained documentary filmmaker whose greatest influence has been her experience of growing up in Antigua as a hearing child of deaf parents. 

Q&A with Melissa Gomez

SCREENING ROOM 3

GHL ORIGAMI - Animation, Roy Williams, 45secs
Corporate Television commercial showing the presence of the guardian holdings group in the various territories.

GIVEN ENOUGH ROPE, Animation, Roger Allen Jackson, 4 mins
This short explores the idea that in every situation we have choices.  These choices depend on how we view our circustances.

JAMAICA FOR SALE, Esther Figeroa, Jamaica, 92 min

Jamaica for Sale,by Esther Figueroa, counters the dominant view that tourism is the savior of the Jamaican people. Lively and hard hitting, with powerful voices, arresting visuals and iconic music, Jamaica or Sale documents the environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of unsustainable tourism development. As Jamaica is irreversibly transformed by massive hotel and luxury condominium development,Jamaica for Sale both documents this transformation and tries to turn the tide.

Esther Figueroa,PhD, (Vagabond Media, Juniroa Productions, Inc.) is a Jamaican, independent filmmaker, writer, and linguist with 25 years of experience in media production including documentaries, educational videos, television programming, music videos, multi-media, web content, and feature film. An activist filmmaker, her work focuses on local knowledge, indigenous cultures, social injustice, community empowerment, and the environment. 

5:00 p.m.

NIGHT OF TRIBUTE

Sponsored by : The Art of Catering

The 2nd CaribbeanTales Awards Ceremony honors the distinguished careers and contributions of a number of industry leaders and film Artists.  

2009 Awards Presentation:

Award of Honor  EUZHAN PALCY  

Lifetime Achievement Award CHRISTOPHER LAIRD

Pioneer Award TBA

Innovation Award  CAMILLE SELVON ABRAHAMS

Leonie Forbes Award for Dramatic Excellence MICHAEL MILLER

Community Award TONYA LEE WILLIAMS 

Fran Endicott Youth Leadership Award TBA

7:00 p.m.

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

E LEYENDI DI BUCHI FIL (The Legend of Buchi Fil) - German Gruber, Curacao, 2008. 23mins

An Antillean legend from the times of slavery.  Based on the poem "Balada di Buchi Fil" by Pierre Lauffer, about the strongest slave that ever lived. Only when they sold his beloved wife Mosa Nena, did his heart break. He commits suicide by jumping off a cliff and sometimes the wind carries his last words: Mosa Neeeeena, Mosa Neeeenaaaa…

German Gruber was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1980. At the age of 11 he moved with his family to Bonaire, where his father started working for the local TV station.  In 2003 i went to Holland to study film, and now is back in Curacao trying to make them. 

RUBY BRIDGES  - Euzhan Palcy, USA,  2003

The inspirational true-life story of one little girl whose simple act of courage helped change history in the racially-charged 1960s.

When bright six-year-old Ruby is chosen to be the first African-American to integrate her local New Orleans elementary school, she is subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the very first time. Together with her parents who support her, Ruby's heroic struggle for a better education becomes an inspirational lesson for us all.  "Exceptional, rewarding...for the whole family!"  Boston Globe

Based on actual events that occurred in Louisiana during 1960. Ruby (newcomer Monet) is a first grader who, after scoring one of the highest grades on her school board exam, is chosen as one of the first black students to integrate an all-white school. As racial tension escalates, Ruby is escorted to school by federal marshals, who attempt to protect her from the angry protestors. With guidance and support from her mother (Rochon), father (Beach), teacher (Miller) and a child psychologist (Pollak), Ruby finds the determination to overcome all obstacles. An uplifting story of one girl's courage.

SCREENING ROOM 2

WHERE I'M FROM, Music Video Cabral "Larc" Trotman, Canada, 5 mins

The socio-political music video "Where I'm From" by recording artist Black-I tells the story of ghetto youth in Toronto from the inside out via. Mega City News, a television network created by the community to inform and educate. 

Where do White People go When the Long Weekend Comes? The Wondrous Journey of Delroy Kincaid - Powys Dewhurst, Canada/ Dominica 2008, 7mins

An artistic 8 year old black child from a tiny seaside village in the Caribbean immigrates to a ‘First World’ inner city. Delroy Kincaid begins to wonder where his white friends disappear to for the holidays, .Delroy's imagination comes alive and must take a journey of discovery to understand the death of his grandmother and his stark new life as an ‘immigrant.’'delroy kincaid' explores the black immigrant child experience while celebrating the differences in cultures in a whimsical fantasy using a unique blend of simple animation, illustration, projection and live action. 

Powys Dewhurst is a Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, his interests lie in fantasy, magical realism and science fiction and using those to explore social issues some some level involving race and identity in unique ways, even controversial ones.

Followed by Q & A with Powys Dewhurst 

A WINTER TALE. Frances-Anne Solomon, Canada/Trinidad & Tobago, 2008, 103mins

This multi-award-winning audience favorite tells the emotional story of a Black men's support group that meets in a Caribbean Takeaway restaurant, in the wake of the death by gunfire of a young child in Toronto's Parkdale community.

Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning Filmmaker, Writer and Producer in Film, TV Radio and theatre. Born in England to Trinidadian parents, she trained in Theatre at the University of Toronto, before moving to Great Britain where she built a successful career with the BBC as a Drama Producer in Radio and Single Drama. She returned to Canada in 2000 and continues to create, direct, write and produce film television theatre and new media projects through her company, Leda Serene Films. Her last feature film, A Winter Tale won many international awards. In 2002, she established CaribbeanTales, to create multimedia projects aimed at the educational market, and  she is the Founder and Director of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival. She is currently in development with her new project LOCKDOWN.

SCREENING ROOM 3

DAME NITA. Gladstone Yearwood, Barbados. 2009 50 mins

Dame Nita Barrow – Barbados’ first female Governor-General – was a leader in the revolution of Caribbean health, NGO forums and on the international scene.

A DISCOVERY OF HOME, Natalie Edgecombe, Montserrat, 2008. 43 mins

Natalie Edgecombe travels from her home on the tiny island of Montserrat to “exotic” French Martinique - the island next door. A Discovery of Home documents her journey and the way her experiences reshape her definition of home. Her trip leads to reflection on the Caribbean’s colonial past, its impacts on the present, and implications for the future. The film bears testimony to the fact that sometimes the best way to learn about oneself is by exploring one’s neighbors.

9:00 p.m

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM 

DONT STOP, Lisa Wickham Various, Trinidad and Tobago, 4 mins

This romantic music video explores the love relationship between Shurwayne Winchester and his ‘East Indian beauty’ whom he spots as she works the catwalk at a high-end fashion show. Don’t Stop is a beautiful and organic production that showcases the East-Indian heritage of Trinidad and Tobago as well as some of its lovely locations.

“MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL WEARING MY HYJAB”  -  Mary Wells, Jamaica, 10 mins

Sudani is a muslim in a very Christian school and society as a result, she’s different, fortunately her difference wins her new friends and teaches them tolerance. This film is part of a childrens live-action drama series called: “Scribble A Story.” 

SOME THINGS DOH CHANGE - Mathew Hudson Animation, 4.5minsTrinidad and Tobago

This short explores how life in Trinidad in 2025 is no different to the present. 

H2 WORKER - Stephanie Black, USA,  1989, 70mins

H-2 Worker is a controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida's Lake Okeechobee-a situation which, until the film's release, has been one of America's best-kept secrets. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 men from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands perform the brutal task of cutting sugar cane by hand-a job so dangerous and low-paying that Americans refuse to do it. 

This film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Cinematography Award at Sundance Film Festival and was selected as the U.S. representative during the prestigious Critics Week at Cannes Film Festival.

From acclaimed director Stephanie Black (Life and Debt, Africa Unite), this hard-hitting documentary is still a timely exposé of the abuse and exploitation that characterizes temporary agricultural guest worker employment in the United States. 

SCREENING ROOM 2

A WEDDING IN MORIAH, Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 10 mins

Traditional Tobagonian wedding and procession.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WATER, Jermy Robbins & Magali Damas,USA/Haiti.

This documentary follows a 20-year journey of the Haitian-American Community, through the lens of a vodou-based walking band in Brooklyn. The story of this unlikely group offers insight into tcontemporary urban immigration, and a rare glimpse into the heart of the Haitian-American experience. Part-carnival, part-vodou ceremony, and part-grassroots protest, “Rara” is one of the most breathtaking and contested forms of music in the Americas. It served as the voice of the slaves in the Haitian Revolution, and as a tool against dictatorships in Haiti.

Ultimately, its a story a motley band that comes to speak for a larger community; and a music that creates a new meaning of home in the Diaspora.

SCREENING ROOM 3

RUM SHOP Gladstone Yearwood, Barbados, 2005, 50 min

The Barbadian rum shop is a complex and unique institution – a place to shop, lime, eat, share drinks, debate and slam dominoes. It is an icon of Barbadian society, vying only with churches for the most numerous non-residential buildings. Before radio and TV came to the island, before the nightclubs and retail centers, the church and rum shop were the only two centers for sociability. Despite many social changes, its primary function of providing a comfortable environment in which Bajans can shop or pass the time, has not changed.

DRUMMIT2SUMMIT, Chris Laird, Trinidad &Tobago, 2009. 45 mins

On the 18th April 2009 The Rights Action Group and Fishermen and Friends of the Sea  held a public event in the St. James Amphitheatre, Trinidad. This event, called ‘Drummit2summiT’ was to facilitate the expression by community organizations of concerns they thought were being ignored at the 5th Summit of the Americas, which was being held at a luxury waterfront development on the other side of the city attended by the heads of all the governments in the hemisphere (except Cuba).

The event had no sooner begun than the police started applying increasing pressure to stop the proceedings until the amphitheatre was invaded by armed riot police. This confrontation was witnessed by the national community as the event was being carried live on Gayelle the Channel and soon many of the other radio and television stations were taking Gayelle’s live feed and people started to come to the amphitheatre in support of the activists.

Gayelle’s documentary seeks to capture the essence of this afternoon which outraged and opened the eyes of a nation.

SUNDAY, JULY 12th, 2009

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM, 45 WILLCOCKS ST, TORONTO 

SUNDAY AT THE MOVIES

11:00 a.m

SUNDAY BRUNCH 

AT GSU PUB

 12:30 pm

SHORT FILMS BY STUDENTS OF THE ERROL BARROW CENTER FOR CREATIVE IMAGINATION, Barbados.

HIT FOR SIX - Alison Saunders-Franklyn - Barbados/Trinidad & Tobago 2007   

A sidelined West Indies cricketer fights demons of his past, including a match fixing charge, and learns about love in an unlikely quest to play in a major global tournament and earn the respect of his estranged father, a former great West Indies player.    

ALISON SAUNDERS-FRANKLYN is a Barbadian/Trinidadian filmmaker with a background in corporate and public education television programming over the last 20 years.  She is the founder and managing director of public relations firm Blue Waters Productions and in this capacity she has scripted, produced and directed “edutainment” programmes and public service announcements  for organizations such as UNICEF, CARICOM and, the Barbados Government. HIT FOR SIX is her first feature film

ALL OF EMILY, Elspeth Duncan, Trinidad and Tobago, 11mins

Emily’s last wish of her husband (Elliot) - to divide her ashes equally between himself and her best friend (Jessica) - goes unfulfilled, as Elliot is unwilling to share his wife, even in death.  The plot revolves around the widower’s interaction with his wife’s urn.  As events unfold and secret aspects of Emily’s life are brought to light through the pages of her diary, Elliot is driven to do the unthinkable.

Elspeth Duncan is an independent Trinidadian multi-media artist (writing, music, interactive conceptual art, photography, art-video, film/documentary making). She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows and has won awards for both her photography and her film work (which has been screened at various international film festivals).

JAMAICA FOR SALE, Esther Figeroa, Jamaica, 2008, 92mins

Jamaica for Sale,by Esther Figueroa, counters the dominant view that tourism is the savior of the Jamaican people. Lively and hard hitting, with powerful voices, arresting visuals and iconic music, Jamaica or Sale documents the environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of unsustainable tourism development. As Jamaica is irreversibly transformed by massive hotel and luxury condominium development,Jamaica for Sale both documents this transformation and tries to turn the tide.

SCREENING ROOM 3

DON'T STOP, Lisa WIckham, Trinidad & Tobago 4 mins

This romantic music video explores the love relationship between Shurwayne Winchester and his ‘East Indian beauty’ whom he spots as she works the catwalk at a high-end fashion show. Don’t Stop is a beautiful and organic production that showcases the East-Indian heritage of Trinidad and Tobago as well as some of its lovely locations.

BACHANAL - Music Video,  Lisa Wickham,Trinidad and Tobago 2009 - 4 mins

If you’ve never experienced ‘J’ouvert’ in Trinidad Carnival, get ready to be fully immersed! This video taps into the energy and vitality of the J’ouvert (day open) ritual.

BLUE OPERA - Ayodhya Ouditt Animation, Trinidad and Tobago 4 min

An animated music video for 3Canal that revovles around an idea of evolution and constant change.

WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS, Marsha Pearch, Trinidad and Tobago/Jamaica, 2008, 91 mins

This documentary explores Caribbean identity through the images and sounds of a ubiquitous feature of contemporary popular culture: the music video. Focusing on the English-Speaking Caribbean, this work wrestles with issues of self, as music video directors, producers and artistes share their views on the complexities of portraying Caribbean people and life using the moving images and sounds of the music video format. Is Caribbeanness too fluid to be pinned down? How can Caribbean identity stand up – in the context of globalisation – to foreign influence in the form of such dominant communications technology as satellite television and cable networks? The documentary puts the medium of television at the heart of discussions as it tells a story about struggle – a universal struggle, but one that has a resonant sound in the hearts of Caribbean people who have not had the power to control information and communications technology.

A Cultural Studies PhD candidate at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus, Marsha Pearce’s PhD research explores audience engagement with music videos. She is the 2006 recipient of the Rhodes Trust Rex Nettleford Fellowship in Cultural Studies – an award used to fund her documentary project and launch her scholarly website www.caribbeanculturalstudies.com. She has written and presented conference papers on issues of Caribbean identity. Her writing and paintings appear in Callaloo, the African Diaspora journal on arts and culture published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

 WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY - Charles Officer, Canada 2008 

An urban love story about the soul of a mother, the heart of a fighter and the faith of a child.

JUDE is a single mother who descends from a long line of Jamaican caregivers. SILENCE is a ‘past his prime’ boxer who fights illegally to survive. CIEL is a boy who delves into music, conjuring dreams for his mother. During the last week of summer, a late-night brawl finds the fighter in the nurse's care causing their three fates to be forever entwined.

CHARLES OFFICER studied visual art at Cambridge and communication design at
OCAD. He worked as a graphic designer before attending the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. He has appeared in stage, film and television productions. HIs debut short, “When Morning Comes” premiered at the 2000 Toronto Int’l Film Festival. In 2001, he completed the Directors Lab at the Canadian Film Centre and premiered his second film, “Short Hymn_Silent War” at TIFF 2002, where he received a Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Short. The film screened at Sundance and was nominated for a Genie Award in 2004. A music video for K’naan “Strugglin” and television pilot “Hotel Babylon” followed. NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY is his first feature film.  

SCREENING ROOM 2

THE CRACK HOUSE- UWI Students Stop Motion Michelle Chin, Caroline Singh & Laurel Bristol

A University of the West Indies Student short that looks at a day in the life of some Caribbean Chickens.

MAMI WATA - Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 15mins

Winner, Paul Robeson Awards; Critic's Choice Global Africa

CARMEN AND GEOFFREY - Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob, USA 2009 70mins

This beautiful feature documentary is about the work of two exceptional artists, Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, who stepped forward in the 1950's to play a vital part in the newly energized world of American modern dance. It is also about a  fifty-four year long love affair and the creative partnership that sustained their accomplishments. 

SCREENING ROOM 3

B.C.  Yao Ramesar, Trinidad and Tobago, 4 mins

The film reverberates the affirmation of Ivan Van Sertima; of an African presence in the New World before the arrival of the Europeans.

MOJAH - Lana Lovell, Canada, 24mins

Mojah's greatest passion is music, it is a love he will always share with his family, friends and fans. Although his all-embracing nature on and off the stage makes him a charismatic performer, by day he works as an elementary school bus driver. Mojah has left his mark on the Canadian reggae scene and the scene has left its mark on him to the point where he discusses leaving the country. He's a seasoned performer who has shared the stage with musicians such as Gordie Johnson, Lorraine Segato, Jeff Martin, and Chris Robinson.

SAIDAH BABA TALIBAH, Mars Horodyski, Canada, 24mins

Saidah Baba Talibah is a truly gifted performer, who possesses a refreshingly energetic personality and a presence that exudes a shimmering warmth. Her voice, powerful and inspiring, holds a deep-seated sensuality and a soulful mastery rivalled by such music legends as Minnie Riperton and Etta James. Her versatility tickles your senses and speaks to your heart.  She is a respected performer, who can command an audience and hold her own on stage.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE - Melissa Gomez - Antigua & UK 2007 50 mins

Share and Share Alike explores the relationships between three Antiguan brothers and celebrates their unique way of fighting for a brother diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Melissa is a trained documentary filmmaker whose greatest influence has been her experience of growing up in Antigua as a hearing child of deaf parents. 

Q&A with Melissa Gomez

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

BACHANAL- Lisa Wickham, Trinidad & Tobago,  (Music Video) 4 mins

If you’ve never experienced ‘J’ouvert’ in Trinidad Carnival, get ready to be fully immersed! The early morning pre-carnival tradition is fully re-created in this video that taps into the energy and vitality of the J’ouvert (day open) ritual.

Shot in one extended day and against the odds of rainy weather, Bacchanal has emerged to be one of the more popular videos of the 2009 Trinidad Carnival Season.

NOT INNA DAT - Lisa Wickham, Trinidad and Tobago 2008 20 mins
Through the eyes of Youth in underprivileged areas, this documentary goes on a journey to two districts of Trinidad impacted by violence; Caledonia & Enterprise Chaguanas. With the assistance of popular entertainers, the Youth give views on gangs, violence & death, why they turn to violence and ways that violence can be stopped. Includes a music video from RIZON (a conscious artiste) who implores youth to think twice before choosing a life of crime because we “Not Inna Dat”.

Dianah Wynter, HappySAD 

HAPPY SAD - Horace Wilson - Trinidad & Tobago/ USA  - 2008

HappySAD is an ensemble drama filmed on location in Trinidad and Tobago. Mandy Graham (Angel Ross) is a teenage girl born and raised in Trinidad by her irresponsible party-girl mother. Despite her mother’s wayward life, Mandy has created order through her soccer playing. She plans to get an athletic scholarship and go on to college. But Mandy’s plans go awry when her mother is unexpectedly incarcerated and Mandy is shipped off to live with a father and relatives she has never known, on the tiny island of Tobago.

Her great-uncle Cephas (Bill Cobbs) is the colorful, passionate patriarch with a lust for life, but his distraction over his new young girlfriend, causes him to neglect Mandy and his own children as they struggle to overcome obstacles in their personal lives.  It’s a touching story of love, pain, victory and redemption

California based, Trinidadian Producer of “Happy Sad” Horace Wilson is best known for writing the local Trinidad series “No Boundaries” and “Turn of the Tide” and he wrote and produced “Sinners Need Company” which was sold to Lifetime and is being marketed internationally. 

Director Dianah Wynter's directing credits include the Showtime series Soul Food, The Parkers, Moesha for UPN, Secret World of Alex Mack and the pilot for Technical Difficulties, as well as Movies- for-television Intimate Betrayal (BET) and Daddy's Girl featuring music sensation Lauryn Hill (Artios Award for Best Ensemble from the Casting Society of America,  Emmy nomination, Best Director category). She has worked extensively in the Theatre, and her original screenplays include Somewhere over the Weekend and an adaptation of The Life & Times of Joe Briggs. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the AFI directing programs.

Followed by Q&A with Horace Wilson

SCREENING ROOM 2

WHERE I'M FROM, Cabral "Larc" Trotman, Canada, (Music Video)

The socio-political music video "Where I'm From" by recording artist Black-I tells the story of ghetto youth in Toronto from the inside out via. Mega City News, a television network created by the community to inform and educate

THE SURVIVORS PROJECT: Voices from the Inside Out, Cabral "Larc" Trotman, Canada, 2007, 45mins

The Survivors Project: Voices from the Inside-Out! explores the traumatic impact and implications of gun violence on young people and young black men in particular, living in low-income, racialized neighbourhoods. The film follows the story of a Grenadian born, ex-gang member from 'The Town' in Rexdale, Toronto, Canada.

SOME TINGS DOH CHANGE, Animation, Mathew Hudson, Trinidad and Tobago 4.5mins

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON, Maryse LeGagneur, Canada, 2005, 50mins

In the Name of the Mother and the Son paints a portrait of life in the Montreal neighbourhood of Saint-Michel for two youths of Haitian origin, whom we follow in their quest for hope and freedom. Not unlike their parents, who had to start from scratch on arriving in Canada, James and Le Voyou both yearn to take wing, each in his own way. The film is a cri de coeur to the women of Haiti who, like the mothers of these two young men, sacrificed so much to give their children a better future. In the name of the mother and the son is also a sensitive account that eloquently decries the prejudice that, even today, plagues young Quebecers of Haitian origin. In French with English subtitles.

Maryse Legagneur studied communications at university and then did an intensive course at INIS (Institut national de l'image et du son). She has directed television, initially for the program Taxi pour l'Amérique (Télé-Québec and TV5, 1999) and then for Culture Shock/Culture-Choc (RDI, SRC and CBC, 2000-2001) and Bande à Part.TV (ARTV, 2001-2002). In 2002 she was director of the TV magazines Tout un été! and Tout un automne!, also for the culture channel ARTV. Le facteur chance, a dramatic short that she co-directed with the collective Circonstanciel, won both first prize and the public's choice award at Film Blitz 2880.

SCREENING ROOM 3

MUSIC IS MY LIFE - TANYA MULLING, Mars Horodyski, Canada, 2008, 24mins

Tanya Mullings, the Canadian born diva who has won the heart of fans all across Canada and the Caribbean. Being the daughter of the late great Jamaican reggae music producer Karl Mullings, means Tanya has been taught by one of the best.

ME AND MI KRU X 2   - Rick Elgood

Me and Mi Kru is a rag-to-riches tale of Beatrice played by Dancehall Queen lead actress, Audrey Reid, and her son Junior, played by Innocent Kru member Benzly Hype, who live in an inner-city community. Junior, a wannabe Dancehall artiste struggling in the tough world of the Jamaican music industry, suddenly has a turn of fortune when he wins $250 million in the lottery. The family immediately ditch the gritty inner-city streets for a posh mansion in an Upper St Andrew community.

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

GHL ORIGAMI, Animation, Roy Williams,Trinidad and Tobago 45 secs

Corporate Television commercial showing the presence of the guardian holdings group in the various territories.

GIVEN ENOUGH ROPE, Animation,  Roger Allen Jackson, Trinidad and Tobago,4 mins

This short explores the idea that in every situation we have choices.  These choices depend on how we view our circustances.

THE SWEETEST MANGO - Howard Allen,  Antigua & Barbuda, 106 minutes

Lovelyanne "Luv" Davies returns from Canada to her homeland Anitigua. He adjustment to island life, her professional turmoil and a love triangle between her colleague and her boss gives this film depth and lasting entertainment value. This film is the first indigenous feature film for the Eastern Caribbean and is based on a true story of the director Howard Allen met and fell in love with his wife. 

Husband and wife team Howard and Mitzi Allen make up HAMA Productions, a independent production company based in Antigua that has been active over the past 10 years. They have produced documentaries, features and children's programs. Most recently HAMA have launched a cable TV Channel in Antigua. Howard and Mitzi are currently in production with their 3rd feature. 

Followed by Q&A with Howard and Mitzi Allen

Husband and wife team Howard and Mitzi Allen make up HAMA Productions, a independent production company based in Antigua that has been active over the past 10 years. They have produced documentaries, features and children's programs. Most recently HAMA have launched a cable TV Channel in Antigua. Howard and Mitzi are currently in production with their 3rd feature.

SCREENING ROOM 2

INVISIBLE - Elspeth Duncan 10mins

Veronica and her four-year-old daughter are HIV positive. Her eight-year-old son is not. As the small family faces the bitter effects of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago, one is driven to ask which is the real disease: HIV/AIDS or ignorance? 

Elspeth Duncan is an independent Trinidadian multi-media artist (writing, music, interactive conceptual art, photography, art-video, film/documentary making). She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows and has won awards for both her photography and her film work (which has been screened at various international film festivals).

“MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL WEARING MY HYJAB”  -  Mary Wells, Jamaica, 10 mins

Sudani is a Muslim in a very Christian school and society as a result, she’s different, fortunately her difference wins her new friends and teaches them tolerance. This film is part of a childrens live-action drama series called: “Scribble A Story.” 

Mary Wells is an independent Director, Writer, Producer with twenty years  experience in TV & Film production mainly in documentaries. She has travelled widely and worked  in the USA, Europe, the Caribbean and Southern Africa. She is currently in production with her first feature film "Kingston Paradise".

H2 WORKER - Stephanie Black, USA,  1989, 70mins

H-2 Worker is a controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida's Lake Okeechobee-a situation which, until the film's release, has been one of America's best-kept secrets. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 men from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands perform the brutal task of cutting sugar cane by hand-a job so dangerous and low-paying that Americans refuse to do it. 

This film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Cinematography Award at Sundance Film Festival and was selected as the U.S. representative during the prestigious Critics Week at Cannes Film Festival.

From acclaimed director Stephanie Black (Life and Debt, Africa Unite), this hard-hitting documentary is still a timely exposé of the abuse and exploitation that characterizes temporary agricultural guest worker employment in the United States. 

SCREENING ROOM 3

THE MAKING OF ALEX CUBA - Safiya Randers, Canada, 24mins

From the Cuban countryside to rural British Columbia discover, Juno winner Alex Cuba. 'The Making of Alex Cuba' observes the artist in his emerging success as an international musician, from recording in Havana's famous Egrem Studios through behind-the-scenes footage of the upcoming music video, "Tu Boca". Join Alex Cuba as he looks within his own history for discoveries on bridging culture through music.

SCENT OF OAK (Roble De Olor) - Rigoberto Lopez - Cuba,  150 mins

First half of the 19th century, in Cuba, in the Caribbean. A space of changeableness, enigmas, dreams and endless tragedies.  A black woman, beautiful and distinguished, from Saint Domingue.  A German, a romantic tradesman recently arrived in the country.  They are both the central characters in a story of boundless love that made the richest coffee plantation in Cuba -- Angerona -- reach its peak.

In a sombre period, in a place surrounded by intolerance and misunderstandings, clashes of interests and absolute power, Ursula Lambert and Cornelio Souchay are more than two cultures, two identities, two ways of seeing life facing each other.  Love is a doomed Utopia fighting to give birth to its fate, to the fate of a great coffee plantation - Angerona.  Its beauty and its frailty.

A metaphor of our times.

CLOSING NIGHT FEATURE

WILLIAM DOO AUDITORIUM

ONE NIGHT IN PIARCO (Animation) Ansar Sattar, Trinidad and Tobago 4mins

A mosquito and his family trip to piarco Airport, turns out to be more than they could chew.

SMALL THING MENTALITY (Animation) Seon Thompson, Trinidad and Tobago 4 mins

This film explores the local phrase ‘small ting’ and how it is used in various situations within caribbean society. The narrator explains how a ‘Small ting’ is really a ‘Big ting’ for the person under pressure.

FINDER OF LOST CHILDREN - Ricardo Scipio, Canada, 2009, 100 mins

Maya and Angie are half-sisters who meet at the funeral of their estranged father. Angie is a flamboyant wannabe-Trinidadian living inToronto. Maye lives in Vancouver and is a successful homeopathic doctor with an overbearing mother, Daphne. After discovering the existence of other half-siblings, Angie persuades Maye to go on a road trip to find them.They meet several and find amazing similarities and differences. But what they all have in common is the hole left in theirhearts from their father’s absence.

Followed by Q & A with Ricardo Scipio