Telling our stories and centring ourselves

How can Caribbean creatives stay true to storytelling rooted in Indigenous voices and lived realities, while resisting the traps of false imagery, stereotypes, and clichés? By embracing cultural nuance and originality, filmmakers can craft cinema that travels the world precisely because it is unapologetically its own. To explore these questions, TTFF/26 programmer Chloe Walters-Wallace is joined by filmmakers Teneille Newallo, Keegan Taylor, Kearra Amaya Gopee, Fiona Compton (of the Know Your Caribbean Instagram account), and Lesley-Ann Wanliss.

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Chloe Walters-Wallace

Chloe is a Jamaican creative with a passion for curation, travel, non-fiction media, dancehall, and installation art. As the director of regional initiatives at Firelight Media, her work focuses on amplifying the stories of emerging filmmakers outside of major media hubs. Committed to championing place-based storytelling, she is the creator and executive producer of the award-winning anthology series HOMEGROWN, now in its fourth season, which brings important regional stories to the forefront of the national conversation.

Expanding her impact across the diaspora, Chloe co-created Third Horizon’s Caribbean Film Academy 2.0 and the Caribbean Think Tank, convening artists and leaders across the region to collaborate across borders, colonial legacies and language barriers. Alongside this work, she has co-programmed BlackStar Film Festival’s Oscar-qualifying documentary shorts programme for the past seven years. Previously, she led the New Orleans Film Society’s Emerging Voices programme, launched the Southern Producers Lab, and guest curated the Southern Circuit Tour.