A bitter former schoolteacher supports herself by taking dictation from illiterate people in Rio de Janeiro, who want to write letters to their families, and then pocketing their money without ever mailing their envelopes. The film tells the story of a young boy’s friendship with this jaded middle-aged woman. It is a profoundly moving tale of the human spirit,

Highlights of Tobago’s contingent at CARIFESTA 1981 in Barbados.

Based on a true story, “The Sweetest Mango” is a romantic comedy that tells the story of Lovelyanne ‘Luv’ Davies who moves to Antigua, and while adjusting to island life finds true love. This simply told story is based on the real life romance of the film’s husband and wife producing team. It is the first indigenous feature film for the Eastern Caribbean and has been archived at the Toronto International Film Festival Bell Lightbox Film Reference Library.

Set in Havana at the beginning of the 19th century, “Roble de Olor” is a love story between a young woman from Haití and a German man. They build a successful coffee plantation in Cuba, one with a special philosophy in regards to the work of enslaved people and community.

With a poetic narrative structure, “Hanoi, Martes 13” shows how the Vietnamese people lived and fought for their freedom during the Vietnam War, from the day the bombing of the city of Hanoi began.

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreams of a better life for himself and his family and leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. Alone, his wife, looks after her rebellious daughter, Durga, and her young son, Apu, as well as Harihar’s elderly aunt Indir. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life, while their parents suffer the daily indignities heaped upon them.

In a social experiment, Nicholas, a young Barbadian, takes to the street and pretends to be homeless for 24 hours. Passers-by react differently as he reaches out for their  help. What he finds out is heartbreaking: vagrants and the homeless need more than food and shelter; they need to feel human.

Faced with a precarious economic situation and poor standards of living, a group of friends initiate a plan to leave the Dominican Republic, illegally, by boat. One Way Ticket is based on actual events that occurred in September 1980, when several Dominicans were suffocated inside a container ship, the Regina Express.

After his father’s death, Bheem Singh is sent to live with his aunt in Port of Spain. Bullied at school and abused at home, he runs away and begins a life of petty crime. After returning to the countryside—and taking a new name, Bim—he becomes leader of the sugar workers. Bim is soon made leader of the colony’s opposition party. It won’t be long, however, before his violent past catches up with him.

In 1940s Curaçao, Gabriel Goedbloed, a charismatic painter, arrives from Holland to paint a mural of the Virgin Mary in St Anna’s Church, under the request of its parish priest. The colonial Antillean society proves less than tolerant towards the visitor, especially after he chooses Ava—a young, mixed-race teacher, who is engaged to be married, as his model for the Virgin Mary.