Acting, film criticism, panel discussions, all a part of this year’s ttff/12

The trinidad+tobago film festival is pleased to again this year offer a series of diverse and engaging workshops and presentations in an effort to give our audiences the opportunity to hear from filmmakers firsthand, and also to help local filmmakers develop their craft.

The film festival starts with an annual offering, the visiting guest and local filmmakers’ panel, which this year takes place from 9.30am, Friday 21 September at The Carlton Savannah. Panelists range from actors to producers to directors of both narrative and documentary feature films. After these filmmakers present their experiences to an audience, there will be a Q&A session. This panel will focus on documentary filmmakers and will include: Tania Khalaf, David Hamilton (USA), Sophie Meyer (France), Kum-Kum Bhavnani (USA), Mariel Brown (T+T), Janine Fung (T+T), Lisa Wickham (T+T), Guetty Feline (Haiti/USA), Selena Blake (Jamaica/USA).

Then, at 11.15am, there will be a presentation by BAFTA award-winning UK filmmaker, John Maclean, who will attend the ttff/12 as the Studiofilmclub guest filmmaker and curator. John has made two short films starring Michael Fassbender – the first of which he made on a cellphone. John will talk about that experience, and about low-budget filmmaking in general – using what you know or have access to and doing whatever it takes to make films.

On Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 September at UTT/APA, the film festival is pleased to bring back Los Angeles based acting coach, Kirk Baltz, who first began coaching Trinidadian actors some years back via Skype through Question Mark Entertainment. Kirk will work with 22 actors and directors to hone their understanding of what it means to embody a dramatic role. The workshop is available to those who pre-register only, the fee is $600/day.

Also on Saturday 22 September, the ttff will partner with UWI to present a workshop on film criticism. As the film industry grows both locally and regionally, there has become an increasing need for writers who understand the form of film criticism. Indian film critic, Manoj Bhajapuri, who is a member of FIPRESCI – The International Federation of Film Critics – will lead a full-day lecture on the art of film criticism. After this workshop, which is free and open to the public, participants will be invited to write a review of a festival film. The participant with the best review will win TT $5,000 and have his/her review printed in the Trinidad Express newspaper.

For more information, check out our workshops and panels page here.