Alabaster Moon & the Siege

A sold-out audience was on hand yesterday afternoon at the TTFF for the screening of the films Alabaster Moon and the Siege. Made by first-time director, artist Sarah Beckett, with assistance from veteran filmmaker Alex de Verteuil, Alabaster Moon is a visually sumptuous experience, a film that looks at the process of making art, particularly the process of collaboration.

In contrast, the Siege is a haunting, disturbing document of the events that took place at Trinidad and Tobago Television during the attempted coup of 1990. It is directed by Junior-Andrew Lett, a former TTT employee and a student in the film studies programme at the University of the West Indies.

If the slew of audience comments after the screening of the Siege is anything to go by, the events of July-August 1990 still touch a raw nerve for many in this country. The filmmakers admitted the half-hour documentary is a work in progress, and are intent on expanding it to include more interviews and file footage, to give a fuller picture of those six days of terror.

Screenshot from Alabaster Moon.

Screenshot from Alabaster Moon.

Screenshot from Alabaster Moon.

Artist Sarah Beckett, director of Alabaster Moon.

Sarah Beckett and filmmaker Alex de Verteuil, co-director of Alabaster Moon.

Screenshot from the Siege.

Screenshot from the Siege: Raoul Pantin reads from his book on the attempted coup, Days of Wrath.

Screenshot from the Siege: Yasin Abu Bakr, head of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, speaks to the nation live on television on the evening of July 27, 2990.

Screenshot from the Siege: a former hostage recounts what happened.

From left, editor Dion Boucaud, writer and narrator Francesca Hawkins, and director Junior-Andrew Lett, the principals behind the Siege.

Veteran journalists Jones Madeira and Raoul Pantin, who were among the hostages at Trinidad and Tobago Television during the 1990 attempted coup.

A member of the packed audience makes a point during the Q&A; session for the Siege.