Documentary on the Life and Work of CLR James to Screen at ttff/16

Every Cook Can Govern: The life, works and impact of C.L.R. James – the first feature-length documentary to explore the contributions of the great Trinidad revolutionary, will screen at the trinidad+tobago film festival later this month.

The documentary interweaves never-before-seen footage of James, with testimony from family and comrades, and analysis of his social, political and literary contributions by leading scholars of his work. From his positions on colonialism, cricket, Marxist revolution, and the role of the ordinary man in governance – this contextual and political analysis of his thoughts and works allows greater understanding of James, and what it meant to be an uncompromising revolutionary in the 20th Century, right up until his death, in London in 1989.

According to Ceri Dingle, the film’s director: “The film provides great insight into the life of a 24/7 revolutionary in the 20th century, and what it meant to stand by your principles to the very end, to fearlessly question received wisdom and tirelessly campaign for a better world.”

Every Cook Can Govern marks the culmination of a three year, multimedia project organised by the UK-based education charity WORLDwrite and its Citizen TV station, WORLDbytes. Having trained them from scratch to shoot, research and present on camera, over 200 of the organisation’s volunteers contributed to the making of the film, which was both crowd-funded and crowd-filmed, in tribute to James’ conviction that every cook can govern.

While most of the funding and resources came from sources in the UK, T+T’s Banyan Archives, the OWTU and the University of the West Indies, also provided valuable material.

Every Cook Can Govern: The life, works and impact of C.L.R. James will screen on:

  • Wed 21 Sept, 6.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago
  • Thu 22 Sept, 5.00pm, UWI Centre for Language Learning (CLL), Q+A / panel discussion
  • Sat 24 Sept, 12.00pm, OWTU Headquarters, San Fernando, Q+A / panel  discussion

The panels for the CLR screenings are:

  • OWTU Headquarters, San Fernando:
    • Ozzi Warwick, Chief Education and Research, OWTU
    • Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, Lecturer, UWI & has written many papers on CLR James
    • Dr. Roosevelt Williams, Former Director of Cipriani Labour College and former student of the famous CLR James Study Circles
  • UWI Centre for Language Learning:
    • Bridget Brereton is Emerita Professor of History at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. Professor Brereton is the author of several books and articles on the history of the Caribbean and of Trinidad, including Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad, 1870-1900 and A History of Modern Trinidad, 1783-1962. She has also written the introduction to the recent re-issue of C.L.R. James’ Life of Captain Cipriani.
    • Gabrielle Hezekiah is Lecturer and Coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in Cultural Studies at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. She is the author of a monograph and several essays on film, video and visual art.