The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) held its formal opening night gala at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on September 19.

After the cocktail reception, guests were ushered into the Aldwyn Roberts, Lord Kitchener Auditorium, for the world premier of the film, Green Days by the River, based on the book written by Michael Anthony in 1952. Anthony who made a cameo appearance in the film interacted with guests at the event.

The entire cast along with director Michael Mooleedhar and producer Christian James also strutted on the red carpet.

Green Days won the best TT feature and people’s choice for best feature film narrative at the ttff awards on Tuesday. The film opened to the public on Tuesday.

The drama Green Days by the River was the big winner on Tuesday night at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) bringing home both best TT feature and people’s choice for best feature film narrative.

The wins were announced at the ttff awards ceremony held at the Central Bank Auditorium, Port of Spain. The film, based on the novel by local writer and historian Michael Anthony, was directed by Michael Mooledhar and produced by Christian James. The coming of age story is set in Mayaro 1952 and is about a teenager named Shellie (Sudai Tafari) who is befriended by a plantation owner named Mr Gidharee (Anand Lawkaran) and falls for his beautiful daughter Rosalie (Nadia Nisha Kandhai).

In his latest project coming on the heels of a filmmaking career that has already brought him local and some regional and international recognition, director Michael Mooleedhar has adapted for film the novel Green Days by the River, published in 1967 by Trinidadian writer, Michael Anthony. The film is produced by Christian James with screen play by Dawn Cumberbatch, shot entirely on location in Trinidad using local actors and crew, and edited by Mooleedhar and James. Green Days by the River is Mooledhar’s first full length feature and has been selected by the trinidad + tobago film festival 2017 to be screened at its opening night gala on Tuesday, at the NAPA auditorium, Port of Spain.

Mooleedhar has been more well known for his directing or editing of shorter productions, among these the controversial documentary Queens of Curepe made in 2008, his final year student project as a BA Film Studies student at The University of the West Indies St Augustine (The UWI). He went on with Patricia Mohammed to make two award-winning films Coolie Pink (2009) and Green City on a Hill (2015) both of which won the Most Popular short film awards at the trinidad + tobago film festival in the years they premiered and have gone on to international screenings in India, New York, Toronto and London among other venues.

UWI medical student Nadia Kandhai never set out to be a movie star. However, a random meeting on a flight to Tobago set her on the path to play Rosalie, the female lead in Green Days by the River movie, that will be screened at the gala opening of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) next weekend.
“I’m a third-year medical school student,” said Khandhai as she reflects on how she ended up playing the lead female character.

“I met Christian (James) on a flight to Tobago. He told me I looked like what he imagined Rosalie would look like, I auditioned and here I am,” said Khadhai in a media release.

She is one of just under 100 local actors that bring Michael Anthony’s beloved novel Green Days by the River to the big screen nationwide on September 27.

Dr. Bruce Paddington founder of the T&T Film Festival give some insight into the festival, which takes place from September 19-26 at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, and Tobago, as well as the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine.

Filmmakers wishing to apply for a $10,000 award for the best T&T film in development have until 30 August to do so. The award sponsored by BP Trinidad and Tobago as part of the T&T Film Festival, seeks to make a contribution towards the completion of a local narrative or documentary feature film currently in pre-production, which is being made by a T&T resident or national and is to be made in this country.

Christian James who won the BPTT Best T&T Film in Development in 2014, spoke about the impact that winning that award has had on his work.

Green Days by the River, a Film adaptation of Michael Anthony’s classic 1967 novel of the same name, will open this year’s festival, at the red carpet gala and screening to be held at NAPA, on September 19, 2017. Bringing to life childhood memories of the book, and a Trinidad of yesteryear, director Michael Mooleedhar’s film is set in the idyllic countryside of 1950’s Mayaro and re-tells the story of 15 year old Shell. Newly arrived, he quickly gets caught between his longing to be a man, and his child-like innocence in the face of adult cunning. With adolescent hormones raging, amidst the breath-taking beauty of Mayaro, the quiet storm that’s brewing may prove more than he can handle and he’ll certainly never be the same again.

IT IS Michael Anthony’s hope that the film adaptation of his iconic novel, Green Days by the River, inspires a new generation of Caribbean writers as well as those interested in film. The novel has been adapted into film by a local film-makers Michael Mooleedhar and Christian James and is set to launch this year’s Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.
The film’s première will be held at a red carpet gala on September 19.

In a phone interview with Newsday the acclaimed author said, “I wrote the book as a writer hoping his work will be published… you think about telling a good story, a story that people would want to read and carry on reading it.” Not only did audiences want to continue reading Anthony’s novel 50 years on, but it has become so beloved in the hearts and minds of Caribbean readers that the novel is now finished.

Recalling what it was like initially crafting the novel, Anthony said, “When I finished Green Days by the River, I sent it and kept my fingers crossed that it would be published, and when it was published it began doing what you would call fairly well and I kept having hope. And then 50 years later, Mr Mooleedhar and his producer came to me and told me about the film and I said ‘my goodness, just in time I am ready to die’. I warmly accepted this and look forward to the film but I just did not have any real deep faith that we’d get to journey’s end.” Anthony now expects out of the film, a new wave in Caribbean literature with an eye on film. With a widely growing local and regional film industry, Anthony said, “I am hoping for success so that it will start a new day for writers and that there are some writers that will write with their minds on film. I did not because I never thought for one moment that my book was going to be filmed. There are young writers who would think, ‘Oh I hope they turn my book into film’.

T&T will present four feature-length films and over 34 short and experimental films during the T&T Film Festival (TTFF) from September 19-26.

One of those films, a movie adaptation of Michael Anthony’s Green Days by the River directed by Michael Mooleedhar and Christian James, will be the opening night film.

In a release last week, the festival announced most of its Caribbean line-up, which includes several award-winning and critically acclaimed films.

The festival will be held at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Tobago, as well as at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

The films from some of the Caribbean’s finest film makers include, from the Dominican Republic, Jose Maria Cabral’s Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), a high-octane, no-holds barred movie about a forbidden relationship conducted through prison bars and across the 200 yards of empty space dividing the male and female prisons in Santo Domingo. Carpinteros, which played at the Sundance Film Festival, has been described by critics as a “raw, intriguing and energetic blend of the tough and the tender.”

T&T will present four feature-length films and over 34 short and experimental films during the T&T Film Festival (TTFF) from September 19-26.

One of those films, a movie adaptation of Michael Anthony’s Green Days by the River directed by Michael Mooleedhar and Christian James, will be the opening night film.

In a release last week, the festival announced most of its Caribbean line-up, which includes several award-winning and critically acclaimed films.

The festival will be held at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Tobago, as well as at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

The films from some of the Caribbean’s finest film makers include, from the Dominican Republic, Jose Maria Cabral’s Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), a high-octane, no-holds barred movie about a forbidden relationship conducted through prison bars and across the 200 yards of empty space dividing the male and female prisons in Santo Domingo. Carpinteros, which played at the Sundance Film Festival, has been described by critics as a “raw, intriguing and energetic blend of the tough and the tender.”