The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) continues to use film as a vehicle for social discourse and transformation, through its annual community Cinergy film series. On April 12, 19 and 22, the ttff and the US Embassy—sponsors of the series—will present three free film screenings to promote human rights.

Working with community activists and the embassy, the ttff will promote public awareness for the protection of the rights of women, children and the LGBT community in Trinidad and Tobago. The screening of three US films with topical and local resonance, focusing on domestic violence, bullying and gay-rights issues will each be followed by a community discussion, workshop and panel discussion, respectively, in order to foster dialogue on the issues of personal freedom, security, community support, public policy and legislation.

“Advancing human rights is central to our foreign policy,” Stephen Weeks, Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy said, “and the fantastic programme put together by our friends at ttff demonstrates how film can start conversations that build stronger, more inclusive communities.”

The issues to be highlighted and films to be screened are:

LGBT rights: Pariah (Dee Rees/2011/86’/) on Sunday 12 April, 6:30pm, Woodbrook Youth Facility
In the coming-of-age film Pariah, Alike is a shy but talented Brooklyn teenager striving to survive adolescence with grace, humour and tenacity—sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward. The film follows her as she struggles with her conflicting identities, risks friendship and family, and faces heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression. There will be panel discussions before and after the film. This screening is being held in association with the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO).

This film is rated for viewers aged 16 years and over.

Domestic violence: Private Violence (Cynthia Hill/2014/81’/PG13) on Sunday 19 April, 4:00pm, Laventille Community Complex
Sometimes the most dangerous place for a woman is in her home. Private Violence, an award-winning documentary, takes us behind closed doors into the often invisible world of domestic violence. Through the eyes of two survivors and an advocate, we bear witness to the complicated and complex realities of intimate-partner violence. The film shatters general assumptions about why women stay in abusive relationships, and will form the basis of a public discussion led by community activists after the film.

This film is rated PG13.

Bullying: Bully (Lee Hirsch/2011/98’/PG13) on Wednesday April 22, 9:00am, Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA)
As the problem of bullying in schools becomes more critical, this presentation of the documentary Bully, to be followed by a workshop, seeks to engage students and educators in preventing the problem and finding solutions. The film offers an intimate, unflinching look at how bullying has touched five kids and their families. This will be a special screening for students; schools wishing to attend are invited to email ttff’s Director of Community Development, Melvina Hazard, for information and bookings at melvina@ttfilmfestival.com. There will be a workshop conducted by the Anti-Bullying Association of Trinidad and Tobago after the film.

This film is rated PG13.

Admission to all three screenings is free.

Image: A still from Pariah

There’s nothing quite like watching a wonderful movie under the stars, and that’s just what the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is bringing to audiences across the country in its third annual Community Cinergy series, starting Friday 21 March.

Sponsored by bpTT, Community Cinergy consists of four free open-air screenings of great movies, all past ttff selections, from T&T and around the world, plus one special screening for the lads of the Youth Training Centre.

Refreshments and crafts will be on sale. There will be full seating at the Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association. You may wish to bring cushions to the St James Amphitheatre. There will be limited seating at San Fernando Hill, so you may wish to bring your own chairs or blankets. Please bring chairs or blankets to the UWI screening.

The full Community Cinergy lineup is as follows. Doors open at 6pm for screenings starting at 7pm.

Friday 21 March, 7pm
Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association, Chaguaramas

The Wind That Blows
Director: Tom Weston
2013/St Vincent and the Grenadines, USA/Documentary/60mins/All ages
This is a revealing portrait of a group of men from the island of Bequia, who engage in a dangerous and controversial activity: the hunting of humpback whales.

Alamar (To the Sea)
Director: Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio
2009/Mexico/Drama/73mins/All ages
Poetically told and breathtakingly shot, this film tenderly observes the relationship between an Amerindian fisherman and his young son.

Saturday 22 March, 7pm
UWI, St Augustine (opposite the Learning Resource Centre)

Doubles with Slight Pepper
Director: Ian Harnarine
2011/T&T, Canada/Drama/16mins/PG
A young doubles vendor faces a difficult decision when his estranged father returns home after years abroad.

Papilio Buddha
Director: Jayan Cherian
2013/India/Drama/108mins/16+
Set against the lush backdrop of Kerala in south India, this is a provocative film about the Dalits, a group of landless, indigenous people fighting against caste oppression.

Friday 28 March, 7pm
San Fernando Hill

The Suspect
Director: Leroy Smart
2010/TT/Drama/7mins/All ages
A bus passenger suspects that a crime is about to happen.

Lucky
Director: Avie Luthra
2010/South Africa/Drama/100mins/PG
After his mother dies, young Lucky, who is black, travels from the countryside to the city, where he forms an unlikely relationship with an elderly Indian widow.

Saturday 29 March, 6:30pm (closed screening)
The Youth Training Centre, Golden Grove

Maxi-Taxi Madness
Director: Dane John
2011/TT/Drama/12mins/All ages
A hilarious film about a rag-tag group of maxi-taxi passengers stuck in traffic.

Chance
Director: Evan Kaufman
2012/USA, US Virgin Islands
Drama/86mins/16+
A powerful story about the lengths a young man would go for his loved ones.

Sunday 30 March, 7pm
St. James Amphitheatre

Drink
Director: Juliette McCawley
2013/TT, UK/Drama/9mins/PG
An illegal immigrant in London is forced into an act of quiet desperation.

Twa timoun (Three Kids)
Director: Jonas D’Adesky
2012/Haiti, Belgium/Drama/81mins/PG
Inspired by true events, this is a moving portrait of three orphaned boys’ attempts at survival in the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

Image: A shot from Alamar

After successful outdoor events in Chaguaramas, St Augustine, Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) brings its second annual Community Cinergy series to a close this Saturday and Sunday with two days of family-oriented activities and films in Tobago, at the Buccoo Integrated Complex.

Community Cinergy combines film screenings and live entertainment in open-air settings, and is sponsored by bpTT. This weekend’s film screenings take place in association with the Healing with Horses Foundation and the Growing Leaders Foundation, and the event is free, for all ages and open to the public.

Things kick off at 5pm on both days with live entertainment by the children of the Yahweh Foundation and a parade by the Healing with Horses Foundation.

Then from 6.30pm on Saturday a package of short children’s films will be screened. The lineup is:

The Itch of the Golden Nit
Director: Aardman Animation/UK/2012/34 mins
One Good Deed
Director: Juliette McCawley/TT/2012/12 mins
Mr Crab
Director: Faisal Lutchmedial/Canada/2012/5 mins
Pothound
Director: Christopher Guinness/TT/2012/11mins
Tinga Tinga Tales
Director: Tiger Aspect Productions/2011/24 mins
Healing with Horses: Love & Magic
Director: Elspeth Duncan/TT/2012/37 mins

Then on Sunday from 6.30pm the drama Habanastation, directed by Ian Padrón of Cuba, will be screened, in Spanish with English subtitles. The film tells the story of Mayito, the son of a wealthy jazz musician, who imagines all Cubans live as he does, eating chicken every day and playing video games on their Sony PlayStations. When he finds himself lost in a poor neighbourhood one day, however, he realises this is far from the truth, and must come to terms with the class differences that exist in modern-day Cuba.

Habanastation will be preceded by the short film Dis ah We Own?, Roxborough Secondary School’s prize-winning entry in the 2012 Secondary Schools Short Film Festival, and Elspeth Duncan’s Healing with Horses: Love & Magic.

Before and after the films on both days the Tobago Night Market, an initiative of the THA Division of Community Development and Culture, will take place. There will be refreshments as well as crafts and other products on sale, and giveaways from bpTT. Seating is provided in the stands.

Image: a shot from Habanastation

Due to the rain over the past few days, our outdoor bpTT Community Cinergy screenings on 27 and 28 April had to be postponed. Those screenings will now take place this weekend instead, at the originally advertised venues and times. Admission is free.

Saturday 4 May, 6pm
University of the West Indies, St Augustine
Buck: The Man Spirit, T&T/35mins
Director: Steven Taylor
Captains of the Sand, Brazil/96mins
Director: Cecilia Amado

Sunday 5 May, 6pm
Adam Smith Square, Port-of-Spain
Playing Away UK, TT/100mins
Director: Horace Ové

Food and drink will be on sale at UWI, but not at Adam Smith Square.

Image: A still from Captains of the Sand

The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is set to kick off its most ambitious community cinema initiative to date, the second annual Community Cinergy series, with ttff leading sponsor bpTT. The series, which will consist of six free events combining film screenings and live entertainment in open-air settings, begins on 26 April and runs until 9 June.

First up is a screening at the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association in Chaguaramas on Friday 26 April, of the film Wind Jammers, a ttff/11 selection. Directed by Kareem Mortimer of the Bahamas, this inspiring story tells of a teenage girl who comes of age through sailing.

On Saturday 27 April the series moves to UWI, St. Augustine, where the supernatural thriller Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by T&T’s Steven Taylor, will be shown, along with the Brazilian feature Captains of the Sand. A ttff/12 film, Buck won the People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film. Captains of the Sand—the story of a gang of street urchins in 1950s Bahia—also screened at the ttff in 2012.

Then on Sunday 28 April, award-winning T&T-British director Horace Ové’s classic cricket film, Playing Away, which screened at the ttff in 2008, will be shown at Adam Smith Square in Woodbrook.

A poignant and tender Indian love story, Valley of Saints, follows next, at San Fernando Hill on Saturday 11 May. Written and directed by Musa Syeed, this ttff/12 selection and winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival is set on the beautiful Dal Lake in Kashmir.

The series concludes with a weekend of family-oriented activities and films at the Buccoo Integrated Complex in Tobago on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June. On Saturday there will be a programme of short films, while on Sunday the Cuban feature and ttff/12 selection Habanastation—the touching story of the friendship between two boys from different social classes—will be screened. This event takes place in association with the Healing with Horses Foundation and the Growing Leaders Foundation.

All events begin at 6pm except in Tobago where the start time is 5pm on both days. Admission to all the film screenings is free and food and drink will be on sale at all venues except Adam Smith Square, where audiences are invited to bring their own refreshments.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SCREENINGS ON APRIL 27 AND 28 HAVE BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER.

Image: A shot from Valley of Saints

The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) will end its activities for the year on a high note with a screening of the award-winning parang documentary La Gaita, followed by a live performance by the celebrated Lara Brothers parang group, on Saturday 8th December in Santa Cruz.

This free screening and performance will bring to an end the bpTT Community Cinergy series of film events held across the country in 2012.

Winner of the ttff/12 People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary, La Gaita profiles the Lara Brothers, the oldest existing parang group in T&T. The film, directed by Janine Fung, pays loving tribute to the band, telling their story in their own words and music. In particular, the film follows the gregarious, extroverted Willy Lara and his more reserved elder brother, the late Tito, whose moving funeral forms part of the film.

Speaking about her experience making the film, Fung noted that “The Lara Brothers have a responsibility—one they have taken on for the last 70 years—to serve their music, their faith and their country.”

She continued: “They are messengers, travelling from rumshop to rumshop throughout Trinidad performing, because they simply love parang, as a way to express themselves and for the people to relate to that expression.”

The film screening and live performance will be held at Baya’s Place, Chiquitto Drive, Sam Boucaud, Santa Cruz (next to the Brian Lara Grounds) from 7pm. Refreshments will be on sale.

Limbo, the acclaimed debut film by Norwegian writer and director Maria Sødahl, will be the next selection of the Community Cinergy series of movie screenings, hosted by the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) and bpTT, in association with the Callaloo Company.

The screening, which is free, takes place on Saturday 26th May at the Callaloo mas camp in Chaguaramas from 8pm. There will be a lime beforehand, from 6pm, with food and drinks on sale.

Released in 2010, Limbo is the emotionally charged story of Sonia, a young Norwegian woman who moves to Trinidad with her family in the 1970s. When she discovers her husband—who works in the oil industry—is having an affair with a colleague, Sonia’s already fragile world shatters, and she must find a way to put the pieces back together.

Shot on location in T&T with an international cast that included a number of local actors, Limbo won the prize for best director at the Montreal Film Festival. It was a selection of the ttff/11, and opened the European Film Festival in Port of Spain last October.

A brilliant piano player and a beautiful singer from Cuba chase their dreams—and each other—across the globe in the majestic Chico & Rita, the next installment of the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) and bpTT’s Community Cinergy series of film screenings.

The screening takes place at the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort, Tobago Plantations Estate, Lowlands, Tobago on April 9 (Easter Monday), from 7pm. The film, which is in Spanish with English subtitles, is for persons 14 years and over. Admission is free of charge, and dinner, snacks and drinks will be available.

Chico & Rita follows the fortunes of its title characters as they travel from Havana in the 1940s to the bright lights of New York and beyond. Love and passion unite them, but success and the social and political upheavals of the time threaten to tear them apart.

Described by the New York Times as “Sexy, sweet and laced with a sadness at once specific to its place and time” and “an animated valentine to Cuba and its music”, Chico & Rita was nominated as the best animated feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

The film—which has a ravishing score by nonagenarian Cuban music legend Bebo Valdés—was also the opening night selection of the ttff/11.

The ttff is held annually in September and is presented by Flow, given leading sponsorship by RBC Royal Bank and bpTT, and supported by the Trinidad & Tobago Film Company, the National Gas Company, the Tourism Development Company, the Tobago House of Assembly and the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism. For more information visit www.ttfilmfestival.com.

An outrageous romantic comedy from the Bahamas will be the first offering of a new cinema-screening venture being hosted by the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) and sponsored by bpTT.

Entitled Community Cinergy, the initiative is a series of free public screenings of local and Caribbean films from the ttff. The screenings will take place throughout the year at venues across Trinidad and Tobago.

The first film to be shown will be Crazy Love (2010), a romantic comedy written and directed by Clarence Rolle of the Bahamas. A ttff/11 selection, Crazy Love is the story of Charlene and Lionel, who have been happily married for several years. When Lionel loses interest in her, however, Charlene decides to rekindle their passion by seeking the advice of her friends—with hilarious results.

The screening takes place on Saturday 25 February, from 4pm, at the Mayaro Resource Centre in Mayaro. Admission is free, and there will be food and drinks on sale.

“BP Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to support the trinidad+tobago film festival to bring film to communities across the country,” said Danielle Jones, Manager, Corporate Communications, bpTT.