Beat the curfew blues, or just grab a chance to watch some of the best films from the Caribbean with tiff’s weekly online streaming series, curfew cinema! Watch a new film every week! Enjoy anytime between 4.00pm Fridays and 11.59pm Saturdays (AST), via ttfilmfestival.com/watch

Click the button below to purchase your tickets. Or, email info@filmco.org to arrange a bank transfer. Don’t forget, ONE TICKET = ONE MOVIE! Tickets cost TT$35 (US$5) and are payable via credit card or online bank transfer. Movies will be streamed on the tt film festival website. (While most of our films are available for streaming WORLDWIDE, we suggest you double-check just to be sure that the film you want to watch is available in your area!)

schedule

• 12+13 Nov, Pendulum
• 19+20 Nov, Poetry is an Island
• 26+27 Nov, Hinkson
• 03+04 Dec, The Solitary Alchemist
• 10+11 Dec, La Gaita

how to watch

about the films

Pendulum
When Luther, the CEO of a major software company, realises he has a stalker intent on doing him harm, he calls in Ryan, an old friend and former soldier. Ryan, who is battling with post-traumatic stress disorder, tracks down the stalker and is forced to kill him, but in so doing, makes a shocking discovery. 

Poetry is an Island
Derek Walcott, Literature Nobel Laureate travelled the world while remaining closely connected to his beloved island St. Lucia. As a poet, playwright, painter and even filmmaker, Derek Walcott hymned the Caribbean for over 60 years. This documentary presents an intimate portrait of him, set in his beloved native island St. Lucia. The place he always longed for, when he was taken to far away places by his universally acclaimed work. What moved and inspired this great poet? Who are the people whose lives became poetry through his writings? And how did they experience the gift of language of their friend, their mentor, and their father? This film explores the poetry of Derek Walcott, the landscapes and people that inspired it. It observes Walcott in places essential to his work and life, and gathers the thoughts of some of his closest childhood friends. Most importantly, this documentary is a celebration of the greatest gift Walcott has given the world: his poetry.

Hinkson
Trinidadian Donald ‘Jackie’ Hinkson, in his 70th year and on the occasion of a massive retrospective in four exhibition spaces talks about his life’s work and demonstrates his techniques in expressing his intention while creating a watercolor from the blank page to completion and work on a number of sculptures, public murals and drawings. His obvious skill expressed with candor and humility imbue this uniquely structured film with charm and ease while stunning the viewer with an unusual insight into the creative process of one of the country’e greatest living artists.

The Solitary Alchemist
What happens when talent isn’t enough? When, in spite of a life of work, you look around in the autumn of your life and discover that your world is not what you thought it would be. This is where we meet Trinidadian jeweller, Barbie Jardine.

Trained at England’s prestigious Royal College of Art, Jardine moved back to her native Trinidad in 1974 where she developed new techniques in working with traditional and indigenous materials, and evolved a personal narrative style for making wearable works of art. But 30 years on from returning to the Caribbean, and in spite of having her work purchased by a major metropolitan museum, there are nagging questions she just can’t shake: Why isn’t my work more recognised? Have I made a crucial mistake? She is resentful and angry. And she wants something more. An opportunity to create a new piece for an exhibition in Scotland presents itself and Barbie is both nervous and hopeful. Will this be the chance to finally carve out her own space in the world?

La Gaita
This film is the story of two very different brothers. Willy’s the difficult one consumed by his own impatience and Tito is the tireless believer and visionary.

Despite their differences, Willy and Tito agreed on one thing: that their quest in life is to use their music to help the down-and-outers, the lonely and the broken to accept themselves during what some consider to be the loneliest and most vulnerable time of the year… Christmas.

ttff’s Curfew Cinema screenings kick off this Friday (09 July) with Jamaican filmmaker, Storm Saulter’s feature film debut, Better Mus’ Come! To beat the lockdown blues, Friday nights in July are just the ticket! Starting 09 July, we’ll show a different ttff favourite every Friday from 4PM to 5AM (EST). Tickets cost TT$35 (US$5) and are payable via credit card or online bank transfer. Movies will be streamed on the tt film festival website and are available WORLDWIDE!

Click the green button below to purchase your tickets. Or, email info@filmco.org to arrange a bank transfer. Don’t forget, ONE TICKET = ONE MOVIE!

MOVIE SCHEDULE

friday 09 july: BETTER MUS’ COME
friday 16 july: JOEBELL AND AMERICA
friday 23 july: KINGSTON PARADISE
friday 30 july: GREEN DAYS BY THE RIVER

#ttffcurfewcinema #ttfffavourites #ttffclassics #ttff21 #watchmeh

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For the sixth straight year, the University of the West Indies (UWI) Film Programme will partner with the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), which runs from 17 September to 01 October, to host a series of film screenings, workshops and other events during the upcoming Festival.

This year the events will take place at the Film Programme’s new building at 12 Carmody Road, St Augustine.

Things kick off on 18 September with a film-producing workshop with Andrea Calderwood, from 10am to 1pm. Calderwood is the producer of films such as The Last King of Scotland (2006), which won an Oscar for star Forest Whitaker, and Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), an epic account of the Biafran war starring Thandie Newton, which opens the ttff/13.

Events continue with a day of documentary films on September 20. The lineup is: No Bois Man No Fraid (10am), a documentary about stickfighting by local filmmaker Christopher Laird; Fatal Assistance (11.45am), about the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake; Songs of Redemption (1:30PM), about the rehabilitation of prison inmates in Jamaica through reggae music; and at 3.15pm, Forward Ever: The Killing of a Revolution, by UWI lecturer Dr Bruce Paddington, about the events leading to the US invasion of Grenada in 1983.

On 21 September a collection of UWI student films will be screened from 7pm. They include The Gang That Walks, which looks at the men of the controversial Nation of Islam in Trinidad and Tobago; If I Could Fly, the story of an unhappy young girl whose wish is to fly like her kite; Lime of the Dead, a comedy about a group of young men whose friend becomes a zombie; and Mystic Blue, about a couple that try to hold their relationship together despite their different beliefs.

Then on 24 September a series of Caribbean fiction films will be screened. These are: I Am a Director (12pm), a comedy from Puerto Rico; The Kid Who Lies (1:45pm), a Venezuelan film about a 13-year-old’s search for his mother; Melaza (3:45pm), a Cuban drama about a couple’s struggle to make ends meet; and at 5:30pm, God Loves the Fighter, a film by T&T’s Damian Marcano about a young man from east Port of Spain who reluctantly begins working for a gang leader.

On 25 September at 6:30pm, the film festival welcomes Dr. Malini Guha, assistant professor of Film Studies at Carleton University, Canada, who will give a lecture about the cinematic representation of Caribbean life and culture in London. Then on 26 September at 7.00pm Dr Gabrielle Hezekiah, lecturer in the Department of Literature, Communication and Cultural Studies, will host a package of films from the ttff/13’s New Media programme, co-curated with ARC magazine.

From 2pm on 28 September there will be a screening of films from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, which will be introduced by their curator, Dr Mary Leonard.

Finally, on 30 September, Festival events on campus come to a close with a retrospective of the films of John Akomfrah. Several of the acclaimed director’s works will be screened, including his newest film, The Stuart Hall Project, about the famed Jamaican-British intellectual. Akomfrah himself will attend the retrospective.

All events, except the Andrea Calderwood workshop are free and open to the public. To register for the workshop, call 621.0709.

Image: A still from Mystic Blue

The final Curfew Cinema screening before the ttff/11 starts next Wednesday takes place this weekend. From 9pm this evening, Friday 16 September, to 4am Monday 19th September, you can view the ttff/10 selection The Duke of Bachata, a music documentary from the Dominican Republic, free of charge at our Curfew Cinema page.

Our last Friday pre-curfew lime also takes place today from 5-9pm, at Trevor’s Edge bar, corner St John’s and Eastern Main Roads in St Augustine (opposite Scotiabank). Come and get a free welcome drink, pick up a free copy of the ttff/11 guide, and watch trailers of ttff/11 film selections.

If you can’t make it to Trevor’s, you can swing by Drink! Wine Bar in Woodbrook, also from 5-9pm and get a free drink, and pick up a copy of the guide.