We are pleased to announce the student films in competition at ttff/22. Films in juried competitions are rigorously discussed and dissected before being selected by the programming team, and must be unanimously agreed by the five programmers. They are then watched, scored and debated by the relevant jury, with the winning films ultimately being those which receive the highest aggregate scores. All the winners will be announced at the ttff/22 awards, 27 September, with cash prizes and trophies furnished by our sponsors.
For film synopses, screening details and director bios, please click the links (indicated as blue underlines) below.
We are honoured to introduce the jury members who will be judging the competition films at ttff/21. Each jury is given a list of criteria on which they must score each film. Marks for each film are collated, and the film with the highest overall score in any given category wins the jury prize for that category.
narrative jury
Vashti Anderson Vashti Anderson is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her background includes an MFA in Film from New York University, independent film and television crewing experience in New York City, and an award-winning filmmaking and writing career. Her recent narrative feature film, “Moko Jumbie”, had its world premiere at LA Film Festival and ended its festival run at Edinburgh International Film Festival, also screening at Bentonville, Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam, Caribbean Film Series at BAMcinematek, ttff and others. It won the Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Film Production Award, the Canon Filmmaker Award from Film Independent, Best Screenplay at the Bahamas IFF Filmmaker Residency Program and Best Screenplay at Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival. It is currently being distributed by Indiepix, playing on Amazon Prime and other platforms.
Diana Cadavid Diana Cadavid is a Colombian/Canadian curator of film and new media, with wide experience in international film festivals. She’s currently the artistic director of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) and the Festival Internacional de Cine de Cali (FICCALI) and Ibero–American programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Cadavid has also worked as associate director of program and industry for the Miami Film Festival (MFF) and director of programming for the International Film Festival of Panama (IFF Panamá). Diana produced and edited the short films “Breathe the Night”, “Bleiben”, “Still Life with Echo” and “Define Solidarity”, directed by Álvaro Girón. She was the production manager for the feature film, “Mañana a esta hora” (“This Time Tomorrow”) by Lina Rodriguez.
Kareem Mortimer Kareem Mortimer is a Bahamian director of narrative films, documentaries, music videos, commercials and experimental films. He believes in creating unique, powerful and beautiful images that resonate with audiences long after being seen. His films have been distributed in 40 countries with airings on PBS, Aspire, Showtime, NBC, Logo and Canal 22. His feature films include “Cargo” and “Children of God”; television shows include “Hip-Hop Nation: Notes from the Underground”, “The Electronic Lounge”, “This Is Paradise” and “Extraordinary Cuisine”. Over the course of his career, Kareem has won over 35 awards for his work, including two Icon Awards and an African Movie Academy Award. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab. He served as curator of the film programme at The Island House Cinema for five years and creative director of The Island House Film Festival for three years.
documentary jury
Jonathan Ali Jonathan Ali is a film curator and programmer. Based in London, he is director of programming for Third Horizon Film Festival in Miami, Florida. He is a programme consultant for Sheffield DocFest and London’s Open City Documentary Festival; a programmer for the experimental Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Scotland; and a programmer for the international features section of Tribeca Film Festival. He is a member of Criterion’s Curatorial Advisory Board and the UK’s Independent Cinema Office’s Screening Days Advisory Group. Previously, he had programming roles at London’s East End Film Festival, trinidad+tobago film festival and TIFF. He is co-founder of The Twelve30 Collective, which screens Caribbean cinema in the UK, and is a 2021 Flaherty Seminar Fellow.
Selwyn Jacob Selwyn Jacob joined the National Film Board’s BC & Yukon Studio in 1997 and went on to produce over 50 NFB films. His many credits include “Crazywater”, directed by Inuvialuit filmmaker Dennis Allen; “Hue: A Matter of Colour”, directed by Vic Sarin and “Mighty Jerome”, written and directed by Charles Officer. Jacob’s most recent feature documentary credits include Mina Shum’s “Ninth Floor” about the infamous Sir George Williams Riot of 1969, which was selected for TIFF’s 2015 annual top ten list of Best Canadian Films, and Baljit Sangra’s “Because We Are Girls”, exploring the impact of sexual abuse on a conservative Indo-Canadian family living in small-town British Columbia. Selwyn retired from the NFB in June, 2019. Selwyn has since returned to the private sector as an independent producer/director.
Karen McMullen Karen McMullen is a features programmer at Tribeca Film Festival and DOC NYC Film Festival, director of programming at the TIDE Film Festival, and screens for Sundance Film Festival. She’s a juror at the Pan African and Bentonville Film Festivals, Black Public Media and the Cinema Eye Honors. She moderates live and virtual filmmaker Q+As and panels for the African Film Festival, Pure Nonfiction, Netflix, NYWIFT, Women Make Movies and HBO screenings. She’s a frequent guest speaker on television, radio and at filmmaking organisations. A Brown University graduate, McMullen is a post-production professor at Long Island University. She has picture and sound editing credits on features, documentaries, and short films.
new media jury
Dr. Daniela Fifi Dr. Daniela Fifi is an art educator and curator who has worked in museums and galleries in the Caribbean and US. She is the former chief curator at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and former curatorial specialist at The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a doctoral graduate in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, New York and a Master of Arts in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester, UK. Her doctoral research focuses on Caribbean art and intercultural programming in museums. Daniela has been awarded several fellowships and awards during her career including the New York State Assembly, Caribbean Life Impact Award; the Museum Education Research Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Samuel H. Kress Interpretive Fellowship. She is currently the managing editor of Small Axe Visualities: A Caribbean Platform for Criticism, a project of the Small Axe Journal and also serves on the peer-review board for Viewfinder and The Art Education Journal, journals of the National Art Education Association (USA).
Zak Ové Zak Ové is a British/Caribbean artist with a multidisciplinary practice across sculpture, film and photography. His work is informed, in part, by the history and lore carried through the African diaspora to the Caribbean, Britain and beyond, with particular focus on traditions of masking and masquerade as tools of self emancipation. Ové’s solo presentation “The Invisible Man and The Masque of Blackness” – 40 sculptures exhibited alongside works by Rodin – was on view in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden at LACMA, Los Angeles, CA from (2019). Ové has presented solo sculpture installations in the Great Hall at the British Museum, London, UK; San Francisco Civic Centre, San Francisco, CA; Forecourt of Somerset House, London; The Ford Foundation, NY; The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; and The Slavery Museum, Liverpool among others. Ové’s work features in a number of museum collections, as well as in private foundations, including the British Museum, London; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida and many others. He curated the seminal and widely-acclaimed exhibition, “Get up, Stand up now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers” at Somerset House, London in 2019.
Oneika Russell Oneika Russell is a Jamaican artist whose current art practice focuses on investigating the trope of the othered native within the paradigm of “paradise” and tourism industries. Her current work borrows imagery, techniques, and formats from the culture of craft and souvenir-making in the Caribbean, such as wall hangings, postcards and gift items. The objects and videos made explore how Afro-based figurative imagery is used as a tool in presenting culture and people as consumable products. The imagery created also investigates the role of trade, migration and unofficial economies as direct influencers of how representation occurs. Russell’s major presentations include “At the Crossroads: Critical Film and Video from the Caribbean” at Perez Museum of Art Miami in 2016 and the 2018 Dakar Biennial.
student films jury
Carver Bacchus Carver Bacchus has worked as a communications consultant since 2008 and has created documentaries, animations, corporate videos and communications programmes for a wide range of clients, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme, The German Embassy, Port of Spain, The University of the West Indies and the Institute of Marine Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the founder and managing director of Sustain T&T, a not-for-profit focused on environmental and economic sustainability education. He is also the founder and festival director of Green Screen, the Environmental Film Festival, the only environmental and sustainability-themed film festival in the English-speaking Caribbean. Carver holds a BSc in Communications and has other specialist training including a Diploma in Motion Picture Directing, a Certificate in Integrated Marketing Communication for Behavioral Impact in Health and Social Development (COMBI) and the Scrum Master I designation.
Asha Lovelace Asha Lovelace made her directing debut with the short film, “George and the Bicycle Pump”,then produced and directed the feature film, “Joebell and America”, based on a short story by her father, renowned writer Earl Lovelace. A former lecturer at the University of the West Indies, part of Lovelace’s focus has been on developing a more distinct Caribbean vision and aesthetic in film. Founder/festival director of Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago (AFTT), Asha is also the regional secretary for the Caribbean diaspora of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI).
Annette Nias Annette Niasis film commissioner with the National Cultural Foundation in Barbados. For the past five decades she has played roles which include performer, director, producer and stage manager at many concerts, plays, musicals, festivals, fashion shows, film and television productions, etc., in Barbados and abroad. Nias functioned in several arts development and technical/production capacities with the National Cultural Foundation from its inception in 1983 until 2015, when she was appointed Film Commissioner with the Cultural Industries Development Authority.
in competition: narrative features and shorts
We are pleased to announce the short and feature length narrative films in competition at ttff/21. Films in juried competitions are rigorously discussed and dissected before being selected by the programming team, and must be unanimously agreed by the five programmers.
Rafameia(Riff-Raff), directed by Mariah Teixeira + Nanda Félix
In Competition: Trinidad+Tobago Films and Youth Jury
Every year, ttff highlights homegrown talent and excellence by awarding prizes for Best Trinidad+Tobago Film. In competition for this year’s prize are the following films:
Get Free!, dir. Akkel Charles
I Don’t Call it Ghetto, dir. Miquel Galofré
Mightier dan de Sun, dir. Trevon C. Jugmohan
Waiting In Strange Times, dir. Kristof West
The Youth Jury views and considers for award recognition, films which focus on young protagonists dealing with coming-of-age issues, challenges and triumphs. These are the films in competition for the Best Film as Selected by the Youth Jury:
Avatara, dir. Nadav Harel
Choosing Destiny, dirs. Angelo Berkeley and Shemaiah Trotman
IslaSerena (Serene Island), dir. Leonel González
K.I.N.G, dir. Rashad Frett
Mortenol, dir. Julien Silloray
Yellow Girl and Me, dir. Isabella Issa
synopses
Best Trinidad+Tobago Film
Get Free!
Directed by Akkel Charles/ 2019/Trinidad and Tobago/ Narrative Medium/ 37 minutes
Twenty-one-year-old Iris’ life is endangered as her ex-boyfriend returns to seek unwanted closure. A series of events unfold as we see what was, and what still is, between them. A raw, realist exploration of violence against women.
I Don’t Call it Ghetto
Directed by Miquel Galofré/ 2019/ Trinidad and Tobago/ Documentary Medium/ 42 minutes
Single, divorced, mother-of-three, police officer Onika James-Turner has had a life filled with challenges, obstacles and heartache. In “I Don’t Call it Ghetto”, we see how her difficult past has only made her stronger, impelling her to reach for a different life, one in which she could help her community. We witness the great pride she takes in the work that she does, and how she is driven by the desire to be “part of the solution and not part of the problem”. Her three children are the centre of her life and a new husband gives her strength. But she still faces the challenge of raising a teenage son in an area known for crime and must work hard to build trust in her role as a police officer.
Mightier dan de Sun
Directed by Trevon C. Jugmohan/ 2020/ Trinidad and Tobago/ Narrative Medium/37 minutes
Ten years in the making and filmed in Trinidad and Tobago with a team of home-grown professionals, “Mightier dan de Sun” is the story of an Indian couple with nothing to lose. In combination with mental illness and supernatural forces, alcohol becomes a catalyst for unfortunate events.
Waiting In Strange Times
Directed by Kristof West/ 2020/ Trinidad and Tobago/ Narrative Short/4 minutes
Set in Trinidad during the lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of Covid-19, “Waiting In Strange Times” explores space and time during a period of boredom, uncertainty, confusion and fear.
Best Film as Decided by the Youth Jury
Avatara
Directed by Nadav Harel/ 2020/ Israel/ Documentary Short/ 25 minutes
Set in the cultural frontier zone of the Hindu Himalaya, “Avatara” (from the Sanskrit, “descent”) explores the lived religion of goddess worship (Shaktism) in a remote pastoral valley. For her farmer and herder followers, the goddess’s presence is all too real; quick to anger and ever-thirsty for sacrifices, she haunts them in their dreams and rituals, demanding complete submission as both child-like friend and motherly-punisher. In this enchanted world of magical creativity, the encounters with the goddess are transient, intuitive events that hold the key to creation and, for those lucky enough to see her, a short-lived salvation.
Choosing Destiny
Directed by Angelo Berkeley and Shemaiah Trotman/ 2019/ Trinidad and Tobago/ Narrative Medium/ 35 minutes
Two high school students are faced with life-changing choices as they try to navigate their love and the difficult circumstances that surround them. Tackling the contemporary issues of teenage pregnancy, abortion, suicide and illegal drugs, “Choosing Destiny” follows young people at a crossroads in their lives.
Isla Sirena (Serene Island)
Directed by Leonel González/ 2019/ Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela/ Narrative Short/ 15 minutes
Vivi, a young inhabitant of a fishing village, takes a trip by road and sea with her friend Vale to get to an island where, according to the stories of her dead mother, the mermaids live.
K.I.N.G.
Directed by Rashad Frett/ 2019/ United States of America/ Narrative Short/ 12 minutes
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, a troubled boy is sent to Connecticut from the Virgin Islands to temporarily stay with his paternal aunt. In hopes of seeing his deadbeat father after broken promises, he ventures out into an unfamiliar city to find him.
Mortenol
Directed by Julien Silloray/ 2019/ Guadeloupe/ Narrative Short/ 28 minutes
Eleven-year-old Dwayne wants to avenge his older brother who was killed by an enemy gang.
Yellow Girl and Me
Directed by Isabella Issa/ 2019/ United States/ Narrative Short/ 9 minutes
Set in the Jamaican countryside, a young child named Nicole waits for her sister, Yellow Girl, to teach her how to swim. Like the water, Nicole does not resist; she flows, and nothing can stand in her way. Circumstances escalate when Yellow Girl breaks her promise and Nicole realizes that she is next in line for a lifestyle of sexual abuse. Nicole is forced to decide how far she will go in order to protect herself and her sister.
Images: production stills from ‘Mightier dan de Sun’, directed by Trevon C. Jugmohan and ‘K.I.N.G’, directed by Rashad Frett
in competition: short + medium length documentaries
We are delighted to announce the short and medium length documentaries in competition at our fifteenth edition festival.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Coast Land, dir. Alexander Arjoon Our Own House, dirs. Vanessa Bergonzoli, Jeremy Kaplan and Tyler Robinson Atordoado, Eu Permaneço Atento (Stunned, I Remain Alert), dirs. Henrique Amud and Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos The Onyx Butterfly, dir. Yasmin Evering-Kerr Unbroken, dir. Gabrielle Blackwood
BEST MEDIUM LENGTH DOCUMENTARY FILM
I Don’t Call it Ghetto, dir. Miquel Galofré No Island Like Home, dirs. Giulio Gobbetti and Jan Stöckel Men Sa Lanmè Di (Thus Spoke the Sea), dir. Arnold Antonin
Join us as we celebrate the fifteenth edition of the trinidad+tobago film festival! ttff/20 will take place 09–15 sep 2020, with outdoor and online screenings, talks and presentations, training opportunities and even a few cinema screenings!
Featured image: production still from Gabrielle Blackwood’s documentary, “Unbroken”
#ttff20 celebrating 15 years in 2020 #watchsomething #ttfilmfestival #15in2020 #caribbeanfilms #caribbeanfilmmakers
