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.

Every year, film lovers in Trinidad and Tobago look forward to the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. The annual smorgasbord which features of some of the best films from Trinidad, the Caribbean and beyond runs from September 19 to 26. It’s also a time when filmmakers get a chance to meet the public and talk about the issues facing the industry. The last two years have been tough for everyone in the creative sector, but the overall excellence of T&T Film Festival shows that the filmmakers are not going to be deterred by the wider economic challenges. Festival founder and director Dr Bruce Paddington spoke with the T&T Guardian and voiced optimism about the local film industry and said the industry in the Caribbean is “ready to take off.”

There are a number of T&T films making their premieres at the T&T Film Festival, which opens September 19 with the screening of the film adaptation of Michael Anthony’s Green Days by the River.

One festival film that’s likely to generate a lot of conversation is The Weekend, a short narrative drama directed by Sean Hodgkinson. It stars Cindy F Daniel, Chris Smith, Andrew Friday, Stephen Hadeed, Jr and Frances de Lancey in its ensemble cast.

The Weekend’s budget was a meagre $17,000 TT.

That amount of money couldn’t cover the blink of an eye in the typical Game of Thrones show; the HBO series costs upwards of US $10 million per episode. No dragons and White Walkers? A regular network TV drama still costs US $3 million an episode.

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.

FIVE LOCAL feature length films: Green Days by the River, Moko Jumbie, The Lies We Tell, Quick Pick and Back to Freeport will be screened during the 12th Annual trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) from September 19 to 26, 2017.
This was revealed at the launch held at the Hyatt Regency yesterday.

Nearly 120 feature-length, short and experimental narrative and documentary films from the Caribbean, its diaspora and contemporary world cinema will be screened including the five TT feature films, and over 34 short and experimental films, also made in TT.

Magella Moreau, Director of Public Relations, ttff said at the launch, “We continue to be excited by the quality of films made by local film-makers, many of you who are involved in the industry where you have to have passion to do this because it is not easy. The eternal search for funds etc it is very challenging, that you have to be either crazy or passionate to do it.” She then acknowledge and paid tribute to some of the film-makers who were present at the event.

After several months of teasing and hints, the 12th edition of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival Festival officially kicked off on Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency with the promise to get the nation ‘high on film’.

From September 19 -26, film enthusiasts can expect a fully loaded schedule of films from Trinidad and Tobago, the wider Caribbean and the world. However, they can also expect to see and take part in several other activities aimed at developing filmmakers and fostering patriotism and generating discussions on social issues.

To ensure that as many people as possible have access to the Festival, MovieTowne San Fernando has been added to the list of screening venues.

The Festival will open on September 19 with Green Days by the River, the highly anticipated film based on the novel of the same name. The film was one of 15 films in development that participated in the Caribbean Film Mart in 2015. “It is such a joy to see the film come to fruition. It will no doubt play to sold-out audiences across the country. It is, of course, just one of the 100+ films we will be screening at five venues across Trinidad and Tobago,” according to a statement from tt/ff.

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.

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.”