At the start of On the Roof (El Techo), a flock of pigeons soars through the skies of Havana, in symbolic contrast with the lives of the people on the roof where their coops are housed.

The plot may not seem exactly gripping at first, and Cuban director Patricia Ramos humorously acknowledges this in some shots—several series of still images in which all the protagonists do is change position a few times in perhaps several hours.

She’s set herself a challenge here: how to hold an audience’s attention with a story about three young people who spend a hot, uneventful summer on top of their crumbling apartment building in Havana. All they do is daydream, waiting for life to begin. It’s another world up there, the flat, confined, featureless roofscapes very different from the panoramic views of the real city and the sea beyond and below them. How do they move from one to the other? With no resources and no opportunities, how do they get a start?

The unlikely answer seems to be: open a pizzeria on the roof—but even then, its bustling, successful launch, with the young entrepreneurs lowering pizzas in baskets to their neighbours, is misleading.

But as is clear from the beginning, this isn’t an action movie, but a gentle, sometimes romantic comedy. The three protagonists at first seem like unambitious idlers. But it transpires that they’ve all been betrayed by the parental figures in their lives, and must find their own way; no wonder at first they’re drifting and uncertain how to find purpose in their lives.

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.”

With the countdown on to the 2017 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF), the Festival team has issued an open invitation to film lovers to join them at their two pre-festival limes.

The first, this Friday, is at Drink! Lounge and Bistro, in Woodbrook. The following Friday— September 15—the lime moves to San Fernando at 519 Trinidad in the C3 Centre in San Fernando, a release said.

The limes provide an opportunity to meet filmmakers and others involved in the industry, find out about film screenings, to generally be part of the buzz and excitement that surrounds the Festival—and, according to the Festival, “get high on film.”

According to Azreena Khan, events and marketing coordinator at the TTFF, “this year we are particularly pleased to be heading to San Fernando for our first ever pre-festival lime in the South and we hope some of our regular party crew from the West will join us there.

T&T-American filmmaker Vashti Anderson’s film Moko Jumbie will have its T&T premiere on September 23 during the T&T Film Festival. The annual festival runs September 19- 26 this year at various venues.

Exploring the old family estate by the sea in south Trinidad, Asha finds her Uncle Jagessar lamenting the state of the lemons.

Often, though, he’s more profound.

“Anything that can happen does happen,” he tells her, philosophising about parallel universes.

Sometimes those universes seem to overlap in Moko Jumbie, an oblique, dreamlike film, where the everyday life of a sleepy, remote village can encompass unexpected drama and romance and even the supernatural.

The Film Programme at the University of the West Indies (UWI), will once again host the screening of internationally acclaimed and student-made films, as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, which runs from September 19 – 26.

The UWI programme will take place at 12 Carmody Street, St Augustine, with a day of documentaries on September 22, and a showcase of student films with Q&As on September 23.

Among the selection of films is La Matamoros, by Panamanian director Delfina Vidal, which won Best Picture at the International Film Festival Panama, in the Central America and Caribbean category.

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.

Three documentaries about steelbands will make their debut at this year’s T&T Film 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.

James O’Connor’s film To Be A Renegade, captures the story of the BP Renegades through an examination of the violent beginnings of pan, the era of change, and its present state as a positive influence on communities, with steelbands now travelling abroad as international ambassadors. Featuring players, founding members and supporters, the documentary funded by BP Trinidad and Tobago, seeks to show what it really means to be a Renegade. As part of its support for the film, BPTT is sponsoring a free screening of To Be A Renegade on September 22 at 8.30 pm, at MovieTowne Port Of Spain. Tickets will be available from the box office on a first-come-first-served basis, at the start of the Festival.

UN Women, TT Film Festival + UWI highlight the power of women in film.

The T&T Film Festival is partnering with UN Women and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), UWI to present The Power of Women in Film on September 22 from 9 am at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad.

The day of panels and presentations will include speakers from across the region who explore depictions of women and girls and how film can be used to address issues of violence against women, objectification, gender inequality and female empowerment. Short films will be incorporated into the programme to help illustrate some of the issues being discussed. The Power of Women in Film initiative is free, and individuals and organisations interested in the issues are invited to attend.

A release said the Power of Women in Film will be followed by three days of feminist cinema, from September 22-24, also at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad.

The three days of screenings of films by or about women will present stories from a female point of view, highlighting political, economic or cultural discourse about women’s lives and critiquing the power structures holding gender inequality in place. The free screenings will be followed by facilitated discussions on some of the issues raised.

The lives of two great revolutionary thinkers and writers feature in this year’s T&T Film Festival as part of its programme of panorama films (world cinema), announced today. Among them is the much anticipated I Am Not Your Negro, by renowned Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, based on an unfinished manuscript by American civil rights activist and writer, James Baldwin. Also carded to screen at the Festival, which runs from September 19 to 26, is Neruda – loosely based on a period in the life of Chilean poet and communist politician, Pablo Neruda, a release said.

In Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, the words of writer James Baldwin (read by Samuel L Jackson), link the lives of three American civil rights activists — Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, in a disturbingly topical indictment of racism and hatred in America.

The film takes as its starting point Baldwin’s manuscript, Remember This House, a moving, poetic and at times humorous memoir, that puts the spotlight on America’s history of irrational fear and denial of race inequality. Baldwin, who died in 1987, and whose disillusionment with the US led him to emigrate to Europe, saw America as steadfastly narrow-minded, with racism as the source of its emotional and moral poverty.

As part of the country’s celebration of Patriotism Month, the trinidad+tobago film festival will host Feature T+T—a day-long celebration of T&T through the screening of local short and feature films, followed by Q&A sessions with some of the filmmakers. The screenings—which will be held on Republic Day, Sunday 24 September, at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Tobago—are sponsored by the Ministry of Community Development Culture and the Arts.

Among the feature films to be screened is Moko Jumbie by Trinidadian-American director, Vashti Anderson. It tells the story of Asha who, on vacation from England to visit family in rural Trinidad, soon discovers there’s trouble in paradise. Drawn to her neighbour, a young fisherman, the strain between the two families, one Indian and one African, is palpable and as Asha’s attraction deepens, she must navigate racial taboos, family disapproval, political turmoil, and mysterious hauntings by ancestral spirits. Moko Jumbie—Anderson’s feature film debut—was a selection at the 2017 LA Film Festival.

In Quick Pick, by Tobagonian filmmaker Miguel K Lashley, young construction worker Travis Duke is out of luck with love, work and money, until a winning lotto ticket changes his fortunes. With no cash in hand yet, he borrows money from a drug lord to kickstart the celebrations and buy a car and a condo. But has Travis put the cart before the donkey?

The third feature film in the T+T line up is Clifford Seedansingh’s The Lies We Tell, a comedy about a serial adulterer and what happens when the tables are turned.