A week before the national budget, and on Republic Day, on Sunday at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain, two persons with experience working in, and with profitable creative industries internationally, clamoured for Trinidad and Tobago to tap its creative industries, as a low-hanging fruit, for economic diversification.

Costa Rican Ambassador to T&T Lilly Edgerton Picado said she finds T&T’s creative industries so enormous it is “mind-blowing”. She was sharing tips at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) event at the 2017 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, on what T&T could do to make money from its creative industries, based on her experience in her own country.

Costa Rica was one of the countries featured in the August-released IDB paper “The Orange Economy”. The “orange economy” covers the creative industries, including the arts.

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.