There’s nothing quite like watching a wonderful movie under the stars, and that’s just what the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is bringing to audiences across the country in its third annual Community Cinergy series, starting Friday 21 March.

Sponsored by bpTT, Community Cinergy consists of four free open-air screenings of great movies, all past ttff selections, from T&T and around the world, plus one special screening for the lads of the Youth Training Centre.

Refreshments and crafts will be on sale. There will be full seating at the Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association. You may wish to bring cushions to the St James Amphitheatre. There will be limited seating at San Fernando Hill, so you may wish to bring your own chairs or blankets. Please bring chairs or blankets to the UWI screening.

The full Community Cinergy lineup is as follows. Doors open at 6pm for screenings starting at 7pm.

Friday 21 March, 7pm
Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association, Chaguaramas

The Wind That Blows
Director: Tom Weston
2013/St Vincent and the Grenadines, USA/Documentary/60mins/All ages
This is a revealing portrait of a group of men from the island of Bequia, who engage in a dangerous and controversial activity: the hunting of humpback whales.

Alamar (To the Sea)
Director: Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio
2009/Mexico/Drama/73mins/All ages
Poetically told and breathtakingly shot, this film tenderly observes the relationship between an Amerindian fisherman and his young son.

Saturday 22 March, 7pm
UWI, St Augustine (opposite the Learning Resource Centre)

Doubles with Slight Pepper
Director: Ian Harnarine
2011/T&T, Canada/Drama/16mins/PG
A young doubles vendor faces a difficult decision when his estranged father returns home after years abroad.

Papilio Buddha
Director: Jayan Cherian
2013/India/Drama/108mins/16+
Set against the lush backdrop of Kerala in south India, this is a provocative film about the Dalits, a group of landless, indigenous people fighting against caste oppression.

Friday 28 March, 7pm
San Fernando Hill

The Suspect
Director: Leroy Smart
2010/TT/Drama/7mins/All ages
A bus passenger suspects that a crime is about to happen.

Lucky
Director: Avie Luthra
2010/South Africa/Drama/100mins/PG
After his mother dies, young Lucky, who is black, travels from the countryside to the city, where he forms an unlikely relationship with an elderly Indian widow.

Saturday 29 March, 6:30pm (closed screening)
The Youth Training Centre, Golden Grove

Maxi-Taxi Madness
Director: Dane John
2011/TT/Drama/12mins/All ages
A hilarious film about a rag-tag group of maxi-taxi passengers stuck in traffic.

Chance
Director: Evan Kaufman
2012/USA, US Virgin Islands
Drama/86mins/16+
A powerful story about the lengths a young man would go for his loved ones.

Sunday 30 March, 7pm
St. James Amphitheatre

Drink
Director: Juliette McCawley
2013/TT, UK/Drama/9mins/PG
An illegal immigrant in London is forced into an act of quiet desperation.

Twa timoun (Three Kids)
Director: Jonas D’Adesky
2012/Haiti, Belgium/Drama/81mins/PG
Inspired by true events, this is a moving portrait of three orphaned boys’ attempts at survival in the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

Image: A shot from Alamar

After successful outdoor events in Chaguaramas, St Augustine, Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) brings its second annual Community Cinergy series to a close this Saturday and Sunday with two days of family-oriented activities and films in Tobago, at the Buccoo Integrated Complex.

Community Cinergy combines film screenings and live entertainment in open-air settings, and is sponsored by bpTT. This weekend’s film screenings take place in association with the Healing with Horses Foundation and the Growing Leaders Foundation, and the event is free, for all ages and open to the public.

Things kick off at 5pm on both days with live entertainment by the children of the Yahweh Foundation and a parade by the Healing with Horses Foundation.

Then from 6.30pm on Saturday a package of short children’s films will be screened. The lineup is:

The Itch of the Golden Nit
Director: Aardman Animation/UK/2012/34 mins
One Good Deed
Director: Juliette McCawley/TT/2012/12 mins
Mr Crab
Director: Faisal Lutchmedial/Canada/2012/5 mins
Pothound
Director: Christopher Guinness/TT/2012/11mins
Tinga Tinga Tales
Director: Tiger Aspect Productions/2011/24 mins
Healing with Horses: Love & Magic
Director: Elspeth Duncan/TT/2012/37 mins

Then on Sunday from 6.30pm the drama Habanastation, directed by Ian Padrón of Cuba, will be screened, in Spanish with English subtitles. The film tells the story of Mayito, the son of a wealthy jazz musician, who imagines all Cubans live as he does, eating chicken every day and playing video games on their Sony PlayStations. When he finds himself lost in a poor neighbourhood one day, however, he realises this is far from the truth, and must come to terms with the class differences that exist in modern-day Cuba.

Habanastation will be preceded by the short film Dis ah We Own?, Roxborough Secondary School’s prize-winning entry in the 2012 Secondary Schools Short Film Festival, and Elspeth Duncan’s Healing with Horses: Love & Magic.

Before and after the films on both days the Tobago Night Market, an initiative of the THA Division of Community Development and Culture, will take place. There will be refreshments as well as crafts and other products on sale, and giveaways from bpTT. Seating is provided in the stands.

Image: a shot from Habanastation