At the recently concluded T&T Film Festival, there was a renewed focus on local films. Green Days By the River, a local feature based on the Michael Anthony novel, opened the Festival and is still running at cinemas. There was also a fantastic response to short films like Maya Cozier’s Short Drop and Shari Petti’s Sorf Hair. Away from the glare of the Festival spotlight, however, there was an extremely important educational event taking place. The British Council teamed up with the T&T Film Festival to host development training for filmmakers in the form of a scriptwriting workshop with British script development consultant Ludo Smolski.

The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) held its formal opening night gala at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on September 19.

After the cocktail reception, guests were ushered into the Aldwyn Roberts, Lord Kitchener Auditorium, for the world premier of the film, Green Days by the River, based on the book written by Michael Anthony in 1952. Anthony who made a cameo appearance in the film interacted with guests at the event.

The entire cast along with director Michael Mooleedhar and producer Christian James also strutted on the red carpet.

Green Days won the best TT feature and people’s choice for best feature film narrative at the ttff awards on Tuesday. The film opened to the public on Tuesday.

The drama Green Days by the River was the big winner on Tuesday night at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) bringing home both best TT feature and people’s choice for best feature film narrative.

The wins were announced at the ttff awards ceremony held at the Central Bank Auditorium, Port of Spain. The film, based on the novel by local writer and historian Michael Anthony, was directed by Michael Mooledhar and produced by Christian James. The coming of age story is set in Mayaro 1952 and is about a teenager named Shellie (Sudai Tafari) who is befriended by a plantation owner named Mr Gidharee (Anand Lawkaran) and falls for his beautiful daughter Rosalie (Nadia Nisha Kandhai).

Green Days by the River, T&T filmmaker Michael Mooleedhar’s film adaptation of the Michael Anthony novel, premiered at the T&T Film Festival on September 19. In this essay, Caribbean visual arts scholar Patricia Mohammed examines the film’s style and substance.

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

In his film adaptation of the Michael Anthony novel Green Days by the River, Michael Mooleedhar is not just interested in the remembrance of things past but in documenting the identity of a society in the making, locating the many parts that accumulate to the collective identity of this nation.

From the moment it was announced in early August that Green Days by the River would open the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, the excitement quickly grew to a fever pitch as many literary enthusiasts anxiously awaited to see the classic characters come alive on the big screen.

The National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) was filled to capacity on Tuesday as the TT Film Festival kicked off.

The cast of Green Days by the River were not the only ones who stepped on the red carpet; author Michael Anthony also got star treatment. Although he had not seen the film ahead of time, he indicated that he was honoured and even a bit surprised by all the buzz around the book.

The 2017 edition of the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival gets underway this week, running from Tuesday 19 to Tuesday 26 September across venues in both Trinidad and Tobago. Four T&T features and over 34 local shorts will premiere at ttff/17.

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, with a red carpet gala and screening to be held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on Tuesday 19 September.

The first local film by a T&T director and producer to open the festival, director Michael Mooleedhar’s beautifully shot film is set in the idyllic countryside of 1950s Mayaro and re-tells the story of 15 year old Shell. Newly arrived in the village, 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 beauty of the local girls and the Mayaro landscape, the quiet storm that’s brewing may prove more than Shell can handle, and life as he once knew it may never be the same again.

 

With one action-packed week of films, panel discussions, special presentations, Q&As with filmmakers, limes and after-parties beginning today, here’s ten things you probably shouldn’t miss during this year’s Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival

Opening Night red carpet gala and film—Green Days by the River

September 19, NAPA, Port-of-Spain, 6 pm, by invitation or ticket only.

Michael Mooleedhar’s film follows Michael Anthony’s classic novel of adolescence, immersing the viewer in the sights and sounds of rural Trinidad 50 years ago. Many locals will have read it in their youth, and the film does a good job of reviving nostalgic memories of both the book and a way of life long since past.

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.

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.

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.