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.

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.