IT IS Michael Anthony’s hope that the film adaptation of his iconic novel, Green Days by the River, inspires a new generation of Caribbean writers as well as those interested in film. The novel has been adapted into film by a local film-makers Michael Mooleedhar and Christian James and is set to launch this year’s Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.
The film’s première will be held at a red carpet gala on September 19.
In a phone interview with Newsday the acclaimed author said, “I wrote the book as a writer hoping his work will be published… you think about telling a good story, a story that people would want to read and carry on reading it.” Not only did audiences want to continue reading Anthony’s novel 50 years on, but it has become so beloved in the hearts and minds of Caribbean readers that the novel is now finished.
Recalling what it was like initially crafting the novel, Anthony said, “When I finished Green Days by the River, I sent it and kept my fingers crossed that it would be published, and when it was published it began doing what you would call fairly well and I kept having hope. And then 50 years later, Mr Mooleedhar and his producer came to me and told me about the film and I said ‘my goodness, just in time I am ready to die’. I warmly accepted this and look forward to the film but I just did not have any real deep faith that we’d get to journey’s end.” Anthony now expects out of the film, a new wave in Caribbean literature with an eye on film. With a widely growing local and regional film industry, Anthony said, “I am hoping for success so that it will start a new day for writers and that there are some writers that will write with their minds on film. I did not because I never thought for one moment that my book was going to be filmed. There are young writers who would think, ‘Oh I hope they turn my book into film’.
