Documentaries on historical figures create space for us to pay homage to those that paved the way for social change. Filmmaker Shola Lynch believes, as James Baldwin said, “History is not the past. It is the present.”  Lynch has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2016 and a Peabody, Emmy Award and Image Award winning filmmaker. While she has been working in film since 1997, she is best known for her independent documentaries on, and in-depth interviews with, the academic and activist, Angela Davis, and the visionary politician with Caribbean roots, Shirley Chisholm. Lynch is a master at relaying history in a meaningful, inspiring, and captivating way. Guided by her personal philosophy, she showcases her passion and brings stories told through the eyes of the people, the women, that lived them. 

In this masterclass, Lynch will take participants through a process of deconstructing how she tells stories in her films. Also to be explored: her research process; her storytelling inspiration; finding the courage to stay with a project over many years; exploring all sides of a story and embracing controversy. She will also share insights into building a twenty-five year long career in the film business as a director.

logistics

date: Tuesday 27 September, 2022
times: 10.30am–12.00pm + 12.30–2.00pm
location: NALIS (Seminar Room 2)
rsvp: pre-registration required. Sign up here!
tickets: TT$300. Tickets will cover the cost of the two sessions. They are available here.
facilitator: Shola Lynch

Advance tickets are available at ttfilmfestival.com and can also be purchased via bank transfer or in person (cash, credit card or linx) at our FILMCO office, located at 22 Jerningham Ave. 

FILMCO members, filmmakers with a film in the Festival and students with a valid photo ID, can receive a 50% discount on workshops and masterclasses! Please email Nyola at festival@filmco.org for information on payment options and to receive your discount code.

about Shola Lynch

Shola Lynch is an award-winning American filmmaker best known for the feature documentary ‘Free Angela and all political prisoners’ and the Peabody Award-winning documentary ‘Chisholm ’72: Unbought and unbossed’. Her independent film body of work and her other collaborative projects feed her passion to bring history alive with captivating stories of people, places, and events. Since 2013 she has also served as the curator of the Moving Image & Recorded Sound division of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2016, Shola became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  Shola is currently finishing a documentary about the American sprinter, cultural icon and still World Record holder, Flo Jo. She will also helm the Apple Original film, ‘Number One on the call sheet’, which will celebrate Black achievement in the film industry, and explore what it takes for Black actresses to find success in Hollywood. Shola believes deeply in the value of preserving history and its power in storytelling. 

We are honoured to introduce the jury members who will be judging the documentary films in competition at ttff/22: filmmaker and film curator, Shola Lynch; filmmaker, artist and author, Michèle Stephenson; journalist and filmmaker, Annick Laurent.

Films in juried competitions are rigorously discussed and dissected before being selected by the programming team, and must be unanimously agreed by the five programmers. The shortlisted films then move to the juries which are given a list of criteria on which they must score each film. Films are watched, scored and debated by the relevant jury, with the winning films ultimately being those which receive the highest aggregate scores. All the winners will be announced at the ttff/22 awards, 27 September.

Annick Laurent
Annick Laurent is a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist from New York, USA. Her interests include race and gender relations, culture, and the environment. Laurent is drawn to stories concerning identity, equity and access. Her first film, To the Plate, is about the way xenophobia affected Asian American elders and business owners during the pandemic. Before graduating from Columbia Journalism School, Laurent earned a BS in Biology from Spelman College. Laurent was also featured in Sisters Song: Awaken/Chroma: Red for Elevate, an exhibit hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; her photography explored gentrification in Atlanta from a feminist perspective.

Shola Lynch
Shola Lynch is an award-winning American filmmaker best known for the feature documentary ‘Free Angela and all political prisoners’ and the Peabody Award winning documentary, ‘Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed’. Her independent film body of work and her other collaborative projects feed her passion to bring history alive with captivating stories of people, places, and events. Since 2013 she has also served as the curator of the Moving Image & Recorded Sound division of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2016, Shola became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Shola is currently finishing a documentary about the American sprinter, cultural icon and still World Record holder, Flo Jo. She will also helm the Apple Original film, ‘Number One on the Call Sheet’, which will celebrate Black achievement in the film industry, and explore what it takes for Black actresses to find success in Hollywood. Shola believes deeply in the value of preserving history and its power in storytelling. 

Michèle Stephenson
Filmmaker, artist and author, Michèle Stephenson, pulls from her Haitian and Panamanian roots to think radically about storytelling and disrupt the imaginary in non-fiction spaces. She tells emotionally driven personal stories of resistance and identity that are created by, for and about communities of colour and the Black diaspora. Her stories intentionally reimagine and provoke thought about how we engage with and dismantle the internalized impact of systems of oppression. Her feature documentary, ‘American Promise’, was nominated for three Emmys and won the Jury Prize at Sundance. Her documentary, ‘Stateless’, was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Most recently, Stephenson collaborated as co-director on the magical realist virtual reality trilogy series on racial terror, ‘The Changing Same’, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, a Guggenheim Artist Fellow and a Creative Capital Artist.

georgia popplewell and filmmaker shola lynch in conversation

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Watch the powerful documentary, “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”, on ttfilmfestival.com this weekend, and join us on Facebook Live for a conversation between Georgia Popplewell and Shola Lynch, writer + director of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”, followed by a q+a session. Sunday 12 July, at 5:00pm

“Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”, streaming this weekend at ttfilmfestival.com/watchamovieonus, is a tribute to Angela Davis, radical political activist and leader who spent five decades campaigning for racial justice and respect for black lives in the US and African diaspora. Her work around issues of gender, race, class and prisons has influenced social movements for generations. Directed by Shola Lynch, the acclaimed documentary chronicles the life of Angela Davis as a young college professor and explores how social activism implicated her in a botched kidnapping attempt that ended with a shootout, four dead, and her name on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.

“Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” will stream to viewers in the Caribbean at ttfilmfestival.com/watchamovieonus, on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July, from midnight on Friday night to 11:59pm on Sunday.

Shola Lynch is an award-winning filmmaker best known for the feature documentary, “FREE ANGELA & All Political Prisoners” (streaming this weekend at ttfilmfestival.com) and the Peabody Award winning documentary “CHISOLM ’72: Unbought & Unbossed”. Her independent film body of work and her other collaborative projects feed her passion to bring history alive with captivating stories of people, places and events. Since 2013 she has also served as the Curator of the Moving Image & Recorded Sound division of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2016, Shola became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Georgia Popplewell is a Trinidadian writer and media producer and managing director of the international citizen media project Global Voices. She has worked in independent media since 1989 and has written extensively on culture, music, film, and sport. She started her career at the pioneering Trinidad and Tobago television production company Banyan, and is a founding member of Earth Television. She has worked on productions such as the Nickelodeon pre-school series Gullah Gullah Island and helmed the production team for the feature documentary 25 Years of West Indies Cricket. In 2005, Georgia started Caribbean Free Radio, the Caribbean’s first podcast.

The #WatchAMovieOnUs online streaming series is presented in partnership with The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago.