Director: Marcia Weekes
2009, Barbados
English
Narrative feature / 104 minutes / 16+

[divider]

A riveting drama that looks into a family ravaged by an undercurrent of drugs, violence and abuse. Life for 15-year-old Mikisha has been tough since she became pregnant for her boyfriend. Her mother, Darlene, is a single mom with financial problems and her boyfriend’s life continues on a downward spiral into drugs. But then she meets her wealthy father and her sister. Are they the answer to her dreams or her worst nightmare?

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Marcia Weekes is a Jamaican filmmaker who lives in Barbados. She is Artistic Director of Praise Academy of Dance, a company that has toured the Caribbean and abroad with its successful musical productions. Weekes has won several awards for Hush 2, the second in a three-part series of movies.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube 78wcM9lRWI4 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]

Mon 26 Sept 2.00pm*, MovieTowne

Directors: Laura Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas
2010, Dominican Republic / Mexico
Spanish and Haitian Creole, with English subtitles
Narrative feature / 84 minutes / 14+

[divider]

When he loses his job as a French teacher, Jean, a gentle, middle-aged Haitian living alone in Santo Domingo, is evicted from his apartment. He searches unsuccessfully for a new job and a new place to stay. Frustrated, he leaves the city for the countryside, where his quest increasingly takes on a spiritual dimension. Jean’s mission becomes nothing less than the search for a reason for being in a seemingly indifferent world.

[expand title=”About the directors”]

Both born in 1980, Laura Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas—from the Dominican Republic and Mexico respectively—are a husband-and-wife filmmaking team. Their first feature film, the drama Cochochi (2007), won the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami International Film Festival. Jean Gentil is their second and most recent film.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube qRDqYihLWCo 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]

Mon 26 Sept 2.00pm + Thur 29 Sept 7.00pm, The Little Carib Theatre

Director: Miquel Galofré
2011, Jamaica
English and Jamaican Creole
Documentary feature / 74 minutes / 16+

[divider]

Jamaican dancehall fascinates the world with its irresistible beats and raw, controversial lyrics. This documentary explores the roots of this unruly offspring of reggae, featuring pioneers Yellowman and the late Bogle, Elephant Man, the Gully and Gaza gods, Mavado and Vybz Kartel, and some of the current issues: warring artists, skin-bleaching and “daggering”.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Barcelona-born Miquel Galofré has over 20 years’ experience as a cameraman, editor and director in the Spanish television industry. In 2007 he made his first film, the award-winning short Gua! Pa! His first documentary, Why do Jamaicans Run so Fast? was screened at the ttff/10.

[/expand]

[divider]

[youtube LQJDTyWzl2g 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]

Fri 23 Sept 4.30pm*, Centre for Language Learning, UWI
Sun 25 Sept 4.30pm*, The Little Carib Theatre
Sat 01 Oct 7.00pm, MovieTowne

Director: Gregg Helvey
2009, USA, India
Hindi, with English subtitles
Narrative short / 19 minutes

[divider]

Like most Indian boys, Kavi wants to play cricket and go to school. Instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. He must either accept his fate, or fight for a different life. Winner of a Student Academy Award in 2009, and nominated for an Academy Award in 2010.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

An MFA graduate in Film Production from the University of Southern California, Gregg Helvey has worked on documentaries for the BBC and National Geographic as well as made his own documentary, Overexposed (2006), which examines how pornography affects men. He won a Student Academy Award for Kavi, and was nominated for an Oscar the following year for the same film.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube QZS718v6FIc 620]

[fb-like]
[divider]
Sat 01 Oct 5.30pm,  Centre for Language Learning, UWI
Wed 28 Sept 7.00pm, MovieTowne, Port of Spain

Director: Oliver Schmitz
2010, South Africa / Germany
Sesotho, with English subtitles
Narrative feature / 106 minutes

[divider]

Just after the death of her newly-born sister, Chanda, 12 years old, learns of a rumour that spreads like wildfire through her small, dust-ridden village near Johannesburg. The rumour tears apart her family and forces her mother to flee. Sensing that the gossip stems from prejudice and superstition, Chanda leaves home and school in search of her mother and the truth. A tale of the enduring strength of loyalty and a courage powered by the heart.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Oliver Schmitz was born in South Africa in 1960, to German parents. To escape being drafted into the South African army, he left the country for Germany, where he lived and worked for many years. He returned to South Africa and worked for the Film Research Unit, a union of black and white filmmakers opposed to the apartheid regime. His film Mapantsula (1988) debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. Life, Above All, which also debuted at Cannes, was the South African entry for Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards in 2011.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube mTWZrLK2TME 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]
This film is presented in association with the European Film Festival and supported by the German Embassy.

Sun 25 Sept 4.30pm, MovieTowne

Director / writer: Maria Sødahl
2010, Norway / Trinidad+Tobago
English and Norwegian, with English subtitles
Narrative feature / 105 minutes

[divider]

A Norwegian woman, Sonia, and her children join her husband in 1970s Trinidad, where he is stationed as an engineer in the oilfields. Sonia soon begins to feel like a stranger in a place where she’s not allowed to be herself but instead has to live the idle life of an expat wife. When Sonia discovers her husband is involved with a Trinidadian woman, her world falls apart and she must find a way to mend it.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Maria Sødahl spent a year as a child in Trinidad, which was the inspiration for Limbo. She has directed television dramas, documentaries and numerous short films in her native Norway, winning several national and international awards. Limbo is Sødahl’s first feature film as a writer and director.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube qPq3qKuv0aU 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]
Tue 04 Oct 4.30pm, MovieTowne

Director: Dane John
2011, Trinidad+Tobago
English
Narrative short / 12 minutes

[divider]

A maxi-taxi heading into Port of Spain, filled with a ragtag assortment of passengers, finds itself snarled up in traffic. A hilarious slice-of-Trini-life film.

[expand title=”About the director”]

Dane John was born in Trinidad in 1987. At the age of 17 he became a videographer and editor for his local church, and has worked on a number of religious and social-issue programmes that have aired on local TV. He is a student of the School of Business and Computer Science and the Caribbean Travelling Film School.

[/expand]

[youtube UJYvyvk1Y5k 620]

[fb-like]
[divider]

Fri 23 Sept 7.15pm + Tue 27 Sept 4.30pm*, MovieTowne, Port of Spain

Director: Maria Peters
2011, The Netherlands
Dutch, with English subtitles
Dramatic feature / 130 minutes

[divider]

Waldemar is a young Surinamese man attending university in Amsterdam in the 1930s. He becomes a boarder in the house of Rika, a Dutch woman almost twice his age, who is separated from her two-timing husband. Rika and Waldemar fall in love, and when Rika becomes pregnant, her husband takes their four children away from her. With war approaching, her and Waldemar’s problems are only just beginning. Adapted from a novel based on true events.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Maria Peters is well known in her native Netherlands for her children’s films. Sonny Boy is her first foray into adult-oriented drama.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube 0I-Q76sxmA4 620]

[fb-like]

[divider]

This film is presented in association with the European Film Festival and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

[divider]

Fri 23 Sept 4.30pm, MovieTowne
Sat 01 Oct 1.00pm, Institute for Critical Thinking, UWI
Sun 02 Oct 7.00pm, MovieTowne

Director: Andrew Lang
2009, Cuba / UK
Spanish, with English subtitles
Documentary feature / 88 minutes

[divider]

The story of three students at the world-renowned Havana Boxing Academy, as they prepare for Cuba’s national championships. More than athletes, these young men are symbols of pride—the standard bearers of the Revolution, according to Fidel Castro. As they train, however, crisis strikes: Castro falls seriously ill, and a number of the country’s Olympic boxing heroes defect to the USA. As Cuba finds itself at a crossroads, the boys contemplate a changing world.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Andrew Lang, who is British, began his filmmaking career with short courses at the Universidad Católica in Chile, and then the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) in Cuba. Sons of Cuba is his first film.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube xYR3hpkkG5A 620]

[fb-like]
[divider]

Thur 22 Sept 12.00pm + Thur 29 Sept 4.30pm, MovieTowne

Director: Howard Allen
2011, Antigua and Barbuda
English
Narrative feature / 100 minutes

[divider]

A young married couple, Michael and Lisa, are about to lose their home, when their luck changes dramatically. While on a photo shoot at an historic site, Michael discovers an ancient vase and sells it to an antique dealer. But strange things begin to happen, and they soon discover from a mystic that the relic was not a blessing, but a curse.

[expand title=”About the director”]

 

Howard Allen is an independent film and television producer whose debut feature film The Sweetest Mango (2001) was also the first feature film to be produced in Antigua and Barbuda. His directorial credits include No Seed (2002) and Diablesse (2005). Allen and his wife, Mitzi Allen, started the production house HAMA Productions in 1992.

[/expand]

[divider]
[youtube Mx7GwMMlniM 620]

[fb-like]
[divider]

Fri 30 Sept 2.00pm, MovieTowne