ttff talks are in depth and insightful conversations with creative masters on their creative journeys, inspiration, challenges and personal philosophies. ttff talks are presented with the support of The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago.

Logistics

date: Saturday 24 September, 2022
time: ​4.30pm–5.45pm
location: NALIS (AV Room)
rsvp: Sign up here!
tickets: free
moderator: Mariel Brown

about Stanley Nelson Jr

Stanley Nelson Jr is today’s leading documentarian of the African-American experience. His films combine compelling narratives with rich historical detail to illuminate the under-explored American past. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Nelson has received numerous honours over the course of his career, including five Primetime Emmy Awards for his films, as well as lifetime achievement awards from the Emmys, the Peabodys, and IDA. In 2013, Nelson received the National Medal in the Humanities from President Barack Obama. His latest film, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, premiered at Sundance in January 2019.

In 2000, Mr Nelson, along with his wife, Marcia A. Smith, founded Firelight Media, a non-profit production company dedicated to using historical film to advance contemporary social justice causes, and to mentoring, inspiring and training a new generation of diverse young filmmakers committed to telling underrepresented stories.

about Marcia Smith

Marcia Smith is president and co-founder of Firelight Media, which produces documentary films, provides artistic and financial support to emerging filmmakers of colour, and builds impact campaigns to connect documentaries to audiences and social justice advocates. Under her leadership, Firelight Media was honoured with a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Firelight Media’s flagship Documentary Lab programme has supported more than 80 emerging filmmakers over the past decade, who have premiered at festivals such as Sundance, and gone on to earn numerous festival, Peabody and Emmy awards.

ttff talks are in depth and insightful conversations with creative masters on their creative journeys, inspiration, challenges and personal philosophies. ttff talks are presented with the support of The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago.

Logistics

date: Friday 23 September, 2022
time: ​​4.30pm–5.45pm
location: NALIS (AV Room)
rsvp: Sign up here!
tickets: free
moderator: Maria Nunes

about Christopher Laird

Christopher Laird is Managing Director, co-owner and co-founder of Banyan Ltd. He has produced more than three hundred documentaries, dramas and other video productions during his forty-year professional career. His genius has been recognized and rewarded with many national, regional and international awards. He is responsible for establishing the Caribbean Film and Video Archive which is (arguably) the largest collection of Caribbean culture on video. In 2003, he founded, with Errol Fabien, the Region’s first all-Caribbean free-to-air television station, Gayelle. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies.

Christopher has worked closely with Caribbean Tales for more than ten years, receiving the CaribbeanTales Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. His film NO BOIS MAN NO FRAID opened CTFF 2013. Currently, CTWD distributes all Banyan’s catalogued content.

about Dr Bruce Paddington

Bruce Paddington (PhD) is a filmmaker, lecturer, academic and film festival curator. He was a senior lecturer in film at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and the co-founder of the Bachelor of Arts Film Programme. He is the founder of Banyan Productions, the New World Film Centre and the trinidad+tobago film festival and was the festival director from 2006–19. He is a consultant and programmer for ttff/22.

“Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes… There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.”

Director Steven Spielberg describes his long time collaborator, composer John Williams

Music is one of those intangible things that can transform how audiences interpret and experience a film. In this way, film score composers are like conductors, directing the way that audiences feel and extracting emotion. Join us for our next ttff talk, when we’ll be sitting down for an intimate and wide-ranging discussion on creativity, inspiration, and finding the right note, with composer Dominique Le Gendre.

When: 1pm AST, 21 April 2021
Where: Facebook Live @ttfilmfestival

Dominique Le Gendre composed and produced music for all 38 Shakespeare plays for the audio collection, The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare. Her musical trajectory spans performance, musical direction, teaching, curation, producing music events and compositions for theatre, dance, art installations, film, television and radio drama for BBC Radio. She is a former Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House, her chamber music and operas have been commissioned and performed by numerous ensembles including the Royal Opera House Soloists, Philharmonia Orchestra, Manning Camerata, Tête-a-tête Opera, Ibis Ensemble, Metamorphosis Dance and Natalia Dopwell. Her musical-theatre work, Jab Molassie with libretto by Bassist Caitlyn Kamminga was produced by Calabash Foundation for the Arts, premiering at the Little Carib Theatre. ​Dominique trained as a classical guitarist in Paris with Ramon de Herrera while composing music for experimental films and assisting Haitian filmmaker Elsie Haas on her documentary La Ronde des Vaudou. She is the artistic director of the UK arts charity StrongBack Productions.

ttff talks is geared towards inspiring and motivating film and television practitioners in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, by creating a forum for in-depth and wide-ranging one-on-one conversations about the art and creativity, business, joys and challenges of working in the film and television industry.