Three-time Emmy-nominated Canadian filmmaker and artist Michèle Stephenson draws on her Panamanian and Haitian roots to tell stories. In this in-depth discussion, we will plumb her mission to elucidate the experiences of marginalised communities of colour, and explore her creative routes to creating compelling films.
Michèle Stephenson
Michèle Stephenson is a Canadian filmmaker and artist. She pulls from her Panamanian and Haitian roots to think radically about storytelling and disrupt the imaginary in non-fiction spaces. Her feature documentary, “American Promise”, was nominated for three Emmys and won the Jury Prize at Sundance. Her work has appeared on PBS, Showtime, MTV and other outlets. Stephenson’s honours include the Silverdocs Diversity Award and the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Creative Capital artist.
Visual artist, filmmaker and curator, Zak Ové has built a career around a visual iconography that is both recognisably Caribbean and seems at home in a variety of international spaces. Elder son of filmmaker Horace Ové, Zak is also actively involved in documenting and preserving his father’s legacy. In this ttff talk, art writer and educator, Marsha Pearce, and cultural activist, Atillah Springer will delve into Ové’s creative practice as well as his role in preserving his father’s substantial legacy.
Zak Ové is a British/Caribbean artist with a multidisciplinary practice across sculpture, film and photography. His work is informed, in part, by the history and lore carried through the African diaspora to the Caribbean, Britain and beyond, with particular focus on traditions of masking and masquerade as tools of self emancipation. Ové’s solo presentation “The Invisible Man and The Masque of Blackness” – 40 sculptures exhibited alongside works by Rodin – was on view in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden at LACMA, Los Angeles, CA from (2019). Ové has presented solo sculpture installations in the Great Hall at the British Museum, London, UK; San Francisco Civic Centre, San Francisco, CA; Forecourt of Somerset House, London; The Ford Foundation, NY; The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; and The Slavery Museum, Liverpool among others. Ové’s work features in a number of museum collections, as well as in private foundations, including the British Museum, London; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida and many others. He curated the seminal and widely-acclaimed exhibition, “Get up, Stand up now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers” at Somerset House, London in 2019.
Horace Ové is internationally known as one of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His feature film, “Pressure”, was the first Black feature film to be made in the UK; his 1970 documentary, “Reggae”, the first in-depth documentary on Black music and reggae. His film career has produced such diverse films as “Playing Away”, “A Hole in Babylon” and “Baldwin’s Nigger” (with James Baldwin and Dick Gregory) among others. Alongside his film career, Ové has worked extensively as a photographer all over the world, beginning in his native Trinidad during the 1960s and 1970s covering social and political events in the UK, as well as chronicling the birth and growth of the Notting Hill Carnival. He has had several exhibitions at The Photographer’s Gallery, London; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Castle Museum, Nottingham; The University of Brighton; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales and at Arts Depot, London. Twelve of his portraits were purchased as part of the permanent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and were exhibited. At the Whitechapel Gallery, Ové’s pictures of Michael X and members of the Black Power Movement featured as part of “The Back to Black” exhibition. The Barbican also featured a retrospective of Ové’s films and photographs.
get to know the inimitable Ray Funk!
Storyteller, historian, retired court judge, Ray Funk, stumbled across Trinidad and Tobago and fell in love with Carnival, steelpan and calypso, and in so doing he became a national treasure whose extensive research has led to the unearthing of rare historical finds of forgotten Carnival history.
For our next ttff talk, we’ll be sitting down for an intimate and wide-ranging conversation on falling in love with carnival, steelpan and calypso with aficionado Ray Funk.
When: 1pm AST, 23 June 2021 Where: Facebook Live @ttfilmfestival
Ray Funk is a retired Alaskan state court trial judge, a Fulbright scholar, an honorary fellow of the University of Trinidad and Tobago and has been coming to Trinidad Carnival for over two decades. He has written dozens of articles on calypso, steelpan and mas, primarily for the Trinidad Guardian and Caribbean Beat; co-written books, curated exhibitions, and lectured in Trinidad, across the US, Canada and England at schools, universities, and libraries on aspects of Trinidad music, carnival, and culture. Funk co-curated a traveling and online exhibition at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, “Calypso: A World Music”, which went on to tour colleges, libraries, and museums in the US and Trinidad. Michael Eldridge and Funk co-wrote and produced “Calypso Craze”, a boxed set, with a coffee table book, six CDs and a DVD in 2014. He co-wrote two books, Invaders Steel Orchestra and Steelpan in Education:Northern Illinois Steel Orchestra. Funk has done several presentations for the trinidad+tobago film festival over the last decade on historic Carnival footage.
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 creative industries.
ttff talk with ‘RBG’ editor!
The edit – arguably the most intense and make or break aspect of the filmmaking process. A good editor can transform a film, building compelling story arcs, luring audiences into the complex world of the story, cut by cut. In fact, in documentary, the film is “made” in the edit suite. For our next ttff talk, we’ll be sitting down for an intimate and wide-ranging discussion on creativity, storytelling and the craft of editing, with documentary editor, Carla Gutierrez.
When: 1pm AST, 30 March 2021 Where: Facebook Live @ttfilmfestival
Carla Gutierrez is an Emmy and ACE Eddie nominated documentary editor. She cut the Oscar nominated film ‘RBG’, about the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her fight for gender equality. ‘RBG’ premiered at Sundance and was released theatrically worldwide. It won the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Political Documentary, and a DuPont-Columbia Award. Carla recently edited the feature documentary ‘Pray Away’, which tells the story of the “pray the gay away” or ex-gay movement, for Multitude Films and Lamplighter Films. ‘Pray Away’ premiered at Tribeca and was an official selection of the 2020 Telluride Film festival. Carla also edited the Oscar nominated film ‘La Corona’ (HBO) and the Emmy nominated documentaries ‘Reportero’ (POV), ‘Kingdom of Shadows’ (POV) and‘Farewell Ferris Wheel’(America Reframed). Carla is currently finishing editing a feature documentary about the great American cook and TV personality, Julia Child for CNN Films, Imagine Entertainment and Storyville Films. Carla has been a creative adviser for the Sundance Edit Lab, and a mentor for the Firelight Producers’ Lab, The Karen Schmeer Diversity Program and the Tribeca Film Fellows program. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and the American Cinema Editors. Carla received a Masters in Documentary Film from Stanford University.
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.
