Directors: Greta Mendez, Mat de Koning
2010, Trinidad+Tobago / Australia
English
Experimental short / 5 minutes

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The universally known image of Shakespeare’s Ophelia by John Millais is used as a metaphor for Kashmir, a country once called “Paradise on Earth”, and its people caught between two countries.

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Trinidadian artist Greta Mendez is an award-winning choreographer, theatre director, producer, performance art artist who has worked in the UK, Greece, Italy, China and India. Mendez is currently working on an intergenerational work entitled AH! Hard Rain.

For 10 years, Mat de Koning has been creating DIY no-budget films that reflect upon his surrounding environments. His work has been screened at over 50 festivals, and he was awarded the 2011 West Australian Young Filmmaker of the Year Award.

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Wed 21 Sept 3.00pm + Fri 30 Sept 7.00pm, MovieTowne, Port of Spain

Director: Fina Torres
2010, Venezuela / Cuba / France
Spanish, with English subtitles
Narrative feature / 105 minutes / 16 +

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Eva dreams of leaving the Havana factory in which she toils, opening her own dress shop and getting married to her loving but unambitious boyfriend. One day she meets a sophisticated Venezuelan-Cuban photographer and agrees to be his guide to the city. She falls in love and imagines a whole new life with him. But things are not as they seem, and Eva is caught between two men and two worlds. Whom will she choose?

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Venezuelan director Fina Torres studied design, photography and journalism in her native country before moving to Paris to study cinematography. Her directing credits include her award-winning debut feature Oriana (1985), the comedy Celestial Clockwork (1993) and the romantic comedy Woman on Top (2001), starring Penelope Cruz.

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This screening is supported by the Venezuelan Embassy.

Thur 22 Sept 4.30pm* + Thur 29 Sept 7:00pm, MovieTowne, Port of Spain

Director: Errol Sitahal
2005, Trinidad+Tobago
English
Dramatic short / 45 minutes

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Sat, an ageing ex-schoolteacher, returns home from Canada after 20 years. Most of his family are dead, including his young sister, a suicide. Blaming himself for her death, Sat expiates his guilt by fantasising her appearance as a series of different characters. Based on a story by the Trinidadian-Canadian writer Rabindranath Maharaj.

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Errol Sitahal is a well-known Trinidadian stage, television and film actor. His film credits include A Little Princess and the Harold and Kumar movies. He has also written and directed documentaries and written for TV, and was one of the original hosts of the groundbreaking show, Gayelle. He is currently working a feature film with novelist Rabindranath Maharaj.

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Thur 22 Sept 2.00pm + Tue 27 Sept 12.00pm,* MovieTowne, Port of Spain

Director/writer: Maureen Arneaud
2011, Trinidad+Tobago
English
Documentary short / 2 minutes

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Young hearing-impaired videographers capture the pulse and action, the culture and feel of a busy corner along the Eastern Main Road in Trinidad. This short film is the start of a series the group will submit to a Deaf Weekend News programme for airing on an Irish TV station. The series, called Hello from Trinidad!, will show glimpses of everyday life in Trinidad as seen through young eyes.

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Maureen Arneaud studied video production in the US, and has produced corporate videos in the US, UK, France and Japan as well as on her return to Trinidad. A Busy Corner is the first short film for Arneaud’s most recent project, training deaf youth in video production.

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Wed 28 Sept 12.00pm*, MovieTowne

Director: Susanne Rostock
2011, USA
English
Documentary feature / 103 minutes

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Wonderfully archived, and told with remarkable intimacy and panache, this inspiring documentary surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. He recalls his childhood in Jamaica, where he first heard the folk songs that he would later make famous, and then his controversial crossover into Hollywood. The film focuses on the decades he has spent as a globe-crossing social activist, and shows Belafonte, now 82, to be as tenacious as ever, as he continues to ask, “What do we do now?”

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Since 1980 Susanne Rostock has edited many documentaries in her native USA, and one feature drama, Sally (2000). Sing Your Song is her first film as a director.

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Sun 25 Sept 2.00pm, MovieTowne

Sat 01 Oct 2.00pm*, The Little Carib Theatre

Director: Kim Johnson
2011, Trinidad+Tobago
English
Documentary short / 37 minutes

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This revealing film follows the writing and performing of a skit by deaf Trinidadians about a child’s experience of hearing loss. Through the play, and through interviews with the actors, deaf children and their parents, the viewer is taken into an unfamiliar world.

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Kim Johnson is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He has published a number of books on pan as well as other subjects. His first film, a documentary short on pan entitled The Audacity of the Creole Imagination (2010), screened at the ttff/10.

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Fri 30 Sept 12.00pm*, Little Carib

Director: Hester Jonkhout
2010, Suriname
Dutch, Sranan Tongo, English, with English subtitles
Documentary short / 22 minutes

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At the mouth of the Suriname River a colony of dolphins may be found. But many Surinamese don’t know these beautiful, intelligent creatures exist. This film shows how sightseeing tours are bringing people into touch with the creatures, and how a research programme is ensuring there will be dolphins for future generations to enjoy.

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Originally from Curaçao, Hester Jonkhout is a filmmaker and videographer working in Suriname. She has directed documentaries on various subjects, from teenagers in prison to wildlife. As a videographer her work includes a cooking and travel TV series called Back to My Roti, and a feature documentary, Young Suriname.

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Wed 28 Sept 12.00pm, MovieTowne

Q+A session, director present

Director: Bayard Jean Bernard
2010, Haiti
English and Haitian Creole, with English subtitles
Documentary short / 9 minutes

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In Jacmel, Haiti, the schoolchildren drink canned water donated by foreign agencies. Since there is no formal recycling scheme, innovative ways must be found to re-use the aluminium cans. Enter Bòs Gérard, a local tradesman who turns the cans into cooking pots.

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 All rights reserved by Ciné Institute

Born in Jacmel, Haiti, Bayard Jean Bernard has studied broadcasting and filmmaking in Haiti and France, respectively. He has made a number of short films as well as video installation works.

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Fri 23 Sep 2.30pm, Centre for Language Learning, UWI
Wed 28 Sept 2.00pm, The Little Carib Theatre

Directors: Alison Latchman, Barboro Ortiz, Christopher Guinness, David Prosser, Makesi Aquan, Stefano Caines, Wendell Mc Shine

2010, Trinidad+Tobago / Jamaica / Cuba / Mexico / UK

English and Spanish, with English subtitles

Animated shorts / 42 minutes (total package)

 

A selection of seven of the best short films from the 2010 Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival.

 

Sun 25 Sept 12.00pm, MovieTowne*

Director: John Barry
2011, Trinidad+Tobago
English
Documentary short / 42 minutes

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Playing classical music on the steelpan showed Trinidad society that a percussion instrument invented in the poorer areas of Port of Spain could reach the heights of a symphony orchestra. The film looks at the importance of classical music  in the development of the steelband and its acceptance worldwide as a legitimate instrument.

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Trinidad and Tobago’s John Barry holds a BA in Mass Media Studies from the University of the District of Columbia and an MA in Communication Arts from the New York Institute of Technology. He has a wealth of experience in video-making as a writer, producer and director. Among his credits is his first documentary, Dance de Calypso.

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Sat 24 Sept 12.00pm*, MovieTowne

Fri 30 Sept 12.00pm, The Little Carib Theatre