Due to public demand, a number of screenings of certain films have been added to the ttff/15 schedule. They are as follows.

Friday 25 September
The Harder They Come – Port of Spain Ballroom, Hyatt Regency Trinidad, 8.00pm
Trafficked – Movietowne POS, 11.45pm

Saturday 26 September
Amy – MovieTowne POS, 11.15pm

Sunday 27 September
Bim + Show Me Your Motion: Caribbean Film Festivals – MovieTowne POS, 10.30am

Screenings at MovieTowne cost $30 and tickets are now available at the box office. The screening at the Hyatt is free of charge.

Still: An image from The Harder They Come

A group of short T&T documentaries—Just a Drop, Down and Out and City on the Hill—screened at the ttff/15 yesterday. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended the sold-out screenings.

Just a Drop is a short film directed by Shea Best, Dominic Koo and Stephen Hadeed Jr.

Both Shea Best and Dominic Koo are graduates of the Film Programme at the University of the West Indies.Best is the director of the short drama The Cast (ttff/14)and Koo directed the short fiction film Botched Up (ttff/12). Stephen Hadeed Jr. is a Trinidad and Tobago actor. His credits include Festival of Lights (ttff/11) and Pendulum (ttff/15).

The six-minute film is about a drop of water that embarks on a journey to save a dying flower during the dry season.

Hadeed Jr. was inspired to make the film after going through the mundane act of washing his hands at a standpipe on the property were piece was filmed.

“The standpipe is at the top of a very big driveway and it curves around and goes all the way down to a drain,” he said. “I just started following the water, just walking down the driveway and I just wanted to see that journey a little more up close.”

The film is a visual treat. As Best said to the audience, Koo is a master behind the camera. I felt as if I was watching a real-time evolving painting as the water canvassed the concrete and dirt, making its way through ruts and crevices simultaneously collecting and discarding contents collected in its flow.

The music is also quite enjoyable and definitely emotive, connecting you to the journey of the water, always downhill, to the flower.

“Basically I wanted Lord of the Rings with water and after some work, I think that’s what we got,” Hadeed Jr. said.

The trio said that the film was shot over four, eight-hour days and also joked about the challenges of working with water, saying that it would not reset when directed to do so.

You can catch another screening of Just a Drop on the following dates:

Wed 23 Sept, 6.00pm, NALIS, POS Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 5.00pm, UWI Q&A

*****

Down and Out had its world premiere at the ttff/15 last evening. The film takes a look at the struggles that homeless people face in society and how the Centre for Socially Displaced Persons (CSDP) works toward alleviating these problems.

The film was done by three final-year students of the Film Programme at the University of the West Indies: Shanice Martin, Michaela Spencer and David Villafana.

Martin, who has always been curious about the stories of displaced persons, decided to interview the homeless people who went to the CSDP.

The main challenge the team had was security.

“Mr. Belgraves, the man you saw in the film, kept telling us that when we’re going out there we should bring somebody with us because it could get dangerous,” Spencer said. “He used to always come with us. We also just had other normal challenges like trying to get expensive equipment to that part of town.”

When one audience member asked about violence, Villafana explained that there are violence issues with the residents.

“There is 24-hour security at CSDP but if there is [violent] behaviour like that they are escorted out of the building and they go to Tamarind Park which is not to far from CSDP,” he said. “Even when they are there, they are not fully safe because some of them have money, they get robbed when they are sleeping or attacked.”

Another audience member commended the team on their effort saying that homeless people are treated “like trash” and we have “trained ourselves not to see them.”

The documentary featured on-camera interview with residents who were HIV-positive, drug addicts and deportees, who all got a chance to tell parts of their story.

The team was also challenged to go back into the project and re-edit and make the documentary longer. As it was a school project, the co-directors were dealing with many restraints in terms of time.

Villafana commented that it is an unfinished project and that they have a lot more material to work with.

You can see another screening of Down and Out on the following dates:

Wed 23 Sept, 6.00pm, NALIS, POS Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 5.00pm, UWI Q&A

****

City on the Hill is a look at the history of the communities erected on the hillside slopes of Laventille. The film examines the evolution of the chequered relationship between the landscape and its inhabitants, as well as selected aspects of Laventille’s architecture.

The film is part of a larger project. It was commissioned by Leveraging Built and Cultural Heritage of East Port of Spain, led by Dr. Asad Mohammed. Patricia Mohammed and Michael Mooleedhar, who previously teamed up for the short Coolie Pink and Green (ttff/09), directed the film.

Patricia Mohammed is a Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies and Head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies. Michael Mooleedhar is a graduate of the Film Programme at the University of the West Indies. Both have worked on a number of other films.

I do think that the project to map the cultural and architectural heritage of Eastern Port of Spain is brilliant, timely and also a much-needed filler for the gaps of our collective history. Mr. Mohammed’s project is visionary and will give much to the present and future generations of Trinidad and Tobago.

As one audience member said, “I didn’t grow up here but I felt very proud to be Trinidadian watching that. I felt like you gave me a piece of Trinidad that I would not have found in a textbook or online.”

Another audience member, a London-based teacher, said that the film would be a great tool to utilise in schools both here and abroad, as a window into the culture and heritage of East Port-of-Spain.

The narrative is opulent, featuring the words of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, novelist Earl Lovelace’s poems specifically written for Laventille, as well as poet Wayne Brown. The cinematography was captivating, showing areas of Laventille that I have never seen on screen. The religious theme was very informative as were the drumming and dancing themes. I think that anything that shows us our country is a great step forward.

There is just one thing that I can’t seem to reconcile about this film though. Ever since seeing the film yesterday afternoon, I’ve been having as issue with its presentation. I’ve spoken about it with colleagues and also just meditated on it in my mind.

The reason that the film was commissioned is substantial and important. However, the film absolutely failed to mention the horrendous crime that takes place in the area.

While I realise that this film is a commissioned project and not an investigative documentary and that the team intentionally left out this part of reality in order to cast a more positive light on the area, I think it would have strengthened the film to at least acknowledge the vulnerability of the area.

After all, when I asked Mooleedhar why some of the camera shots were so shaky, he said that they had to shoot with handheld equipment due to the security risks.

Since this is a documentary film, I would have liked to see the team be true to the experience. I would go so far as to say that it is even a bit unethical to sort of advertise Laventille as such a friendly place when your own team has consciously planned to shoot with equipment that facilitates a speedy evacuation of that same area, should the violence they are wary of, actually unfold.

You can see City on the Hill again on the following dates:

Wed 23 Sept, 6.00pm, NALIS, POS Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A

Image: a still from City on the Hill

The documentary My Father’s Land, directed by Miquel Galofré and Tyler Johnston, had its world premiere yesterday at the ttff/15. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended the screening.

My Father’s Land tells the story of Papa Jah, a Haitian gardener, who has spent the last forty years in the Bahamas, living in a marginalised community named the Mud. When news arrives that his 103-year-old father has taken ill back in Haiti, Papa Jah fears he may not see him before he passes. Papa Jah travels back to Haiti, to his family’s small village on the island La Tortue, to reunite with his father, hopefully before it is too late.

Miquel Galofré is from Barcelona, Spain, and lives in Trinidad. His previous, award-winning documentaries are Why Do Jamaicans Run So Fast? (ttff/09), Hit Me with Music (ttff/11), Songs of Redemption (co-directed by Amanda Sans, ttff/13), and Art Connect (ttff/14). Tyler Johnston is a Bahamian-American filmmaker and artist living in Trinidad and Tobago. He is the director of the short documentary Five Bones (ttff/12).

Galofré is an organic filmmaker. He has this way of just letting the camera rest on the subject and guided by his energy, his personal magic, they lose their masks, open up and in turn show their true selves. I saw this signature method of working in My Father’s Land.

Johnston, who grew up partly in Abaco in the Bahamas, an intersecting community of Haitians and Bahamians, told the audience that Papa Jah is a long time friend of his.

“I’ve always enjoyed his company,” he said. “He is such a unique character and I’ve always wanted to do a piece on him. Growing up partly in Abaco, my family, like many, had Haitian workers that would help with our small business. The playmates I had were Haitian.”

Galofré recalled how Johnston called him up and told him that he wanted to do a short film on Papa Jah.

“I said yes but why a short film? Let’s do it long,” he said.

My Father’s Land was filmed over 20 days with a lot of travelling in-between. Galofré and Johnston set out on an adventure with its fair share of challenges.

“There were so many times in the film when we said it’s not going to happen,” Johnston said.

“It was very dangerous but we had to do it and we made it,” Galofré added.

At one point, the team is filming on motorcycles while whizzing through the Haitian countryside.

“I literally thought I was going to die, it’s not a joke,” Galofré said. “But I said, let’s film it.”

The audience also congratulated Galofré and Johnston for humanising the issue of migration, in particular the plight of Haitians and Haitian-Bahamians in the Bahamas.

“Our world is seeing the worst humanitarian migration crisis [ever] and one of the biggest challenges is getting those in government to empathise,” one audience member said. She congratulated the filmmakers on having successfully humanised this migration experience.

When asked if what they were planning to do with the film given its political subject matter, Johnston responded that the pair did not intend to promote the film in that way.

“We actually tried not to make it a political film,” he said. “We tried to make it a character piece. Yes it does portray issues of immigration but there is also Papa Jah’s personal story. I want the film to be balanced and not pro or against anything. I want to let the audience make up their minds about it.”

After the film was made, Papa Jah went back to the Bahamas to live and work. He now has his legal status; the co-directors helped to get his his paperwork done.

You can see My Father’s Land on the following dates:

Thu 24 Sept, 3.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago
Thu 24 Sept, 3.00pm, UWI Q&A
Fri 25 Sept, 1.30pm, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Mon 28 Sept, 8.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago

The children’s film Sally’s Way, directed by T&T filmmaker Joanne Johnson, had its local premiere yesterday at the ttff/15. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended the screening.

Earlier this year I saw a TEDx talk by a researcher named Brené Brown. It focused on vulnerability, connection and wholeheartedness. In her talk, Brown comments that connection is why we are here. It’s how we’re wired.

As I digested Joanne Johnson’s film Sally’s Way, this is what kept coming up in my mind.

Johnson’s film features twelve-year-old Sally, who is happy in her childhood activities, hanging out at the block standpipe and getting on with her fellow community members. That is, until her grandmother falls ill and she has to live with the Dindial family that her grandmother worked for as a maid. Sally grapples with the emotions of leaving her only living family member, fielding gossip and bullies at school and an unwelcoming set of peers in the Dindial’s home. All of this is compounded by the worry that she will be relegated to living in an orphanage.

Johnson, who began writing and producing for television in the early 1990s, adapted Sally’s Way from her own children’s book of the same title, written in 2002. At the screening she informed the audience that some children in Sea Lots inspired the book.

Several members of the audience admitted that they were crying during and after the film, and that they were very moved by the content.

“There are so many important and key emotional [moments] in it and it’s so rich that way; it speaks to us all as humans,” one audience member said to Johnson. “The intimacy of relationships is what speaks to us all and you really portrayed that and it was incredible. Thank you so much.”

Johnson also said that at the film’s world premiere at the Seattle Children’s Film Festival a jury of children, ages nine to fifteen, awarded the film a prize.

“There is something universal about the kids responding to Sally, the Sally journey, the Sally story,” she said. “It’s the emotional content as well.”

Another audience member expressed the desire for the film to be shown everywhere.

“I have to say in the aftermath of the election, this movie is so important to talk about who Trinidad really is,” she said. “It is so important to see how we are all the same. I think you should be showing this movie everywhere.”

The actress who plays Sally, Alyssa Highly, also expressed how the role changed her for the better.

“Being Sally has changed me in many ways because I look at life with a different perspective now,” she said. “I see things more clearly, like sometimes I pretend I’m her. When I’m by myself and I have to make a tough decision.”

Johnson also spoke about how the film came about, describing how she forged the partnerships that made the film come to life.

“The Trinidad and Tobago Film Company had a lot of incentives at the time and we applied for a production assistance grant and then just on intuition I drove down Anna Street and I saw BCO [Brown Cotton Outreach, a theatre company], and I remembered the powerhouse that is [Sally’s Way producer] Louris Lee-Sing and I knocked on her door and I said, “Sally’s Way film anyone? And luckily she said, “Yes please!”

“Then [producer] Tracy Farrah was another powerhouse I worked with in sports and then I made a call and she said she would meet with me. Also, thanks to Angostura—I’m sure you all had a chuckle at our product placement, and it is a bit risky to combine advertising with children’s content, but we needed support and it was the only way to do it.”

Fellow ttff/15 filmmakers Juliette McCawley and Sandra Vivas were in the audience and congratulated Johnson on the film.

“I know what you’re doing is so hard and it’s great how well it is doing away, said McCawley. “When I was a little girl, I really wanted to act so I think it is wonderful that you gave these little girls the opportunity. There is a future for you guys. It is a drop that is going to cause a ripple in many, many ways.”

Vivas who admitted that she was “crying almost from like the beginning,” asked about the casting process.

Johnson admitted that it was daunting to “raise money and then bank on kids.”

“They always tell you don’t work with kids and animals in film because it is unreliable,” she said. “So we decided that we would spend a lot of time auditioning and training kids. We were looking for families that wanted it. So it wasn’t just about the child. We auditioned entire families.”

Highly’s grandparents were also in the audience supporting her. Her grandfather expressed how proud he was and also admitted that he was moved to tears by the film.

Johnson pointed out that Highly and her family really proved their stamina as “They live in Talparo and we were shooting in Patna and on a good day that is a two-hour run. This little girl has the discipline and the commitment that you don’t often see in adults.”

The screening ended on a really happy note with a government youth development officer for Port of Spain and Woodbrook commending the film and saying that her ministry would be happy to assist in distributing the film through grant funding.

“We shall start growing seeds and working together,” she said.

You can see Sally’s Way at the ttff/15 on the following dates:

Wed 23 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Thu 24 Sept, 7.15pm, UWI Q&A
Sat 26 Sept, 8.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago
Mon 28 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS
Tue 29 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne Tobago Q&A
Tue 29 Sept, 10.00am, Southern Academy for the Performing Arts Q&A

The T&T documentaries Paradise Lost, directed by Christopher Laird and Re-Percussions: An African Odyssey, directed by Kim Johnson, had their respective world premieres at the ttff/15 on Friday. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended both screenings.

Amazing. Enrapturing. Alluring. The embodiment of art.

Peter Minshall is truly a rarity in the polychromatic scope of existence.

I was mentally competing with myself for this year’s Festival to see how many films I could see without being moved to tears. If you’ve read my blogs over the past two years you would know that I am inevitably affected by the magic of film. Thus far, I have seen seven films. This eighth film, Christopher Laird’s Paradise Lost, which explores the genesis of Peter Minshall’s first masquerade band for the 1976 Trinidad and Tobago carnival, was my undoing.

It was my undoing in such a marvellous and wonderful way!

Peter Minshall has such an overpowering love for art that it moved past the film screen and touched every fibre of my being.

Christopher Laird, who has more than three decades of visual storytelling to his name, having produced over 300 documentaries, dramas and other video productions with the pioneering Banyan Limited, has achieved what he set out to do.

“Ray Funk persuaded George Tang to show his footage [of the band Paradise Lost] at the National Library last year, and it reminded me immediately of the effect it had on me when I saw the band in ’76,” he said at the screening. “It was jaw-dropping. We had never seen anything like it before. We saw the future of Carnival. It meant something about life and death and art.

“I said that we really need a documentary about these things so the newer generations can see what mas is really like in the quarter century that Minshall worked in the genre.”

The footage had the same effect on me. Even now as I write this, I have tears in my eyes and I feel like I have experienced something of true value and I have had a chance to share in a very important historical moment of Trinidad and Tobago. From my generation to yours, from me to you, thank you Mr. Laird.

In the work, Laird films Minshall viewing and reacting to the remastered version of the only known film footage of the band on stage.

“I really thought that we would shoot it, people would talk about the story, they would show the footage and it would be a good document but Minshall’s presentation and story telling is what brought it into another realm,” Laird said. “It becomes a story, it becomes a drama, something very touching.”

Laird effusively commended Tang for his coverage of the band.

“It is very easy to just look at George’s stuff and just say ok, fine,” he said. “George was also working for TTT the time. He would have to film with one camera on each shoulder. We are all lucky that he was able to use a super 8 camera, which was loaded with cartridges so he didn’t have to stop every few minutes to load another reel. I don’t know of any other moving colour footage of the time. TTT was black and white but changed to colour that year. It’s all shot expertly, from one side, carefully and steady, [with] a minimal number of jump cuts. He captured everything in a most masterful way and we cannot underestimate the contribution that George has made.”

Peter Minshall was at the screening and responded to a question from the audience member, about what was so groundbreaking about the band.

“[W]hat’s different about Paradise? I didn’t choose to come back. The thing held me by the foot and pulled me in. I had to make mas as art and you know it, enough people heard it and said ‘Mas as art? I in dat!’”

***

Re-Percussions: An African Odyssey is the return of the Trinidad and Tobago steelpan to its African roots. Kim Johnson and Jean Michel Gibert, the team behind last year’s opening night film, Pan! Our Music Odyssey, have gone deeper into the history of pan and found connections with our African past and present.

As Nigerian panman Bowie Sonnie Bowei attempts to nurture a steelband movement in Africa, he has to confront the challenge of propagating a creation of the descendents of enslaved people in a complex society, with its own percussive traditions.

I think it is a huge compliment to the people of Trinidad and Tobago that Chief Bowei wants to make pan a part of the culture in his country.

Johnson gave insight into his inspiration for making the film.

“Last year some of the people who criticised [Pan! Our Music Odyssey] didn’t like the fictional component and they wanted some idea of the history of pan,” he said. “When Jean-Michel and I originally came up with the idea of the first film, we called it Pan Global. Part of the idea was the global spread of pan and we thought maybe we would just do that as part two.”

The film actually had a rough start as Johnson’s Trinidadian camera crew had to turn around in London and fly home due to a mandate issued by the Trinidadian government that anyone coming from Nigeria would be quarantined as a security measure against the Ebola outbreak.

“I found the camera crew from hell and it was very, very difficult,” he said. “So you just have images and it’s like pieces of a puzzle but you don’t know what the puzzle is and what to make with those pieces. We planned to use the chief in our story because he was coming to Trinidad anyway and then I went to Lagos and I was there with him. Otherwise, this story is sort of like, you go and see what you get and you get these pieces and see how can I turn this into a story.”

Chief Bowei also finds it difficult to make pan a substantial part of the Nigerian musical culture. He believes that pan is his destiny and is relentless in learning all he can from the Trinidadian panmen and passing on that knowledge to the young people he teaches. Some of these young people start off never having seen a steel drum before and have to acquaint themselves with every aspect of it. He also comes up against challenges with getting new equipment and the tuning of the new pans. However, he perseveres and finds a way to manufacture pans and recruit interested young people.

One of the audience members from Nigeria encouraged Johnson and Gibert to continue their documentation of the growth of pan in his country.

“There is room for follow up,” he said. “We will want to know how far Chief Bowei has reached with pan in a few years.”

I totally agree. This team should not stop investigating how far this country’s national instrument has impacted people around the world.

You can catch another screening of Paradise Lost on the following date:
24 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A

You can see Re-percussions: an African Odyssey on the following dates:

Sun 20 Sept, 6.00pm, Couva Joylanders Panyard Q&A
Thu 24 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Fri 25 Sept, 5.30pm, MovieTowne Tobago
Tue 29 Sept, 8.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago

Still: An image from Paradise Lost

The world premiere of the film Bazodee will now take place at MovieTowne, Port of Spain on Wednesday 23 September 2015, with live appearances from the stars of the film, including Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi, British actress Natalie Perera, Trinidad-born/UK-based actor Valmike Rampersad, and the king of soca, Machel Montano.

The evening will begin at 6.00pm with cocktails at Fiesta Plaza, featuring live tassa and pan and a media call for the stars on the red carpet, followed by the formal launch and film screening inside the cinema at 7.30pm.

The event will end with an after-party at Aria on Ariapita Avenue, where Machel will perform a short set.

Tickets are available from the trinidad+tobago film festival secretariat at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad or at the Festival booth at MovieTowne, Port of Spain and cost TT$250 for the gala reception and screening only and TT$350 for the reception, screening and after-party.

Tickets already purchased for the event are still valid.

For more information contact hello@ttfilmfestival.com or the Festival secretariat at 623 2222 ext 4320.

The action-thriller Pendulum, directed by T&T filmmaker Michael Rochford, had its world premiere yesterday at the ttff/15. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended the screening.

“I hope it does what we’re trying to make it do,” Michael Rochford said of his film at its ttff/15 world premiere.

It definitely did.

Pendulum is about a former Marine turned journalist investigating the murder of a man, which he is accused of committing. When Luther, the CEO of a major software company, realises he has a stalker intent on doing him harm, he calls in Ryan, an old friend and former soldier. Ryan, who is battling with post-traumatic stress disorder, tracks down the stalker and is forced to kill him, but in so doing, makes a shocking discovery. Now Ryan must decipher whether he is being framed or succumbing to the delusions of his illness.

I was fortunate enough to interview Rochford before the premiere and he spoke about his desired impact of the film.

“Pendulum is a thrill ride encompassing great characters, a suspenseful mystery with a compelling story to keep you guessing at every turn,” he said.

Coincidentally I also sat next to Rochford at the screening. This made for a very colourful experience, as I was able to ask him questions throughout.

I was in a constant state of guessing; I was wondering why one of the protagonists, Luther Bharath, after being shot and killed kept turning up? I asked if, being the owner of a technology company, he cloned himself and now his discarded clones were coming for revenge. I wondered whether the other protagonist Ryan Williams had imagined the entire thing or maybe he had killed Bharath in an anxiety-induced state due to his posttraumatic stress disorder. I was suspicious of everyone!

Rochford took all of my questions in good stride. He also apologised for the wonky audio, explaining that they were remiss in working with an inexperienced soundman.

Rochford also mentioned in his interview that the film features “an all-local cast of young new talent, and inspiring well-photographed compelling imagery.”

This I could agree with. Stephen Hadeed Jr. (Luther) reminded me of a young George Clooney. His voice is rich and warm as is his talent. Jovon Browne’s performance was indeed substantial. I really believed that he was ex-Marine turned journalist Ryan Williams. I am seeing the actress Anokha Baptiste everywhere these days! That girl is on fire. Yes, she is a head-turner but she also has the goods and offers an entertaining performance in Pendulum.

One audience member echoed my sentiments on the cinematography saying that it was a pleasure to see so much of the urban geography of Trinidad on the big screen. I can honestly say that I have never seen that amount of local urban layout in a film. It was truly pleasing to have those “I know where that is!” moments.

The cinematography was very interactive and visually expansive. I particularly liked the establishing shots. Rochford explained to me that they shot with one camera and so had to shoot each scene a number of times to capture all the angles. There were some definite money shots that were captured by a drone the team utilised.

There were some issues with continuity and graphics. However, Pendulum, which is in competition for best local feature at the ttff/15, is a great first film for Rochford and his team.

You can see Pendulum again on the following dates:

Fri 25 Sept, 4.00, MovieTowne POS Q&A
Fri 25 Sept, 8.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago
Sat 26 Sept, 6.30pm, UWI Q&A
Mon 28 Sept, 3.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago

We are pleased to announce the launch of the ttff/15 app, now available for iPhone and Android.

The app contains the entire ttff/15 lineup of films (with synopses and trailers) searchable by section, date and location. You can also create and store a list of your favourite films!

Head now to your app store to download the ttff app, absolutely free.

We are also pleased to announce that you can now purchase ttff tickets* from your phone, thanks to our new partnership with Ticktr – Trinidad and Tobago’s premiere movie-ticketing app. Look for the Ticktr symbol at the bottom of film pages to purchase, and follow on-screen directions. See you at the movies! *You must have the Ticktr app installed; download it for free at your app store.

The feature-film projects participating in the inaugural Caribbean Film Mart (CFM), taking place at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff/15), will engage in a training initiative facilitated by Jan Miller, an international consultant and trainer specialising in film and television co-production and co-venturing.

Fifteen projects from ten countries will participate in the CFM, which takes place from September 24–26. The training initiative takes place on the 22nd and 23rd.

For twenty years Jan Miller has delivered one of the top pitching and content development workshops in the world. Her awards include ITV’s Woman of Vision Award, WIFT-Toronto’s first Crystal Award for Excellence in Training/Professional Development, and the WIFT-AT Wave Award for her significant contribution and support of the Atlantic screen industry.

“We are pleased to be working with Jan Miller, to both train the participating filmmakers in their pitch and also in the fabrication of the Mart itself,” said Emilie Upczak, ttff Creative Director.

The training will include a half-day masterclass on pitching and a series of one-on-one meetings. The training will culminate on the morning of the 24th with the CFM Pitch, to be held at the Hyatt Trinidad. Eight selected filmmakers from the CFM will present five-minute pitches of their projects to a group of visiting industry professionals. These industry experts may ask questions and will provide feedback on the project to move each one forward.

The CFM projects are:

Beauty Kingdom, Dominican Republic, Fiction
Directors: Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas
Producers: Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas, Mónica De Moya
In a magical place in the Caribbean, the most expensive film of all time is about to be shot. The Diva, a 70-year-old eccentric actress, has arrived to star in the film. She finds herself surrounded by the absurdity that such a film production implies, as she rigorously prepares for her role. All the while, she senses the impending end of the world. Nonetheless, the film must go on.

Cargo, Bahamas, Fiction
Director: Kareem Mortimer
Producers: Trevite Willis, Alexander Younis
Kevin is a Bahamian fisherman whose life is slowly unraveling. After wasting his remaining money at a gambling house he is approached by a security guard, Mark, who suggests that Kevin supplement his income by using his vessel as a means to transport people illegally into the United States. Kevin leads scores of migrants on a treacherous, unsettling and perilous final journey.

Conch, Curaçao, Fiction
Director: German Gruber
Producer: German Gruber
A young boy runs away from home after the loss of his mother, searching for the message that he saw her whisper into a conch shell the night before her death. Between nightmares of drowning and daydreams of becoming a musician, he goes around asking the characters he meets along his desolate journey about the message in the conch. To find out, he will have to confront his fear of the sea.

Doubles with Slight Pepper, Trinidad and Tobago/USA, Fiction
Director: Ian Harnarine
Producer: Ryan Silbert
Dhani, a young Trinidadian street-vendor, struggles to support himself and his mother by selling doubles. When his estranged father, Ragbir, unexpectedly invites him to New York, Dhani must travel to America and decide if he will save his father’s life. Based on the multi-award-winning short
 film by Ian Harnarine and executive-produced by Spike Lee.

The Dragon, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiction
Director: Asha Lovelace
Producer: Asha Lovelace
Aldrick’s sole responsibility in life is to his dragon masquerade that he plays for Carnival. When he finds himself falling for Sylvia, the most desired young woman on the hill, he is unable to commit to her and she succumbs to the advances of an older man. This plummets Aldrick into a moment of blind rebellion that ends in tragedy and forces him to confront his role as dragon and man.

The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia, Cuba, Fiction
Director: Arturo Infante
Producers: Claudia Calviño, Alejandro Tovar
Celeste is in her sixties and sells tickets at a planetarium. The discovery of an alien race shocks the world. Humans will send a spaceship carrying regular citizens to make contact with the alien civilisation. Tired of her monotonous life, Celeste decides to apply for a spot on the ship and embark into the unknown. What Celeste and the rest of the passengers on the ship seek in another galaxy is the Cuban dream of a better life.

The Fisherman’s Son, Puerto Rico, Fiction
Director: Edgar Deluque
Producer: Annabelle Mullen
A transsexual runs away to his childhood home at a fishermen’s island after murdering a policeman. He must face his father who he hasn’t seen in fifteen years and who doesn’t want anything to do with his transsexual child.

Green Days by the River, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiction
Director: Michael Mooleedhar
Producer: Christian James
Set against the backdrop of rural Trinidad in 1952, this is the story of fifteen-year-old Shell, the new boy in the village. Shell naively navigates a love triangle between an attractive Indian girl, Rosalie, and the more personable Joan. Though flattered by the friendship of Rosalie’s father, he focuses on becoming a man in the wake of his father’s terminal illness and will discover the difficult choices ahead.

“Hello Nicki”, Trinidad and Tobago, Documentary
Director: Miquel Galofré
Producer: Jean-Michel Gibert
This documentary follows Shanice, a teenage girl from Trinidad, as she seeks to actualise her grand dream of making music and collaborating with Nicki Minaj. Shanice is a spirited soul living with cerebral palsy and has a unique way of viewing the world. She is keenly aware of the isolation her appearance has caused, but her personality remains bright, upbeat and hopeful.

Kidnapping Inc., Haiti, Fiction
Director: Bruno Mourral
Producers: Gaethan Chancy, Bruno Mourral, Raoul Peck
This is a twisted, dark comedy about two delivery men working for an underground kidnapping corporation in Haiti. Doc and Zoe are scheduled to deliver a senator’s son worth $300,000. In the midst of their usual bickering, one kills the senator’s son accidentally. Trying to fix the mess they find themselves in, they stumble upon the senator’s son lookalike, which sets them on the craziest kidnapping of their lives.

Papa Machete, Haiti/Barbados/USA, Documentary
Director: Jonathan David Kane
Producers: Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Keisha Rae Witherspoon
Two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s armies with the very tool they used to work the land: the machete. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art that emerged from this victory through the life and recent death of Alfred Avril, a poor farmer who was one of the art’s few remaining masters. With his passing, Avril’s two sons are confronted with loss, legacy and American dreams.

Potomitans: Women Pillars in Revolt, Guadeloupe, Documentary
Director: Bouchera Azzouz
Producers: Nina Vilus, Laurence Lascary
This film is an exploratory journey into the heart of the everyday life of five Guadeloupean women. Liliane, Ginette, Vanessa, Corinne and Chantal are considered “potomitans”, women who assume professional and familial responsibilities without the help of a man. Everything rests on the courage of these women, who are trying to emancipate themselves by claiming a new way of being a woman.

The Seawall, Guyana/USA, Fiction
Director: Mason Richards
Producer: Sohini Sengupta
Malachi, a struggling young writer in Brooklyn, learns of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and returns to his birth country, Guyana, to sell off his inheritance. In Guyana, Malachi ends up confronting his estranged father who abandoned him as a child. Malachi gets closure, and makes decisions about the kind of father he would be to his unborn child.

Sprinter, Jamaica, Fiction
Director: Storm Saulter
Producer: Donald Ranvaud
Akeem, a young Rastafarian, surprisingly shatters the 200-metre high-school track record. He must make the national team to compete at the World Youth Championships in Philadelphia if he wants a chance to reunite with his mother who has been living there illegally for ten years. Akeem’s overnight popularity and the sudden return of his estranged older brother disrupt his focus. Meanwhile, a scandal is brewing that threatens to derail his career before it’s even started.

Wind Rush, Trinidad and Tobago/USA, Documentary
Director: Vashti Harrison
Producer: Vashti Harrison
Calypso music serves a significant role in the Caribbean emigrant experience in London, which began in earnest in the 1950’s. Calypso was the music of the minority, the voice of the other, and it helped to define the West Indian identity in England. Using the music of Calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Kitchener as a roadmap to this journey of discovery and displacement, the film will focus on their homes both in Trinidad and London.

The Caribbean Film Mart is being implemented in association with the Fundación Global Democracia y Dessarollo from the Dominican Republic, the Association for the Development of Art Cinema and Practice in Guadeloupe, the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema from Cuba, and the Festival Régional et International du Cinéma de Guadeloupe.

The project is supported by the ACP Cultures+ Programme, funded by the European Union (European Development Fund) and implemented by the ACP Group of States.

Two Trinidad and Tobago films, the mid-length documentary Dreams in Transit, directed by Karen Martinez, and Trafficked, a fiction feature directed by Sean Hodgkinson, had their world premieres at the ttff/15 last evening. Our blogger, Aurora Herrera, attended both screenings.

Dreams in Transit revolves around the question of identity particularly for Trinidadian expats. Martinez herself is London-based, and in the film returns to the Caribbean to explore the meaning of home and where it is both migrants and non-migrants might be said to belong.

I was very moved by the film having grown up as a third-culture kid, living my teenage years between Trinidad and Venezuela and then coming into adulthood in North America. I found that I could relate to many of Martinez’s points. For example, the film noted the way expats actually draw closer to their Trini culture when they are in a different place because if they don’t, they might feel invisible.

Martinez quotes Salman Rushdie, “Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools,” digging up and examining the conundrum that expats and migrants experience.

The juxtaposed silent narrative of a girl experiencing all of the emotions that the interviewees expressed was a beautiful compliment to the texture of the documentary. The emotive quality was very engaging.

Martinez’s film is very well thought out and exposes the differences in the corners of our bones as people who, even though we were born in one place, have very different understandings and perspectives on who we are. Not only are we still digesting our varied and beautiful familial heritage, but we are also now travelling globally and absorbing other influences, ideas and ways of being into our blood.

The late cultural theorist Stuart Hall is also quoted in the film, saying that our identities are fluid rather than fixed. I quite like that notion. After years of reflection, I decided that it didn’t matter where I was born, travelled to or lived, relating to parts of the ongoing dialogue that Martinez insists we should explore. I am the one who constantly determines who I am. I decided that my landscape lives and blooms within.

You can catch another screening of Dreams in Transit on Fri 25 September at 1.00pm, MovieTowne POS.

Trafficked

Sean Hodgkinson is known for the films A Story About Wendy 1 and A Story About Wendy 2. Last night, his new film, Trafficked, had its world premiere at the ttff/15.

The film is tells the story of George, Penny and Nadia, who are best of friends. While on vacation on an idyllic Caribbean island, they find themselves being seduced by a stranger’s wealth and charm. When the stranger’s true motives are revealed, the three friends realise that they are pawns in a deadly game of drug trafficking.

The British High Commissioner was in attendance and stressed the importance of addressing this issue in our country and commended Garth and Natasha St. Clair of the NGO Eye on Dependency for their work in bringing this issue to light.

St. Clair begged the audience not to forget the innocent people forced into trafficking who are currently in jails in across the world. He also described the film as a “crime-fighting tool in the arsenal of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Image: A still from Trafficked