VISION FULFILLED

Over the years, CTFF has bloomed into an annual centrepiece of entertainment for hugely diverse film audiences, young and old alike. It showcases the creativity of the Caribbean Diaspora and supports emerging and established filmmakers around the world in celebrating their Caribbean heritage cultures.

In 2014, Caribbean Tales Inc. received official Canadian charity status in recognition of the brand’s lasting commitment to its original educational mandate to empower and serve under-represented communities in Canada; and to engage the interests and fuel the imaginations of young people of Caribbean heritage. Thus, they will be inspired to seek and find larger career possibilities.

Today, CTFF stands on a firm business footing. It will continue to play a key role in strengthening the Caribbean film industry worldwide as the CaribbeanTales Media Group expands its reach and builds sustainable markets for indigenous films that contribute to the Caribbean’s global competitiveness.

THE CARIBBEANTALES MEDIA GROUP

The CaribbeanTales Media Group, based in Barbados and Toronto, is a group of companies that creates, produces, markets and sells Caribbean-themed audio-visual content. The Group includes:

CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution – the first and only company dedicated to the production / marketing / sales of Caribbean-themed audiovisual content worldwide. The CTWD Catalogue has over three hundred titles to date.

CaribbeanTales Inc. — a Registered Canadian Charity with an educational mandate to regularly screen Caribbean-themed films from across the Diaspora within Canadian neighbourhoods dominated by young people of Caribbean heritage in order to engage their interest in their heritage stories and thus broaden the scope of their life aspirations.

The CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) that takes place annually in Toronto in September. It is a glorious celebration of Caribbean-themed films from all over the world and a key marketing and acquisitions event based on the CTWD Catalogue.

The CaribbeanTales Incubator Program is hosted each year at CTFF. This unique filmmaker training program further enables the development of viable Caribbean-themed content for the international marketplace. It also provides lots of opportunities for established and emerging filmmakers to forge optimistic relationships for future work.

CaribbeanTalesFlix – Established in 2013, this company was launched with the production of Kingston Paradise, directed by Mary Wells, a filmmaker based in Jamaica who also sits on the CaribbeanTales Board of Directors. The film won the “Festival Programmer’s Award for Narrative Feature” at the 2014 Pan African Film Festival; and “Best Diaspora Film” at the 2014 Africa Movie Academy Awards. In 2013, it won the CTFF “Audience Award for Best Feature”. Kingston Paradise also went to the 2014 Cannes Film Market.

CaribbeanTales­-TV is a Netflix-style Video-on-Demand platform launched in 2013 that draws on the CTWD Catalogue to provide Caribbean-themed content to viewers all over the world.