by Diane De La Haye
Thanks to all who joined us last Sunday for the start of our Online Film Festival. Didn’t catch it? No problem because we’ll be re-screening those movies this weekend (read about them HERE) along with a brand new line-up entitled “Trini to de Bone.” Our FREE 24-hour streaming on August 25 includes an interesting and eclectic mix of feature-length and short films, originating from Trinidad and Tobago.
LITTLE BOY BLUE – Directed by Nicholas Attin
After confiscating a mysterious pendant from an orphaned student, visions of a white spectre plague Bill’s dreams. When the boy mysteriously dies, Bill recognizes the importance of the pendant and the urgency of returning it to its rightful resting place. The spectre points Bill towards the ominous river and an unwitting partnership with the surly and uncooperative boatman, Grapes. Initially a hindrance, once faced by the paranormal threat posed by the apparition in white, Grapes is forced to choose between helping the hapless Bill return the pendant and suffering the grim fate of the student. What awaits them in the dark foreboding swamplands is an unknown fear that will not rest until they return what is hers.
THE INSATIABLE SEASON – Directed by Mariel Brown
It’s January 2006 and Brian Mac Farlane’s carnival workshop is quiet and practically empty – littered with left-over costumes and a couple of hangers-on from last year’s carnival. As the days pass the atmosphere starts to change. One by one, carnival costume makers begin arriving at the workshop (mas camp) anticipating the release of designs and the work that’s to come for the 2006 band, Threads of Joy. The Insatiable Season is a fun and intimate look at the creations, crises and passion of the MacFarlane camp as they produce a beautiful costumed band for Trinidad’s Carnival.
QUIET DESPERATION – Directed by Renee Pollonais
Quiet Desperation is the story of 58-year-old Heathcliff Defour, a man fast approaching retirement with lots of “baggage.” Life is dull and his 35 year marriage to a bitter, controlling, critical woman is unfulfilling. Whilst driving his wife, Merlin to the market one morning a quarrel breaks out and it is only when Heathcliff finally expresses what is really on his mind, that he loses more than he is prepared to handle.
MAS MAN – Directed by Dalton Narine
This is the only film made about a man from a tiny Caribbean island who reached 80 percent of the planet in a single night. Mas Man (The Complete Work) explores Peter Minshall’s leap from designer in the Trinidad Carnival to an artistic director of the Opening Ceremonies for three Olympic Games, based on his knack for “making what is small seem big in open space.” Minshall was instrumental in staging the 1992 Barcelona Games, Atlanta (1996) and Salt Lake City (2002), for which he won an Emmy. Olympic Games producers lauded Minshall’s genius for orchestrating grand spectacles in the Trinidad Carnival, where his themes usually played on good and evil. His platform has been “the Mas,” which he brings to the streets as theatre, or dancing mobiles, way beyond the horizon of masquerade.
COME WITH IT BLACK MAN – Directed by Tamara Tam-Cruickshank
An independent feature-length documentary film, digging deep into the consciousness of the Black Man himself, legendary calypsonian Dr Leroy Calliste, better known as Black Stalin. Featuring the big man’s music and performances as well as interviews with Trinidad’s top entertainment and academic names: Kees, David Rudder, JW and Blaze, Nadia Batson, Dr Roy Cape, Denyse Plummer and Dr Patricia Bishop.
Other films on this Sunday’s line up include:
RAIN – Directed by Maria Govan
Determined to reconcile with the mother who abandoned her, a Bahamian adolescent boards a local mail boat and sets sail for Nassau. Upon arrival, the young girl is overwhelmed by the sights of the big city, and soon finds her idealistic illusions shattered when she witnesses, firsthand, just how deviant and destructive her mother’s lifestyle has truly become. Stranded in a an unfamiliar environment that fills her with dread and confronted by a mother she has never known, Rain searches deep within herself to summon the strength needed to find her own place in the world.
A WOMAN, A MAN, A GENIE AND A GUN – Directed by Chuks Nwanesi
While driving through a bad neighbourhood, a man and a woman realize that they are lost. The woman panics and whips out a handgun. The gun goes off and shoots through the window of a nearby house. Someone yells out from inside the house. The man and woman stop, check it out, see a genie in the house, and the comedy ensues.
Check back here for promotional news on the official launch of the CaribbeanTales TV VOD channel scheduled for September 12.
The full schedule of our regular Festival currently underway until September 14 can be found HERE.
