Tidings of Comfort & Joy

We here at CaribbeanTales & Leda Serene wish you Peace and Happiness for the Season, and for the New Year.

[Photo - L-R: Rany Ly (Technical Co-ordinator), Michael Miller (actor, A Winter Tale), and Frances-Anne, on the streets of Toronto filming A Winter Tale.]

Some quick updates:

* "Blood Dub and The Matriarch", our Literature Alive Documentary on dbi.young, won the Audience Choice Award at the San Diego Women's Film Festival.

* CaribbeanTales has been awarded funding by the Trillium foundation to present the "Winter Tale" Project as a theatre play in Toronto schools in 2007/8.

* "Word Hammers", our documentary on Nourbese Phillip, will be screened as part of the 4th Mpenzi Film Festival in Toronto, February 2007.

I leave you with a clip of Nourbese Phillip, talking about the gift of reading and books.



HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Peter Williams in tha house

This week we began shooting pickups & recording ADR for the feature film "A Winter Tale". These events brought my friend Peter Williams from Vancouver - he plays the lead.

To all the cast who participated this week: Peter Bailey, Nicole Stamp, Ryan Ishmael, p! Barrington (so sorry for "abandoning" you in Parkdale bro), and Valerie Buhagiar, as well as our tiny crew: Thank you for coming out.

For one day (Tuesday) there was snow, but it melted before we had a chance to point a camera at it. For those not in the know, our film needs SNOW to justify the title and complete a central conceit of the film, which is about a group of characters under seige in the cold (a metaphor many immigrants to Canada can identify with strongly). Thanks to Global Warming, 2006 broke all records, and there was no snow during principal photography.

But snow is promised in the coming weeks ...

In other newz: Warm thanks to all who have emailed or called in kind compliments about our series Literature Alive. They are much appreciated.

Here's one from writer Rachel Manley:

Dear Frances,
I have long thought your enterprise a most worthwhile and essential one, not just for the Caribbean in diaspora, but for the Caribbean at home...We are, after all, one. And what strengthens us anywhere strengthens us everywhere. It also strengthens Canada as you deftly collect what Martin Carter calls "our scattered skeleton" and fold us into this country's unique mix - their "mosaic."

If you missed the premiere of Rachel's film on Bravo! two weeks ago, here is a clip from it:



In The Shadow of My Fathers: Rachel Manley, was directed by Lana Lovell.

You can buy copies of all our shows from our estore

Our new Blog, and other updates.

Tired of waiting for an invitation to upgrade our account, we have migrated to this new blog. Please update your links: the address is ledaserenesnewz1.blogspot.com.

I also want to remind you that all of our official websites are now .ca (instead of .com and .org) Thus:

ledaserene.ca
caribbeantales.ca
literaturealiveonline.ca
lordhavemercy.ca

This is because a malicious vandal stole our domain names back in June, and so we had to register new ones.

To celebrate our new blog and other winter cheer, here's a clip from "Memory Places", our LiteratureAlive Documentary on author Andre Alexis. This film won a Special Acknoledgement Award at the Festival of Black International Cinema 2006 in Berlin, Paris, and St Louis. The interviewer and co-director is Eugene Paramoer. The cinematographer was Natalie Haarhof (additional photography Kiarash Sadigh). The music is by Mauri Hall.

Here Andre talks about living in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, and how and why that influences his writing.



Parkdale is also the location of our feature film "A Winter Tale".

Some of you may remember the day when the CSC (Canadian Society of Cinematographers) came on set to interview DP Kim Derko.

Here's the article they published.

Kim is one of only 5 women cinematogaphers in the CSC, she's a wonderful visual artist and the film is looking great!

"A Winter Tale" will be released in 2007.

Dwayne Morgan On LiteratureAlive

Alongside the World Premiere launch of LiteratureAlive Season 2, Bravo is repeating Season 1 of the series. For the full schedule for all the shows, go to Bravo's website.

To whet your appetite here's a clip from The Man Behind The Mic, a profile of spoken word artist and entrepreneur Dwayne Morgan. In it he discusses his art, and the reasons why he takes time to promote Canadian-Caribbean events like "When Sisters Speak."

For more about Dwayne, check him out at myspace.com/dwaynemorgan
or at Up From The Roots.
To buy a copy of this show, or the whole series, go to our estore

To purchase your personal copies of these products please visit out E-store

If you would like to buy a copy that includes public performance rights, for use in your school, library, university or other institution, download our Educational Catalogue here.

The Literature Alive documentary series profiles Caribbean-Canadian authors and follows the evolution of Caribbean-heritage fiction from the 1960s through to the hip-hop generation.

These revealing and provocative documentaries explore the lives and creative processes of these modern Caribbean artists. In doing so, we discover the links between personal experience, ancestry, and migration; between Canada and the Caribbean; between an artist and their art.

The series was produced in association with Bravo! Canadian Learning Television, Book Television, OMNI, and Gayelle TV (Trinidad).

Download Press Kits for the series here.

Season 1:
Andre Alexis: Memory Places
Shani Mootoo: My Dinner With Shani
Tessa McWatt: Home
Dwayne Morgan: The Man Behind The Mic
Dany Laferriere: Un Homme Dans Sa Ville
Richardo Keens-Douglas: Believe
d'bi young: Blood, Dub and The Matriarch
Nalo Hopkinson: Fabulous Spaces
Jemeni (Joanne Gairy): Jemeni in the City
M NourBese Philip: Word Hammers
Olive Senior: Gardening with Olive
Pam Mordecai: Her True True Name
Louise Bennett:Miss Lou Then and Now

Special Hour-long Episode broadcast on OMNI Television:
Ramabai Espinet: Coming Home

Season 2:
Creation Fire 1&2: The Calabash Festival
The Gimistory Festival Parts 1&2
In The Shadow Of My Fathers: Rachel Manley
Honor-Bound: Honor Ford-Smith.

Thanks For Coming!

(Photo: Jamaican author Rachel Manley surrounded by her fans at the Launch of Literature Alive 2 .)

Many thanks to all you who braved the rain and came out to the Season 2 Launch of Literature Alive at Camera on October 27th and 28th: it was a blast!

Friday night was a delirious affair for me. It was wonderful to recognize that we have completed not one, but two seasons of this miraculous series of documentaries on Caribbean writers.

It's gratifying to know that the shows will continue to be sold into schools, libraries and universities here in Canada, so that young people can take in images and the voices of Olive Senior, Pam Mordecai, dbi.young, Dwayne Morgan, Lynton Kwesi Johnson, Miss Lou, (and on...) along with their Shakespeare and Austen.

Right there is proof of progress, because I never had that as a child...

Saturday was special because several of the writers came by and participated in an informal discussion with the audience, while watching the films. What emerged was each writers' story of "the making of" their own documentary: how each experienced being the subject of our efforts to capture their vision and voice on film. For me it was an interesting, necessary and rare opportunity to complete a process, reflect on the journey, and get feedback from the individuals who I sought most to represent.

Thank you Shani, Nalo, Ramabai and Jemeni for participating in that afternoon with me.

Oh, and don't forget to stay tuned on Thursday, 8pm on Bravo for Literature Alive!

Join Us Tonight On Bravo!

Come & Celebrate With Us!

TODAY, Saturday 28th Ocotber:

Come join us at the Camera Bar, 1028 Queen Street Toronto, from 1-7pm, to celebrate the Second Season of Literature Alive, with A DAY OF SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSION, featuring "The Best Of Literature Alive Season 1".

The programme:

1:00 p.m. Memory Places
Haitian-Canadian Dany Laferriere, Indo-Trinidadian Ramabai Espinet, Toronto's Flow 93.5 DJ and poet Jemeni and Trinidad born-Ottawa raised Andre Alexis: Four contemporary Caribbean writers who in their writing draw on childhood memories to create imaginative modern reflections on Canada today.

3:00 p.m. Fantastic Spaces
Many writers navigating the spaces between the Caribbean and Canada create startling imaginary landscapes that meld the two. This series of docs explores the fabulous worlds of science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson, magic realist writer Shani Mootoo, and vibrant spoken word artist d'bi Young.

5:00 p.m. In Celebration of Miss Lou
Three half-hour films exploring the power, range and influence of Jamaican poet, writer, broadcaster and comedienne Louise Bennet Coverley, on modern Caribbean Culture from the 40s to the birth of Reggae and through to the spokenword hip-hop generation. Featuring poet publisher and teacher Pam Mordecai (in conversation with her friend the writer Velma Pollard), and spoken-word artist & entrepreneur Dwayne Morgan.
Literature Alive documentaries have been screened internationally including at Fipa 2006 in Paris; Reel Sisters 2006, in NY; The 2006 Festival of Black International Cinema, in St Louis, Berlin, and Paris, and at Carifesta 9, in Trinidad. Memory Places, featuring author Andre Alexis, won Special Acknowledgement in the Best Documentary category at the recent Festival of Black International Cinema.

We Are Celebrating The Launch of LiteratureAlive Season 2

CaribbeanTales is celebrating the launch of Literature Alive Season 2 on October 27, 2006 at the Camera Bar, 1028 Queen Street West at 7pm PM.

We are so very proud of the documentaries that we produced this year! They will begin broadcasting on Bravo! on Thursday November 2nd at 8pm.

The Launch event will feature a sneak preview of some of this year's most exciting documentaries.

HONOR BOUND - a half-hour snapshot of the endlessly surprising creative talents of Honor Ford Smith; as well as IN THE SHADOW OF MY FATHERS, profiling the important work of poet, novelist and biographer Rachel Manley. And CREATION FIRE, an extraordinary profile of Calabash, the dynamic Literary Festival that takes place in Jamaica every year.

On Saturday October 28, we will have A DAY OF SCREENINGS AND DISCUSSIONS featuring "The Best of Literature Alive Season 1". Since this series first aired on BRAVO! last October, several of our documentaries have won awards and been screened at Festivals internationally. We are delighted to bring to the big screen, our award-winning documentaries on the Hon. Louise Bennet-Coverley, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Nalo Hopkinson, and Jemini, among others.

The full program for the event is below.

Many of the writers will be joining us to introduce the documentaries and discuss their work, including Rachel Manley, Honor Ford Smith, Jemini, Shani Mootoo, Nalo Hopkinson, and Ramabai Espinet.

Literature Alive Season 2 Launch - FULL PROGRAM

Friday October 27
7:00 p.m. LITERATURE ALIVE SEASON 2 Sneak Preview
Rachel Manley - My Father's Shadow
Colin Channer - Creation Fire
Honor Ford Smith - Honor-Bound

Drinks and festivities!

Saturday October 28 - A Day of Screenings and Discussion - The best of Literature Alive Season 1
1:00 p.m. Memory Places
Haitian-Canadian Dany Laferriere, Indo-Trinidadian Ramabai Espinet, Toronto's Flow 93.5 DJ and poet Jemeni and Trinidad born-Ottawa raised Andre Alexis: Four contemporary Caribbean writers who in their writing draw on childhood memories to create imaginative modern reflections on Canada today.

3:00 p.m. Fantastic Spaces
Many writers navigating the spaces between the Caribbean and Canada create startling imaginary landscapes that meld the two. This series of docs explores the fabulous worlds of science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson, magic realist writer Shani Mootoo, and vibrant spoken word artist d'bi Young.

5:00 p.m. In Celebration of Miss Lou
Three half-hour films exploring the power, range and influence of Jamaican poet, writer, broadcaster and comedienne Louise Bennet Coverley, on modern Caribbean Culture from the 40s to the birth of Reggae and through to the spokenword hip-hop generation. Featuring poet publisher and teacher Pam Mordecai (in conversation with her friend the writer Velma Pollard), and spoken-word artist & entrepreneur Dwayne Morgan.

Literature Alive documentaries have been screened internationally including at Fipa 2006 in Paris; Reel Sisters 2006, in NY; The 2006 Festival of Black International Cinema, in St Louis, Berlin, and Paris, and at Carifesta 9, in Trinidad. Memory Places, featuring author Andre Alexis, won Special Acknowledgement in the Best Documentary category at the recent Festival of Black International Cinema.

CaribbeanTales Wants your Stories!

CaribbeanTales is looking for new literary, artistic, video and audio content!

Click here to go to our Newsletter for a description of what we're looking for.

An Award For "What My Mother Told Me"

"What My Mother Told Me", directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, has won the 2006 Award for "Best Film portraying the Black Experience" at the Festival of Black International Cinema, that took place in St Louis Missouri, Berlin Germany and Paris, France in April & May this year.

At the same festival "Memory Places", directed by Frances Anne Solomon and Eugene Paramoer, won "Special Acknoledgement" in the Best Documentary category.

"What My Mother Told Me" was also nominated for the 2006 HBO Award for Best Feature Film at Martha's Vineyard African Amercian Film Festival August 10-13th in Florida.

A UK/Trinidad & Tobago co-production completed in 1996, this beautiful film continues to garner recognition through festivals and screenings internationally. Last year it won the "Producer's Choice" Award at the Women of Color Film Festival in Berkeley.

It stars renowned Jamaican actress Leonie Forbes, with original music by the late Trinidad composer Andre Tankar.

Here is a list of selected recent (2005-2006) screenings of our films:

What My Mother Told Me
2006 Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival (Best Feature Nomination)
2006 Festival of Black International Cinema, St Louis, Berlin, Paris. (Award, Best Film Portraying the Black Experience)
2005 Pan African Festival of Cinema, Ougadougou
2005 Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles, California
2005 Women of Color Film Festival, Berkeley, California (Producer's Choice Award)

Reunion: West Indian Women At War
2006, The Trinidad & Tobago International Film Festival
2006 Festival of Black International Cinema, St Louis, Berlin, Paris
2005 Pan African Film Festival, Colorado
2005 Mpenzi Women's Film Festival, Toronto

Literature Alive
2006, Carifesta, Trinidad.
Literature Alive was screened in it's entirety as part of "Books On Film" at Carifesta IX.
In addition, Blood, Dub and The Matriarch - Dbi Young was screened at the Carifesta IX Film Festival.
2006, The Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival.
Fabulous Spaces - Nalo Hopkinson,
Miss Lou: Then and Now - Hon. Louise bennet Coverley.
2006, Fipa, Paris
Memory Places - Andre Alexis,
Believe - Richardo Keens Douglas,
Un Homme Dans sa Ville - Dany LaFerriere
Home - Tessa McWatt.
2006, Reel Sisters, NY
My Dinner With Shani - Shani Mootoo,
Man Behind The Mic - Dwayne Morgan,
Blood, Dub and the Matriarch - Dbi.young,
Her True True Name - Pam Mordecai,
Fantastic Spaces - Nalo Hopkinson
2006 Festival of Black International Cinema, (St Louis, Berlin, Paris)
Her True True Name - Pam Mordecai,
Miss Lou Then and Now - Louise Bennet,
Memory Places - Andre Alexis (Special Acknoledgement Award)
2006 San Diego Women's Festival
Blood, Dub and The Matriarch - D'bi Young

Lord Have Mercy!
2005 African Diaspora Film Festival NY
2005 Best of the ADFF, BAM Center New York
2005 Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles
2005 Atlanta Women of Color Film Festival

I Is A Long Memoried Woman
2006 African Diaspora Film Festival

Bideshi
Carifesta IX Film Festival, Trinidad

Thank you "Auntie Rita"

Dr. Rita Cox ("Auntie Rita" to many), was honored at the Parkdale Library on July 26th.

While she was the Librarian in Parkdale, Rita created an amazing collection of books, which has been renamed the Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection.

An endowment fund set up to protect and maintain the fund - The Rita Cox Endowment Fund - is receiving contributions from the community. Please support this important initiative!

Rita has been an Advisor and supporter of CaribbeanTales from the beginning. She believed in what we were setting out to do before it existed, and said she saw the Audio Books project in particular as an extension of her own work, because of the way it connects oral storytelling and literature.

Like many in her extended family, I remember well as a young person running around the city, helping out with Kumbayah, the annual Storytelling Festival that she ran. All the amazing storytellers that came here from around the world to perform at the Festival blew my mind and gave me a great respect for the power of the oral tradition. And for Auntie Rita.

Born in Trinidad, author and storyteller Rita Cox received the Order of Canada for her active role in promoting storytelling, multicultural education and literacy. Weaving together the oral and written word, Rita opened the magic world of books to her listeners,giving them tools to pursue their hopes and dreams. Rita was Children's Librarian and head of the Parkdale Branch of the Toronto Public Library.

LiteratureAlive Film Festival This Weekend

CaribbeanTales and Leda Serene Films
in association with the IRIE Music Festival, the National Film Board of Canada, and the CBC
present

the 1st Annual
LITERATURE ALIVE Film Festival
18 original documentary profiles of great Caribbean-Canadian authors.

"...provocative, inspiring, revealing..."

August 4th, 5th and 6th
at the NFB Cinema, 150 John St.

CLICK HERE for the full schedule.

Walk Good, Miss Lou

We were very sad to hear that Miss Lou died today.

She lived a long and full life, but everyone touched even briefly by her life and art will mourn the passing of a mighty spirit.

Leda Serene Films/CaribbeanTales together with the IRIE FESTIVAL invite you to join us for "A Celebration of Miss Lou" - a selection of documentary films exploring the genius and influence of poet, broadcaster, educator and comedienne Hon. Louise Bennet Coverley "Miss Lou", at the Literature Alive Film Festival, NFB Cinema, John Street, Toronto, on August 4th, 5th and 6th 2006.
For full Festival programme CLICK HERE.

CaribbeanTales on CBC Radio's The Arts Tonight

Tessa McWatt is one of the writers featured in a radio series produced by CaribbeanTales and currently airing on CBC radio's The Arts Tonight.

The series comprises of 5 revealing interviews with Caribbean-Canadian authors, Nalo Hopkinson, Honor Ford Smith, Tessa McWatt, and Olive Senior. Tune in on Thursdays at 10pm, beginning July 13th.

This radio series is produced and narrated by Leonie Forbes. The Sound Editor and Mixer is Kevin Risk, and the Recordist and Composer is Mauri Hall.

The project came out of Innoversity 2003, when CaribbeanTales' Shana Calixte and Resh Budhu won first prize in the CBC Radio Series category.

Miss Lou: Then and Now - a documentary by Leda Serene Films

Last year, I had the privelege to meet "Miss Lou". I spoke to her on the phone a few times, before my friend the actress and broadcaster Leonie Forbes agreed to arrange a visit. We spent a few hours with her, had dinner with her and her companion Rosie, and I taped most of the evening.

Leonie was able to access two documentaries about Miss Lou from Jamaica. (This was no mean feat since most of the television archives in Jamaica have deteriorated or been destroyed). In particular, "Miss Lou and Friends" is an extraordinary record of Louise's performance in 1990, when she returned to Jamaica for the first time since emigrating to Canada in 1981. She was 72 years old at the time, but the power, generosity and intelligence of her performance brought me to tears. The CBC agreed to let us use invaluable archive recorded in the 60's, 70's and 80's. (This was also hard won since this publicly funded national broadcaster charges its tax-payers extortionate private sector rates for use of their archive. In the end they “gave” us 5 mins of Miss Lou for $1,000).

The result is "Miss Lou - Then and Now", a half-hour doc that is part of our series "Literature Alive".
It's just one of the docs profiling Caribbean-Canadian authors that will be shown during the first ever "Literature Alive Film Festival", part of the Irie Festival 2006. The Festival will take place at the NFB Mediateque, on John Street."Miss Lou - Then and Now" was produced by Leonie Forbes and Frances-Anne Solomon, directed by Frances-Anne Solomon and Regan Macaulay.

Leda Serene Films & CaribbeanTales celebrate a productive year!

We've had a busy year at Leda Serene Films and CaribbeanTales. Over the past 18 months we've produced:
The multi-facetted LiteratureAlive project including
- 20 documentaries - Literature Alive Seasons 1 and 2, produced in association with Bravo!, CLT, BookTV, CIFVF, and OMNI.
- 5 audio Books by Caribbean-Canadian authors, with support from the Trillium Foundation
- 5 radio programmes, in association with CBC's Radio's "The Arts Tonight"
- Our educational website - LitereatureAlivOnline.ca, produced with support from The Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Culture Online Program
In addition we also produced:
- 8 newsletters - caribbeantales.ca, with support from the Gateway Fund
- a theatre play - A WinterTale produced by CaribbeanTales, directed by Michele Lonsdale Smith
- a feature film - a WinterTale, for CHUM/Telefilm, a Leda Serene Films production, directed by Frances-Anne Solomon
Many, many thanks to everyone who worked with us to make this posible. For information about these and other projects, or to buy our products please visit ledaserene.ca, caribbeantales.ca, literaturealiveonline.ca.

Photo: The CaribbeanTales Team at the recent launch of LiteratureAliveOnline and our Audio Books series, at the Multicultural History Society, Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto.

LiteratureAliveOnline announces "Our Voices/Our Story" Writing Contest

"Ultimately, LiteratureAliveOnline, and the LiteratureAlive Writing Contest represent an exercise in youth empowerment through written expression. They emphasize that the well-spring of creative work is personal experience, ancestry, and migration."


This is an excerpt from Frances-Anne Solomon's speech at the Launch of LiteratureAliveOnline, our new website, where we also announced our Writing Contest "Our Voice/Our Story" for young people Grades 9-12. Here's the full speech, with details about the contest.

The contest is made posible with support from the Fran Endicott Foundation. Fran was a brilliant young Black woman, an educator and Trustee with the Toronto School Board, who died of cancer in 1992. The donation came to us from her husband Giles. And here are a few words of recognition for Fran, that we found and copied from records of the Ontario Legislature. Thanks, Fran!

The LiteratureAliveOnline website is made posible in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage, through the Canadian Culture Online Program.

We'll be announcing the results of the Writing Contest in February 2007, during Black History Month. Stay tuned for updates about the Contest.

More links to the writing contest
Caribbean Camera - by Colin Rickards
Bravo! Arts and Minds - by Tim Powis

CaribbeanTales Launches New Website LiteratureAliveOnline & 5 new AUDIO BOOKS

This was the Launch of our new website LiteratureAliveOnline. The launch took place at the Multicultural History Society on June 8th, where we projected the new website before a captive audience of 50+ interested teachers, students and end-users.

The LiteratureAliveOnline website project showcases the work of 26 Caribbean-Canadian authors through online profiles, and audio-visual and interactive support. LiteratureAliveOnline is the proud recipient of a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage - Canadian Culture Online project.

CaribbeanTales' first Audio Book Series: We're so proud that we produced the following audio books, and we hope to make many more.

Ramabai Espinet : The Swinging Bridge
Tessa McWatt: This Body
Honor Ford Smith: My Mother's Last Dance
Olive Senior: Gardening with Olive
Nalo Hopkinson: Skin Folk.

CLICK HERE for more information about the Audio Books.

The audio books were produced by Leonie Forbes, with sound recording and original music by Mauri Hall. The Sound Editor and Mixer was Kevin Risk. They are available for purchase on our websites ledaserene.ca, caribbeantales.ca, and literaturealiveonline.ca

PROUDLY CANADIAN: Our website and email adresses are now .ca

Our domain names and email adresses have changed to .ca (from .com).


Come visit us at:
www.ledaserene.ca
www.caribbeantales.ca
www.literaturealiveonline.ca
www.lordhavemercy.ca

OR Email us at:

Frances Anne Solomon, President : francesanne@ledaserene.ca
Susan Fueg, General Manager : susan@ledaserene.ca
Kevin MacKenzie, Prod. Co-ordinator : kevin@ledaserene.ca
Seyed Davari, Webmaster : seyed@ledaserene.ca

Our Email Server Is Down

Our emails and the websites ledaserene.com and caribeantales.org packed up on friday and it will be a few days before we are back up.

In the meantime if you need to contact me:
francesannesolomon@yahoo.com

or Susan:
susanfueg@hotmail.com

Update of "A Winter Tale"

We're having a 3rd Focus Group.
It will be at Camera Bar, 1028 Queen West at 1pm, on July 8th.

Please arrive by 12.45 as the screening will begin promptly (we have to be out of the cinema by 2.45).

The film is an hour and 40 mins and there'll be a 45 minute discussion after.

To the cast: Hello everybody. I have invited you all and am looking forward very much to your comments and feedback. I know and hope that you will be as demanding of me as I have been of you through the process. I'm sure you will each have useful and important things to say.

Many thanks again to Atom Egoyan and the staff at Camera for letting us use this beautiful space.