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.