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!