Toronto – January 4th 2010
For Immediate Release
A number of celebrated African Canadian filmmakers will be honoured at a Special Gala Awards Ceremony on Thursday January 21st 2010, as part of the 2nd CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival - Celebrating Black History Month.
Founded by award-winning filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, the festival screens Africentric films for audiences of high school and university students. This year’s festival highlights the works of African-Canadian directors and producers and celebrates this burgeoning sector of Canadian film culture.
CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival 2010 Gala Launch honourees and award recipients include Claire Prieto-Fuller, Fil Fraser, Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, and Hubert Davis. The ceremony will take place at the William Doo Auditorium, (45 Willcocks Avenue.) at 6 p.m.
Legendary Canadian producer Claire Prieto-Fuller will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which she will accept in person. Known as a ferocious advocate and supporter of African Canadian and diverse filmmaking over her 35-year career, Prieto-Fuller's extensive film and television experience has made her respected figure among filmmakers and producers across the country who have worked with her and benefitted from her vision and professionalism. She has produced a range of films from ground-breaking shorts to studio features, was the founding Producer of the National Film Board of Canada's Studio D program, and Founding President of the Black Film and Video Network, has worked as a much sought after Production Manager and Line Producer on numerous Canadian television programs, and selflessly mentored dozens of emerging (and now established) Canadian filmmakers. Prieto-Fuller's film and television credits include: How She Move, Echo, Lord Have Mercy!, Raizin' Kane, Exhibit A, Love Songs, Survivors, Some Black Women, It's not an Illness, Home to Buxton.
Also receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award is life-long broadcaster, journalist, television program director, and radio, television and feature film producer Fil Fraser. Fraser is one of the most experienced producers working in Canada today, having built his career and his life in the mainstream of Canadian politics and media, while never losing touch with the communities he sprang from. His wide and varied career has included Vice Chair of Telefilm Canada, Founding President of Vision TV, founding publisher of the Regina Weekly Mirror and host of ITV Television’s Fil Fraser Show in the 1970's. He wrote, produced and directed several educational films for television, including one of Canada's most successful feature films WHY SHOOT THE TEACHER in 1974, MARIE ANNE in 1977 and THE HOUNDS OF NOTRE DAME in 1980, all of which were award winners, receiving both theatrical and television release. “Fil”, as he is affectionately known, is currently an adjunct professor of Communications Studies at Athabasca University, and continues to write books including most recently Running Uphill, on the Olympic sprinter Harry Jerome.In addition to Prieto-Fuller and Fraser, CaribbeanTales will pay tribute to another trailblazing pair in African-Canadian film and television – the multi-talented husband and wife team of Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness. Most recently recognised for co-writing (with each other), directing (Sutherland), and producing (Holness) the epic CBC prime-time mini-series Guns, starring Colm Fiore, Sudz and Jen's other credits include the TV movie DoomsTown, theei breakthrough feature film Love Sex and Eating the Bones, and the short films My Father's Hands and AfricVille. They will be the joint recipients of the CaribbeanTales' Cultural Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Academy-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis will also be at the Gala ceremony to receive his Excellence Award. Davis's first film Hardwood, earned him an Academy Award nomination, while his most recent and critically acclaimed feature Invisible City earned him the prize for Best Canadian documentary at last year's Hot Docs festival. Both films will be screened at the Gala Launch and Davis will be on hand after the screenings for a Talk Back session with the audience.Other African-Canadian films and filmmakers whose work will be featured at this year's Youth Film Festival and who will be attending the Launch include Charles Officer, whose beautiful feature Nurse Fighter Boy has received rave reviews, Dawn Wilkinson, director of Devotion and winner of last year's WIFT Emerging Director Award. Alison Duke's poignant documentary The Woman I have Become....Lucky Ejim and Jude Idada's The Tenant, that has recently taken Nigerian screens by storm, Sylvia Hamilton's important documentary on Black schools The Little Black School House, Frances-Anne Solomon, Powys Dewhurst, Nicole Brooks, Kim Dominique Ferguson, Louis Taylor, Trey Anthony, "Larc" Cabral Trotman, Ricardo Scipio, and Lana Lovell.
Festival Founder Frances-Anne Solomon is an accomplished filmmaker, writer, director and producer, whose most recent, critically acclaimed feature film A Winter Tale has received international recognition. She is the President and Artistic Director of the two companies she founded: Leda Serene Films and CaribbeanTales.
The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival - Celebrating Black History Month is produced by CaribbeanTales in association with The Caribbean Studies Program and New College at the University of Toronto; The Ontario Multi-Cultural History Society; and with the financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through Canadian Culture Online.
CaribbeanTales is an innovative multimedia company that creates, markets and distributes educational films, videos, radio programs, audio books, theatre plays, websites and events, that showcase the rich heritage of the Caribbean and it’s Diaspora.
CaribbeanTales’ mandate is to foster and encourage intercultural understanding and citizen participation through the medium of film, contributing to an inclusive Canadian society.
Available for interviews:
Frances-Anne Solomon, Artistic Director and Founder
Ticket information:
Single screening tickets $10
Teachers Free.
Please contact Miki Nembhard for special group rates. 416 598 1410.
For media inquires, please contact:Pennant Media Group
Kevin Pennant kp@pennantmediagroup.com
Tel: 416.596.2978
No comments:
Post a Comment