COUNTDOWN 2 BETTER MUS COME

1-2-3 BETTER MUS COME !

CaribbeanTales and TIFF have joined forces to bring one of the most exciting new films from the Caribbean to Toronto.

BETTER MUS COME will screen on Saturday Feb 4th and Sunday Feb 5th at TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of TIFF’s Black History Month Series entitled “Music, Magic, Clash: New Voices in the African Diaspora”. This is a bold and original film, described as "a landmark in Jamaican filmmaking" by TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey. 

Please join us for the countdown to BETTER MUS COME.

TIckets: http://CaribbeanTales-events.com

View the trailer for Better Mus Come

FEB 1  |  "BETTER MUS' COME Art Exhibition

Join Roots Canada in celebrating BETTER MUS' COME, with Director Storm Saulter alongside Lead Actor Sheldon Shepherd.

STORM will present exclusive artwork and inspiration from the movie. This is a free event, refreshments and appetizers will be served.

Wednesday, February 1 at 7:30pm | Location: Roots - Yorkville - 100 Bloor Street West

FEB 2  |  MANIFESTO presents... A TALK WITH STORM SAULTER

Manifesto, in association with CaribbeanTales and Manifesto Jamaica presents a conversation with Jamaican film director Storm Saulter, director of the critically acclaimed film Better Mus' Come which will be making it's Canadian debut at the Tiff Bell Lightbox on Feb 4 and 5.

Storm will screen two shorts from his New Caribbean Cinema collective (http://newcaribbeancinema.com) , and speak to the process that went in to filming Better Mus' Come, with lead male actor Sheldon Shepherd, who is also a member of  "No-Maddz" (http://nomaddzja.com), an amazing Jamaican dub poetry collective.

Thursday, February 2 | Manifesto HQ | 37 Bulwer Street | 7-9pm | Cost: Pay What You Can

RSVP Necessary: rsvp@themanifesto.ca

FEB 3  |  FIRST FRIDAYS, Black History Month Edition

Frances Anne Solomon - Founder, CaribbeanTales  & Storm Saulter - Director, Better Mus Come, as well as lead actor and dub poet Sheldon Shepherd of NOMADDZ will be there to talk about the weekend's screenings.

Lambadina Resto-Lounge, 875 Bloor West (east of Ossington), 6.30pm - 10pm.

FEB 4  | CaribbeanTales BRUNCH and AWARDS

Join us for a fundraising Brunch recognizing 50 years of independence for Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, and the Canadian Premier of Storm Saulter’s award-winning film BETTER MUS COME.

The celebrations include a scrumptious Caribbean brunch, live music and performances, hosted by MOTION and DWAYNE MORGAN and featuring SHELDON SHEPHERD lead actor of BMC and lead performer of NOMADDZ.

In line with the Independence theme, the Brunch will honor Jamaican-Canadian entrepreneur, activist and media pioneer Denham Jolly, and Trinidadian-Canadian filmmaker Ian Harnarine.

Advance tickets only: http:CaribbeanTales-events.com

BETTER MUS COME!

The moment has come!

1.30pm: TIFF Co-director Cameron Bailey hosts the Canadian Premiere of BETTER MUS COME, and a talk-back with Storm. 

Tickets: http://Tiff.net,  http:://CaribbeanTales-events.com

FEB 5  |  BETTER MUS COME - Youth and Community Screening

Last chance to catch this amazing Caribbean film!

3.45pm: Cameron Bailey hosts the second screening of Better Mus Come, with Storm.

TIFF Bell Lightbox

350 King Street.

Tickets: http://tiff.net

BETTER MUS COME - BY POPULAR DEMAND

BY POPULAR DEMAND - BETTER MUS  COME - Extra tickets are available

Feb 4 | Brunch/Awards/Screening | $50

Feb 4 | Screening Only | $12

Feb 5 | Youth and Community Screening | $12

Better Mus Come

Feb 4 : Gala / Screening $50.00 CAD Feb 4 : Screening only $12.00 CAD Feb 5 : Community Screening $12.00 CAD

 

Gemini-nominated Filmmaker to receive T&T Award

TORONTO (January 25, 2011) – Ian Harnarine, the award winning Trinidadian-Canadian filmmaker, will receive an Award of Recognition from the Government of Trinidad & Tobago for his outstanding contribution to film, at the CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival Gala, co-hosted with TIFF, on February 4, 2012.

The Gala celebrates the fiftieth anniversaries of both Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, and will also feature the Canadian premiere of Jamaican film Better Mus Come.

Harnarine’s short film Doubles with Slight Pepper, an official selection at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, won Best Canadian Short at TIFF 2011, and has now been nominated for a Gemini (the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars). The Geminis take place in September in Toronto.

The film tells the story of Dhani, a street vendor in Trinidad, who struggles to reconcile his relationship with his father in Canada before the latter dies. Poetic dialogue and compelling characters shape this story of the contemporary immigrant experience.

Harnarine developed Doubles as an alumnus of the CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CIPAVE) in 2010. The intensive program, that helps filmmakers to develop market ready content, also introduced the US-based filmmaker to potential partners from around the region. Shortly afterwards, the film was shot with partial funding from the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company, starring Trinidadian actors Errol Sitahal, Sanjiv Boodhu, and Susan Hannays-Abraham.

The son of Trinidadian immigrants, Ian Harnarine grew up in Toronto, and attended York University where he earned a BA in Physics and Astronomy. He moved to Chicago for his Master’s degree in Nuclear Physics. Bored with his chosen profession, he settled in Brooklyn and became a filmmaker at NYU’s Graduate Film School. He is currently on the Faculty at NYU in both the Physics Department and the Tisch School of Film.

The Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film will be presented by the High Commissioner for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Canada His Excellency Philip Buxo on the occasion of the CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival Gala Brunch, co-hosted by TIFF, at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Feb 4, 2012.

The CTYFF Gala  is co-produced with TIFF,  and partners include  404 Media Group, Art of Catering, Carib101, Flyin Monkey Films, Lisaliving.ca,  Manifesto,  MotionLive, Telefilm Canada, Up From The Roots, Ryan Singh Enterprises, First Fridays, Planet Africa Group and Caribbean Camera.

Event details

Name: CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival | Gala, Brunch & Canadian Premiere of Better Mus’ Come
Date: February 4, 2012 at 12pm
Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox
Tickets: CaribbeanTales-events.com

About CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival

Founded in 2009, The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival screens Caribbean and Africentric films for audiences of high school and university students, to deepen audiences' understanding of Canada's multicultural communities through screenings, workshops and Q&A’s. Each year, the festival honours a media artist who has made an outstanding contribution to the representation of Caribbean and African-heritage people and culture on screen. Previous CTYFF awardees have included African-American filmmaker Julie Dash, Canadian producer Claire Prieto, broadcaster and writer Fil Fraser and academy award nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis.

Denham Jolly -- Canadian Media Pioneer

Mr. Denham Jolly chats with his friend and business partner former Justice Romain Pitt, during an interview at his home recently. Mr Jolly a respected Jamaican-Canadian media pioneer, activist, entrepreneur and the driving force behind Toronto’s first Black radio station (Flow 93.5FM) in 2001, will be honoured on Saturday, Feb 4th at the CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival Gala Brunch co-hosted by CaribbeanTales and TIFF. The event will be presented by Dwayne Morgan and MotionLive, and also feature the Canadian premiere of award winning Jamaican feature film Better Mus Come.

The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival 2012 is co-produced with TIFF and partners include 404 Media Group, Art of Catering, Carib101, Caribbean Camera, Flyin Monkey Films, Fil Fraser, How The Blacks Created Canada, MANIFESTO, MotionLive, Planet Africa Television, Ryan Singh Enterprises, Telefilm Canada  and Up From The Roots.

Event Details

Name: CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival - Gala Brunch & Canadian Premiere of Better Mus Come

Date: February 4^th 2012 at 12pm

Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox

Tickets: CaribbeanTales-events.com

Media : Roger Dundas, 404 Media Group, 416.918.9095, info@404mg.com 

CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival Gala Brunch

Media Pioneer to be honored in Black History Month

TORONTO, January 9, 2011.

Denham Jolly, a well-known Jamaican-Canadian media pioneer, activist, entrepreneur and the driving force behind Toronto’s first Black radio station (Flow 93.5FM) in 2001, will be honoured on Saturday, Feb 4th at the CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival co-hosted by CaribbeanTales and TIFF. The event will also feature the Canadian premiere of award winning Jamaican feature film Better Mus Come.

"It is important to recognize the broad shoulders on which we stand alongside the powerful leaders among our youth," said Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution.

"Denham Jolly waged a fifteen-year battle to get our first Black radio station on the Canadian airwaves. He is a tireless community activist, who has also built several very successful businesses. These are accomplishments that young Black people need to recognise and emulate."

Denham Jolly was born near Negril, Jamaica in 1935. His father was a landowner and entrepreneur who taught his five children independence, self reliance and hard work. Ahead of the Caribbean migration invasion, he attended McGill University in 1955, along with other brilliant Caribbean scholars like Justice Romain Pitt and author Austin Clarke who were at the University of Toronto. Graduating with a degree in Science, he went on to earn an Ontario High School Teaching Certificate and for seven years taught chemistry and physics at the prestigious Forest Hill Collegiate in the heart of Toronto’s upper-class Jewish enclave.

In his book How the Blacks Created Canada, broadcaster and writer Fil Fraser recounts that Jolly, an entrepreneur at heart, recalling his father's advice, decided to solve his own need for housing by buying a property and renting out rooms to students. Before long before he owned properties around the GTA and beyond including a Days Inn Hotel in west Toronto, a nursing home in Texas, two medical laboratories, and the Tyndal Nursing Home in Mississauga, which he still owns.

Unknown to the wider world his quiet philanthropy supported individuals, organizations and entrepreneurs and changed many lives.

An important achievement was the creation of the Black Business and Professional Association. In 1982 he convened a meeting at the Underground Railroad restaurant, of twenty-five people who represented the Who's Who of prominent Black leaders. He was acclaimed the BBPA's first president, and one of his first acts was overseeing the establishment of the Harry Jerome Awards, to recognise Black Canadian achievement. Thirty years later the event remains a glittering Gala regularly attended by Prime Ministers, Premiers, Mayors and other dignitaries.

Jolly believed the Black community needed a voice in the media to communicate and express its concerns, report on events and celebrate its culture; needs that were being ignored by mainstream media. In 1982 he bought Contrast newspaper and was its publisher and financial backer for 4 years.  Then he began a fifteen-year campaign to get Canada’s first Black radio station on the air.

Denham Jolly’s first application for an urban music radio license, opposed by the broadcasting community and rebuffed by the CRTC was passed over in favor of a country music station in 1990.  Jolly explains, "Apart from the frustration, there was money involved. The application cost half a million dollars". A second attempt in 1997 was thwarted when the CRTC gave the 99.1 FM frequency to the CBC.  As Fil Fraser writes, "Many observers considered the decision to have racist undertones. Toronto did not have an urban music station; the CBC simply wanted an FM frequency for its Radio 1 service, already available on AM."

Jolly’s third attempt in 2001 was successful after he got buy-in from a mainstream broadcaster, and Flow 93.5FM went on air in April 2001. In 2004, Jolly’s Milestone Radio in partnership with CHUM, applied for and received a license to broadcast a similar channel “The Bounce” in Edmonton.Through his media operations Denham Jolly has changed the landscape of Canadian broadcasting.

The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival 2012 is co-produced with TIFF and partners include  404 Media Group, Art of Catering,  Carib101, Caribbean Camera,  Flyin Monkey Films, Fil Fraser, How The Blacks Created Canada, MANIFESTO, MotionLive, Planet Africa Television, Ryan Singh Enterprises, Telefilm Canada, and Up From The Roots.

Event details

Name: CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival - Gala Brunch & Canadian Premiere of Better Mus Come

Date: February 4^th 2012 at 12pm

Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox

Tickets: CaribbeanTales-events.com

Media : Roger Dundas, 404 Media Group, 416.918.9095, info@404mg.com

About CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival

Founded in 2009, the CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival screens Africentric films for audiences of high school and university students, to deepen audiences' understanding of Canada's multicultural communities through screenings, workshops and Q&A’s. Each year, the festival honours a media practitioner who has made an outstanding contribution to the representation of Black people and culture on screen. Previous CTYFF awardees have included African-American filmmaker Julie Dash, Canadian producer Claire Prieto, broadcaster and writer Fil Fraser and academy award-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis.

CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival & TIFF join forces to celebrate Black History Month.

 Toronto, Jan 4, 2012.

The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival (CTYFF) is partnering with TIFF to celebrate Black History Month with a fundraising Gala that recognizes the 50th Independence anniversaries of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and includes screenings of Storm Saulter's stunning award-winning feature film Better Mus’ Come.

The celebrations will take place on February 4th and 5th, 2012 at TIFF Bell Lightbox, as part of a special TIFF screening series entitled  "Music, Magic, Clash: New Voices in the African Diaspora"

“TIFF’s Black History Month programme seeks to showcase some of the African Diaspora's most engaging new filmmaking voices," said Cameron Bailey, Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. "Through our partnership with CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival, we can bring one of the region's most celebrated new films to an even wider Toronto audience.”

“We are excited to work with TIFF to grow and diversify Canadian audiences and help bring great Caribbean and Diaspora films to the world stage” says Frances-Anne Solomon, founder and CEO of CaribbeanTales.

Set within the politically turbulent turf wars of 1970’s Kingston, Jamaica, Saulter’s film tells the story of the Green Bay Massacre, a landmark in Jamaica's political history, and a young gang leader who must choose between fighting for his tribe and making a better life for his five-year old son.  Hailed as "heralding a new era in Jamaican filmmaking",  Better Mus’ Come is currently on a successful festival tour and most recently won the Audience Award at the highly regarded Bahamas International Film Festival.

Solomon says Better Mus’ Come is important because it represents a contemporary take on the region's historical reality. ”Young people need to know where they come from in order to step forward with confidence and pride.  Better Mus’ Come is a fresh dynamic approach to the past that enhances our critical perspective on Canada’s children of the African Diaspora.”

On February 4, 2012 at noon, there will be a Gala Caribbean Brunch at TIFF Bell Lightbox culminating in the Canadian premiere of Better Mus’ Come, hosted by Cameron Bailey.

On February 5, 2012 at 3.45 pm, Bailey will host a Youth and Community screening of Better Mus’ Come.

Both screenings will feature a Talk Back with filmmaker Storm Saulter. Tickets are available at tiff.net and CaribbeanTales-events.com.

The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival 2012 is co-produced with TIFF and partners include  404 Media Group, Art of Catering,  Carib101, Flyin Monkey Films, MotionLive, Telefilm Canada, and Up From The Roots.

For more information: Roger Dundas, 404 Media Group, 416.918.9045.

Photo: Director-writer-producer Storm Saulter shoots Better Mus Come. 

About CaribbeanTales

CaribbeanTales is a group of companies in Canada and the Caribbean, that produces, markets and distributes Caribbean-themed films. These include:  CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution, that links producers and buyers of quality filmed entertainment; the CaribbeanTales Film Festival Group that produces annual events in Toronto, Barbados and New York;  the Caribbean Incubator Program for Audio Visual Entrepreneurs that delivers training for filmmakers, and CaribbeanTales.ca, a non profit that promotes citizen participation through the medium of film, contributing to an inclusive Canadian society.

Founded in 2009, The CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival screens Africentric films for audiences of high school and university students, to deepen audiences' understanding of Canada's multicultural communities through screenings, workshops and Q&A’s.

Looking back -- Highlights of 2011 in pictures

Before we say good bye to the Old Year - here's 2011 in pics...

CaribbeanTales 2011 @ Island Inn, Barbados - March 14 - 20.

A wonderful occasion, at the beautiful Island Inn. Many new friends made, and old friends that we were able to live and grow with... With special thanks to Island Inn Barbados, and all our sponsors and partners. Photos by Benjamin Drakes. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

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CT New York Showcase - Long Island University, Brooklyn, June 11.

My personal favourite event of last year - I heart NY. With special thanks to CTO, Bevan Springer, Arlean Saa, the Barbados Consulate in New York, the BTA, Rhea Smith, the Mighty Sparrow, and all our partners and friends. Photos by Donovan Gopie. :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Toronto Showcase & Incubator @ Harbourfront Center, September 7 - 17.

By far our biggest event of the year...Challenging and very rewarding. With extra Special Thanks to Melanie Fernandes and the Harbourfront Centre, Jean Sheen and the Trustees and Donors of the CT Scholarship Fund, and Mr. Denham Jolly.  

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Animae Caribe/CTWD  "The Pitching Game" - Trinidad, November 4 & 5.

With thanks to Camille and team, and especially to all the students who participated - for your focus, good humour and hard work! xoxo

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Distribution w'shop #1 - Trinidad, Nov 19.

Educational and informative... With thanks to our partners - the Animae Caribe Animations Festival and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Ventana Sur - Buenos Aires, Argentina - December 1-5

Eye-opening! With muchissimas gracias to Bernardo, Francisco, and everyone at Ventana Sur for an unforgettable trip. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Distribution w'shop #2 - Barbados, December 17.

Thought-provoking.. With thanks to our partners - the Shridath Ramphal Center at UWI, and the Barbados Film and Video Association.