Friday, July 27, 2012

July 2012 Update

Good evening filmmakers!

I hope all is well with you.

Just a quick update from your distributor. 

We are deep in preparations for our Toronto Showcase and Incubator Program that will take place from Sept 4-15th, and the line-up is very exciting.As you know our festivals in Toronto, Barbados and New York, serve to raise the profile of the company and of Film Brand Caribbean, so drawing audiences and buyers to your wonderful work.

Distribution-wise, I am pleased to say that our income from sales increased 100% in our second year, over Year 1. Interest in the company continues to grow, and so despite the bleak economic climate and dire global state of film distribution, we enter Year 3 with optimism.

Educational sales remain our staple, and income in this area continues to rise, but we also had a nice broadcast sale to CUNY TV, that broadcasts in the Tristate. 

In terms of current and future plans, we are working with German VOD platform http://Onlinefilm.org to make your films available for home use online. The following films are already available for sale there,  so you can do a search on the site and find them (some still need pics uploaded)

Ramabai Espinet: Coming Home

Nalo Hopkinson : Fabulous Spaces

Trapped In an Elevator

Trou D'Air

Entry Denied

Directions

Crossing Over

E Leyenda de Buchi Fil

Drummit to Summit

Calypso Dreams

Finder of Lost Children

Positive and Pregnant

Miss Lou: Then and Now

I Is A Long Memoried Woman

Reunion

We aim to have all but our best broadcast/educational sellers available online within a year, both at ONLINEFILM.ORG as well as on our website CARIBBEANTALES-WORLDWIDE.COM.  We will continue to do due diligence to manage the sales centrally to ensure that only those legitimately wishing to view the films for home use have access - educational and broadcast will still have to buy directly from us.

We are excited to let you know that we are in negotiations with ONLINEFILM.ORG to be their exclusive partner for Caribbean content across all their various European platforms - the site will be called Caribbean.Onlinefilm.org.

And, at this weeks press conference for the Toronto Showcase we announced plans to launch CARIBBEANTALES-TV, a proprietary Netflix-style portal for viewing Caribbean films online. Right now we are building the infrastructure, and it aims to be fully functional onstream by next year. 

Here is a rough protoptype of what the site may look like (early stages).

Screen_shot_caribbeantales-tv2

As you know at the end of 2011 we made the decision to temporarily put a hold on new acquisitions in order to consolidate our Catalogue. Nevertheless, we are very pleased to welcome a number of new films/filmmakers to the CaribbeanTales family in 2012. They are:

Room for Rent - by Ginger Knight (Jamaica)

Little Boy Blue - by Nicholas Attin (Trinidad and Tobago)

Mr Crab - by Faisal Lutchmedial (Canada)

Jab! The Blue Devils of Paramin (T&T); 70 - A Revolution  (T&T); C'est Quitte: The French Creoles of Trinidad (T&T) - all produced by Elizabeth Topp and directed by Alex DeVerteiul.

A Series of Agricultural Short Films - produced by the CSA and directed by very talented young filmmakers from around the Caribbean region.

and, Human Traffic : Past and Present (USA) - directed by moi, (Frances-Anne Solomon), for the Center for African and African American Research at Duke University.

We will be producing a special mini-catalogue to include and promote our new acquisitions at TIFF in September.

That's it for now.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch to let me know if you have questions or wish to chat about the above. I am often available on skype or always by email and very happy to hear from you.

With best wishes,

Frances-Anne 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Season's Greetings and Best wishes for 2012

Dear Filmmakers

Happy New Year! 2012 is going to be fabulous!

Good Newz:

Many good things are planned for the new year - here are just a few.

CTWD films will be profiled at Harbourfront in February! The following films have been selected to be screened as part of KUUMBA, Harbourfront's Black History Month Cultural Festival:

Features

- Joebell and America by Asha Lovelace
- Devotion by Dawn Wilkinson
- Finder of Lost Children by Ricardo Scipio

Shorts:

- Caribbean Skin, African Identity by Mandisa Pantin
- Directions by Renee Pollonais
- Entry Denied by Chris Browne
- Now Jimmy - by Mary Wells

We are very excited about this and will be promoting the screenings aggressively during January.

Even better, Harbourfront rented the films and so we have made some money for you from these screenings!

While sales have generally been sluggish, one very exciting development has been that we have been getting lots of interest from festivals and markets around the world to attend and also to screen your work.

CTWD recently returned from Ventana Sur, a wonderful market in Buenos Aires, Argentina where we were invited to screen Little Boy Blue by Nick Attin, MAS MAN by Dalton Narine, and a selection of films from the Animae Caribe Animation Festival. All the films were really well received, and stood up well against the healthily funded South American feature films and other productions.

This trip also led to many requests for screeners to many other South American Film festivals.

Over the next few weeks we will be uploading all your films to our password protected vimeo account, so that potential buyers and festival programmers can view them online without us having to send physical (and easily pirated) screeners.

Festival screenings will be a major new push for 2012, as we begin to focus in earnest on raising the profiles of individual films in our 2012 catalogue. As you know our major focus during our inaugural year has been to put CaribbeanTales and Film Brand Caribbean on the international map - and we have been very successful at this!

In 2012, CTWD will be attending a number of international festivals. So far we have been invited to attend FEMI (Guadeloupe) in Jan, the Berlinale Film Festival (Germany) in Feb,  and the Guadalajara Film Festival (Mexico) in March.This will give us an opportunity to promote your work, and build key connections internationally.

We will continue to keep you posted about future markets, and festival screenings.

As most of you know I have been travelling in the Caribbean over the past weeks. It was great to have a chance to catch up with all of you Trinidad and Barbados based filmmakers - thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to discuss marketing strategies for your work. As you know well, this business works best when we communicate regularly and work together in tandem  to promote your wonderful films.

CTWD also held distribution workshops in T&T and and Bim - both very well attended and it was great to see some of you there. This is an important forum for me to share with you the most up to date information about the distribution landscape.

As you can see, we have changed our Filmmakers Newzletter platform to posterous ... so if you recently got an invite from me from googlegroups then pls ignore.

Please note that Courtney Panchan -- who has worked with me tirelessly over the past 5 years, is now our Operations Manager. She is in charge of Sales and Administration for all aspects of the company and can be contacted directly at cp.caribbeantales@gmail.com.

Finally, we are busy preparing your six-mthly reports and those of you whose films made sales in this period will soon be receiving those by email - please feel free to contact myself or Courtney about any questions or concerns.

Here's to great success in 2012 -  health wealth happiness and peace to all!

Frances-Anne

 

 

Many thanks to our Sponsors...

We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto.

"We are proud to be associated with CaribbeanTales as they are the Caribbean Diaspora's most progressive film festival group, sending our talent to all corners of the globe to be seen and enjoyed. This is their seventh annual showcase and for this they deserve a round of applause. With bases in Toronto, Barbados and New York, and partnerships around the globe, CaribbeanTales indeed promotes the flavour of Caribbean acting, dance, music, and poetry, and all that goes with filmmaking. On behalf of the Consulate, and of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, we congratulate you on all your successes. You are enlightening the world and showcasing the vibrancy, color, movement, dymamism and creativity of our Caribbean people. We thank you very much."  

- Dr Vidya Tota-Maharaj, Consul General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto.

 

CaribbeanTales Announces 2012 Toronto Line-up

July 26, 2012

by JP Hodgekinson

TORONTO – The Caribbean Tales Film Festival kicked off July 23 at a well-attended Media Launch at the Toronto Consulate of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

CEO and founder Frances-Anne Solomon welcomed supporters and colleagues from the Caribbean diaspora to the 7th year of the Toronto Film Showcase, the third year of the filmmaker Incubator Program, and the first of the new Youth Film Challenge, in which aspiring young filmmakers will have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film  for a panel of judges. The top ten films  will be screened during the week-long Showcase at Harbourfront, and the overall winner will be recognised at the Closing ceremony

The Launch evening was hosted by spoken word artist and playwright Motion, and a list of speakers included Trinidad & Tobago’s Consul General Dr Vidhya Tota-Maharaj, Flow 93.5 founding executive Farley Flex, Harbourfront’s Project Coordinator Diana Webley, Youth Film Challenge coordinator Michael Miller and filmmaker Malinda Francis.

The 2012 edition of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival will run during TIFF and there will be a Gala Launch at Harbourfront’s Lakeshore Terrace on September 5.

Ms Solomon also announced that CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution will soon be utilizing the internet’s distribution capabilities with the 2013 launch of Caribbean Tales-TV.

For a complete list of this year’s events visit caribbeantales-events.com.

CaribbeanTales Contact:

Courtney Panchan - 416 598 1410

cp.caribbeantales@gmail.com,

Media Contact : 404 Media Group

Roger Dundas - 416 918 9045

info@404mg.com

 

 

 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

CaribbeanTales Toronto Showcase : What's On

Toronto_banner_6

10 Packed Days Celebrating

Film from the Caribbean Diaspora

GALA LAUNCH : Wednesday 5th September 2012 | Lakeshore Terrace, Harbourfront

CTWD will host a high profile Launch Party that will serve as a tourism destination branding opportunity for islands, as well as a showcase for the developing film industry.

Our Opening Night Film is the fantastic music documentary “The Story of Lover’s Rock” by Barbadian/British filmmaker Menelik Shabazz.

Sponsored by the Toronto Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Film SHOWCASE : September 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th and 15th

Screenings and presentations that engage family, youth and community in an appreciation of films - from French Guyana, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Britain, the U.S. and all corners of the Caribbean Region and Diaspora.

  • Centrepiece Film is the exquisite award-winning feature LOVE CHILD by Leticia Tonos from Domincan Republic.
  • Closing Feature is ORPAILLEUR, an action thriller from French Guyana by Marc Barrat.
  • This year’s special focus is a Spotlight on African-American Independent filmmaking.
  • We will also have a Shorts Showcase of the best Caribbean films under 10mins.

MARKET INCUBATOR : Sept 4th – 9th 2012.

An Intensive 3 day Incubator where selected producers will have an opportunity to hone their business plans and film/television pitches, through one-on-one support and group interventions led by international consultants. The Incubator will also include a Pitching Breakfast.

Throughout the week, CTWD will host a number of intimate events that will include many opportunities to network informally and have private one on one meetings with international buyers and funders attending the Toronto International Film Festival.

PARTICIPATE IN TIFF

CTWD participants will benefit from special discounted rates for TIFF passes. TIFF representatives will be on hand to help filmmakers negotiate the festival. CaribbeanTales will assist filmmaker to navigate the festival

48Hr YOUTH FILM CHALLENGE

A workshop for youth presenting them with the opportunity to create and complete a film within 48 hours. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop led by awardwinning filmmaker Rodney Smith. The Challenge will kick off at midnight on Wednesday September 5th and end at midnight on Friday September 7th. The 10 top films will be screened throughout the Showcase at Harbourfront and the overall winners will be celebrated at an award cenermony on Saturday September 15th.

For more information - please contact  Michael Miller

48 Youth Film Challenge Co-ordinator - 416 893 8734

 

 


 

 

CaribbeanTales Toronto Showcase : What's On

10 Packed Days Celebrating

Film from the Caribbean Diaspora

GALA LAUNCH : Wednesday 5th September 2012 | Lakeshore Terrace, Harbourfront

CTWD will host a high profile Launch Party that will serve as a tourism destination branding opportunity for islands, as well as a showcase for the developing film industry.

Our Opening Night Film is the fantastic music documentary “The Story of Lover’s Rock” by Barbadian/British filmmaker Menelik Shabazz.

Sponsored by the Toronto Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Film SHOWCASE : September 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th and 15th

Screenings and presentations that engage family, youth and community in an appreciation of films - from French Guyana, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Britain, the U.S. and all corners of the Caribbean Region and Diaspora.

  • Centrepiece Film is the exquisite award-winning feature LOVE CHILD by Leticia Tonos from Domincan Republic.
  • Closing Feature is ORPAILLEUR, an action thriller from French Guyana by Marc Barrat.
  • This year’s special focus is a Spotlight on African-American Independent filmmaking.
  • We will also have a Shorts Showcase of the best Caribbean films under 10mins.

MARKET INCUBATOR : Sept 4th – 9th 2012.

An Intensive 3 day Incubator where selected producers will have an opportunity to hone their business plans and film/television pitches, through one-on-one support and group interventions led by international consultants. The Incubator will also include a Pitching Breakfast.

Throughout the week, CTWD will host a number of intimate events that will include many opportunities to network informally and have private one on one meetings with international buyers and funders attending the Toronto International Film Festival.

PARTICIPATE IN TIFF

CTWD participants will benefit from special discounted rates for TIFF passes. TIFF representatives will be on hand to help filmmakers negotiate the festival. CaribbeanTales will assist filmmaker to navigate the festival

48Hr YOUTH FILM CHALLENGE

A workshop for youth presenting them with the opportunity to create and complete a film within 48 hours. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop led by awardwinning filmmaker Rodney Smith. The Challenge will kick off at midnight on Wednesday September 5th and end at midnight on Friday September 7th. The 10 top films will be screened throughout the Showcase at Harbourfront and the overall winners will be celebrated at an award cenermony on Saturday September 15th.

For more information - please contact  Michael Miller

48 Youth Film Challenge Co-ordinator - 416 893 8734

 

 


 

 

CaribbeanTales Toronto Showcase : What's On

CT 2012 : Activities

10 packed days celebrating film from the Caribbean Diaspora

GALA LAUNCH : Wednesday 5th September 2012 | Lakeshore Terrace, Harbourfront

CTWD will host a high profile Launch Party that will serve as a tourism destination branding opportunity for islands, as well as a showcase for the developing film industry.

Our Opening Night Film is the fantastic music documentary “The Story of Lover’s Rock” by Barbadian/British filmmaker Menelik Shabazz.

Sponsored by the Toronto Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Film SHOWCASE : September 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th and 15th

Screenings and presentations that engage family, youth and community in an appreciation of films - from French Guyana, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Britain, the U.S. and all corners of the Caribbean Region and Diaspora.

  • Centrepiece Film is the exquisite award-winning feature LOVE CHILD by Leticia Tonos from Domincan Republic.
  • Closing Feature is ORPAILLEUR, an action thriller from French Guyana by Marc Barrat.
  • This year’s special focus is a Spotlight on African-American Independent filmmaking.
  • We will also have a Shorts Showcase of the best Caribbean films under 10mins.

MARKET INCUBATOR : Sept 4th – 9th 2012.

An Intensive 3 day Incubator where selected producers will have an opportunity to hone their business plans and film/television pitches, through one-on-one support and group interventions led by international consultants. The Incubator will also include a Pitching Breakfast.

Throughout the week, CTWD will host a number of intimate events that will include many opportunities to network informally and have private one on one meetings with international buyers and funders attending the Toronto International Film Festival.

PARTICIPATE IN TIFF

CTWD participants will benefit from special discounted rates for TIFF passes. TIFF representatives will be on hand to help filmmakers negotiate the festival. CaribbeanTales will assist filmmaker to navigate the festival

48Hr YOUTH FILM CHALLENGE

A workshop for youth presenting them with the opportunity to create and complete a film within 48 hours. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop led by awardwinning filmmaker Rodney Smith. The Challenge will kick off at midnight on Wednesday September 5th and end at midnight on Friday September 7th. The 10 top films will be screened throughout the Showcase at Harbourfront and the overall winners will be celebrated at an award cenermony on Saturday September 15th.

For more information - please contact  Michael Miller

48 Youth Film Challenge Co-ordinator - 416 893 8734