TONIGHT SEPT 16th, 6pm @CARIBBEANTALES

THE SKIN: VIP Reception & Red Carpet Launch.

"The Skin is based on stories I heard as a child and in my research to write the screenplay, I discovered that the soucouyant  can be traced back to Greek Mythology.  Most likely it came to the Caribbean through Europe and not Africa as many would believe" Howard Allen, filmmaker.

The Skin screens tonight Friday 16th after a Red Carpet reception @ Harbourfront Centre

Howard and Mitzi Allen, the filmmaking duo behind  Antiguan mythological thriller THE SKIN, speaking to the media in Toronto earlier this week.

TOMORROW SEPT 17th -SCHEDULE

11 am : Enjoy a carnival workshop with Christopher Pinheiro followed by the screening of the film Calypso Dreams. "Calypso Dreams is far and away the best film ever made about Calypso." FREE

2pm :  10 years of Animae Caribe: Camille Selvon Abrahams presents 10 years of Caribbean Animation - $12

5pm : Mas Man - Portrait of Carnival Artist Peter Minshall - The Director's Cut / and the short films ASE by Nicole Brooks and  Redemption by Sean Michael Field - $12

7.30pm : In Conversation with Ian Harnarine - filmmaker of  "Doubles WIth Slight Pepper", and the feature film Fire In Babylon - They brought the world to its knees, and a nation to its feet, witness the breathtaking story of the West Indies cricket team of the '70s and '80s.

Ticket Giveaway @CaribbeanTales !!!!

Email CaribbeanTales@gmail.com with #HitMeWithMusic - 4 pairs of tickets to give away.

CARIBBEANTALES FILM SHOWCASE - SEPT 15th

Well known Canadian Journalist Turned Movie Producer Premieres Film in Toronto

Toronto -  (September 10^th 20011)  Former Canadian broadcast journalist Mitzi Benjamin will premiere her new feature film,  The Skin, in Toronto this week.

Benjamin, the other half of HamaFilms, the dynamic husband and wife filmmaking duo based in Antigua, are here for the Red Carpet premiere of their fourth feature film at the CaribbeanTales Film Showcase at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on Friday September 16th, at 6pm.

Benjamin, (now Allen) was the first black television news reporter on CFTO television in the 1980’s until she relocated to the islands of Antigua & Barbuda where she started her own film and television production company with her husband, Howard Allen, the film’s director.

The Skin, a supernatural thriller based on Caribbean mythology stars renowned Jamaican film star Carl Bradshaw, known for roles in iconic films such as The Harder They Come, Dance Hall Queen, and Third World Cop. The film also stars Canadian actor Peter Williams (Stargate SGI, A Winter Tale, and Da Kink in My Hair) and UK actor Jeff Stewart (The Bill, Dead Man Running and True Horrors).

“I am really excited to be back home in Toronto, to share the film with the community that nurtured my love for the arts”, says Benjamin-Allen. “The Skin is an example of how our traditional stories can become Hollywood blockbusters.”

The Antigua & Barbuda Consulate will co-host a reception for the filmmakers on September 16^th  at Harbourfront Centre at 6 p.m. which will be followed by the screening at 7:30. A talkback session with the filmmakers will follow the screening.

The Skin premiered in Antigua & Barbuda in June and Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Hon. Baldwin Spencer, who has been following the duo's work since their first feature, The Sweetest Mango in 2001, said, The Skin has proven that HAMAfilms has come of age and is taking the country with it.

Mitzi  Benjamin-Allen who is also a facilitator in the Caribbean Tales Incubator sessions during the Toronto Film Showcase is using the opportunity to share her experience as a filmmaker with emerging filmmakers.

The Caribbean Tales Film Showcase is in its sixth year and has proven to be an excellent platform to highlight Caribbean-Canadian creativity.

For tickets, the schedule and general information about the CaribbeanTales Film Showcase and Market Incubator, visit www.caribbeantales-events.com.

Watch the movie trailer, see the behind the scenes video and read about the making of The Skin on http://theskinahamafilm.wordpress.com.

 

 

New Jamaican Action Drama set to premiere in Toronto

Ghett’a Life, the much buzzed-about new action drama by respected director Chris Browne of Third World Cop, makes its North American debut on Tuesday, September 13 as part of CaribbeanTales 2011 Toronto Film Showcase. The  long-awaited and much-anticipated film will screen at Harbourfront Centre’s Studio Theatre, at 7:30pm.
 
Ten years in the making, the wholly Jamaican film, funded by local investors and featuring indigenous talent and music, is a high octane no holds-barred depiction of what life is and can be like in inner city Kingston. The “against-the-odds” drama is set in a politically turbulent community and tells the story of Derrick, a determined teenager, struggling to realize his dream of becoming a champion boxer despite a country, community and family torn apart by divisive politics.
 

Ghett'A Life, a Jamrock film production, is written and directed by Chris Browne and stars Teddy Price, O'Daine Clarke, Chris McFarlane, Etana and Lenford Salmon. Browne, winner of the Grand Prize at the Hartley Merrill International Screenwriting Competition for Ghett’a Life at Cannes in 2006, has made it his passion to grow a film culture in the Jamaica. Ghett'a Life is his second feature film - his Third World Cop, released in 1999, still holds the record as the largest grossing Jamaican film of all time.
 
The CaribbeanTales Toronto Film Showcase, among other goals, aims to raise the international profile of Caribbean film, support the growth of a vibrant world-class Caribbean film and television industry, and serve as a platform for promoting the Caribbean as a premier warm weather travel destination and location for film production.
 
Now in its sixth year, the 2011 Toronto Film Showcase, and the recently introduced Market Incubator, returns from September 7 to 17, 2011, engaging families, youth, community groups, and the celluloid industry in a program  that includes workshops, screenings, networking sessions, and other activities all celebrating the burgeoning film and television sector in the Caribbean.
 
Many exciting films will be screened during the 10-day showcase which also features a market access incubator for Caribbean filmmakers, including Antigua's The Skin, a  mythological thriller that draw on Caribbean mythology, that will have its Red Carpet Launch on Friday 16th September.
 
The CaribbeanTales Film Showcase is co-produced with the Harbourfront Centre, and partners include Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival, The Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto, First Fridays, Green Light Artist Management, theInternational Development Research Centre, Pennant Media Group, Planet 3 Entertainment, Taffe Entertainment, Toon Boom Animation, the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services at the University of the West Indies, andWHATZHAPPNG.
 
For tickets, the schedule and general information about the CaribbeanTales Film Showcase and Market Incubator, visit www.caribbeantales-events.com
 
Trailer available here:
Ghett'a Life: http://www.ghettalifethemovie.co

YOU ARE INVITED TO CaribbeanTales @TIFF 2011

Meet the filmmakers, hear their pitches, attend screenings and the fetes

http://caribbeantales-events.com  

September 6, Tuesday – Opening Night 

6 p.m. – 11 p.m./ Lakeside Eats, Harbourfront Centre

            Welcome Dinner and meet the filmmakers

September 7, Wednesday 

6 p.m. – 9 p.m./ Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre

            Opening “Fete” - hosted by the Consulate General for the Republic of T&T           in Toronto and Award Ceremony: Honouring Cameron Bailey

8:00 p.m. – 11 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Forward Home & Calypso Rose Lioness of the Jungle

September 11, Sunday 

8 a.m. – 11:30 a.m./ National Film Board of Canada/150 John Street

            Breakfast and The Pitch session by filmmakers

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. / ING Toronto Café, Yonge Street

            Animation Incubator

September 13, Tuesday

7:30 p.m. -10 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Ghett’a Life and New Caribbean Cinema

September 15, Thursday

7 p.m. – 10 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Dominion / Hit Me With Music + Shorts

September 16, Friday

6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m./ Marilyn Brewer Room/Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre

            Red Carpet Reception hosted by the Consul General for Antigua

            and Barbuda

7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.

            Screening: The Skin

September 17, Saturday

11 a.m. – 12 p.m. noon/ Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre

            Carnival Workshop with Christopher Pinheiro

Noon – 1:30 p.m./ Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Calypso Dreams

2 p.m. – 4:30 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: 10 Years of Animae Caribe (Caribbean Animation)

5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Mas Man + Shorts

8 p.m. – 10:30 p.m./ Studio Theatre Harbourfront Centre

            Screening: Fire in Babylon + Shorts

PRESS AND INDUSTRY SCREENINGS

CaribbeanTales 2011 Toronto Film Showcase

NFB Mediatheque Theatre, 150 John St. (Opposite Scotiabank Theatres)

September 12, Monday, 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
GHETT’A LIFE
Director: Chris Browne, Jamaica.  Dur: 90 Mins   
An “against the odds” action drama set in a politically turbulent inner city community of Kingston. Derrick, determined inner city teenager struggles to realize his dream of becoming a champion boxer, despite a country, community and family conflicted by a divisive political system. 

September 13, Tuesday, 9 a.m. – 11 a.m.

LITTLE BOY BLUE

Director: Nicholas Attin, Trinidad & Tobago.  Dur: 89 Mins

Little Boy Blue follows a depressed art teacher who becomes the victim of paranormal disturbances after confiscating a strange pendant from an orphaned student.  The character Bill a troubled man with a tragic past struggles to find happiness, confiscating a mysterious pendant from the orphan, Georgie boy, as his visions of a spectre plague his sleep that eventually make the terrifying transition from the world of dreams into reality. 

September 14, Wednesday, 9 a.m. – 11 a.m.
10 YEARS OF CARIBBEAN ANIMATION, Trinidad & Tobago.  Dur: 120 Mins 

Presented by Camille Selvon Abrahams of Animae Caribe.

10 Years of Caribbean Animation from Animae Caribe shows the best of Caribbean animation using all animated short films with colorful and innovative local characters and storylines developed especially for children, young adults and older.

SHORT FILMS WILL RUN THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE EVENT

Caribbean Tales Worldwide Distribution Inc.

Frances-Anne Solomon: http://caribbeantales-worldwide.com/

E: francesannesolomon@caribbeantales-worldwide.com    T: 416.910.6496

For further information and to reserve:

Planet3 Communications Ltd. - info@planet3com.net

Joanne Smale: mobile 416.554.2637/Sacha Miller: mobile 647.293.4808

For media inquiries:

Pennant Media Group - kp@pennantmediagroup.com  Kevin Pennant: 416.596.2978

 

CAMERON BAILEY TO BE HONORED IN TORONTO

TORONTO (September 1, 2011) - A well-known Barbadian-Canadian media personality and film curator will be honoured at the 2011 CaribbeanTales Film Showcase next week.

British-born Cameron Bailey, co-director responsible for the vision and execution of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), will be honoured on Wednesday, September 7 at Harbourfront's Lakeside Terrace during the opening of CaribbeanTales, hosted by the Consulate General for Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto.
 
"It is important that we celebrate and honour our own, especially those who represent us on the world stage," said Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution.
 
"Cameron was among the first to bring an intelligent, diversity-focused perspective to film criticism and appreciation here in Canada and further afield. He has consistently articulated the perspectives of people of colour around the world and has given us a voice in the mainstream of global society," she added.
 
In his early career, Cameron Bailey reviewed films for Toronto's NOW Magazine, CBC Radio One and CTV's Canada AM. He presented a weekly program on international cinema on Showcase Television's The Showcase Revue, and produced and hosted the interview programme, Filmmaker, on the Independent Film Channel Canada. He has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Village Voice, CineACTION!, and Screen, and is a popular guest speaker.
 
Bailey has distinguished himself as a curator of a number of significant film festivals, and has served as a programmer for TIFF for more than a decade. He has curated film series for Cinematheque Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, and the Sydney Film Festival.
 
In 1997, Bailey completed his first screenplay, The Planet of Junior Brown, co-written with director Clément Virgo. Not surprisingly, the film was named Best Picture at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival in New York, and nominated for a Best Screenplay Gemini Award. Bailey also completed a video essay, Hotel Saudade, shot in Brazil. Bailey was subsequently part of the delegation accompanying Governor-General Michaëlle Jean on her state visit to Brazil in 2007.
 
Earlier this year, Bailey was a member of the blue ribbon panel that designed a brand new Culture Plan for the Mayor of Toronto entitled "Creative Capital Gains: An Action Plan for Toronto". The plan boldly moves away from the notion of the Arts as a luxurious pastime towards that of a significant and powerful business industry which could be key to the global economic recovery. 
 
From December 2007, Bailey has been co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the largest film markets and festivals in the world, dedicated to presenting the best of international cinema and transforming the way people see the world.
 
Under the Patronage of His Excellency Phillip Buxo, High Commissioner for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and with the support of the International Development Research Centre, Wednesday's reception will kick off a 10-day showcase of the best films by new and established Caribbean filmmakers, including Calypso Rose: The Lioness of The Jungle, a documentary about the uncontested diva of calypso music; Ghett'a Life, the popular new feature by Third World Cop director Chris Browne; The Skin, a mythological thriller by Howard and Mitzi Allen of Antigua and Barbuda; Hit Me With Music, a study of Jamaica's dancehall music culture; and 10 Years of Caribbean Animation from Animae Caribe.
 
The sixth annual Toronto Showcase - set for September 7 to 17, 2011 - aims to raise the international profile of Caribbean film, support the growth of a vibrant world-class Caribbean film and television industry, and serve as a platform for promoting the Caribbean not only as a premier warm weather travel destination but also as a viable and preferred location for film production.
 
The Showcase is co-produced with the Harbourfront Centre, and supporters are Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival, The Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto, First Fridays, Green Light Artist Management, the International Development Research Centre, National Film Board of Canada, 404 Media Group, Pennant Media Group, Planet 3 Entertainment, Taffe Entertainment, Toon Boom Animation, the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services at the University of the West Indies, and WHATZHAPPNG.
 
For tickets, the schedule and general information about the CaribbeanTales Film Showcase and Market Incubator, visit www.caribbeantales-events.com.

About CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution

CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution (CTWD) is the first full-service film marketing and distribution company in the English-speaking Caribbean, and aims to become the reference point for producers and buyers of Caribbean film material. The company hosts marketing events through the CaribbeanTales Film Festival Group, and provides co-production services to producers. CTWD was founded by award-winning filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, and its principals include creative industries expert Dr. Keith Nurse; economist and businessman Dr. Terrence Farrell; media personality and producer Lisa Wickham; and filmmaker and writer Mary Wells. CTWD, a member of the BIM Ventures family of entrepreneurs, has hosted two film festivals in Barbados, another in New York, produced training workshops for filmmakers, and now has scores of films in its catalogue.
 
For further information, visit www.caribbeantales-worldwide.com.