Alana Lowe, (Toronto/Jamaica) was the Producer and Co-Director of The Forgotten City … In the City, that was showcased in the Sprockets International Film Festival at TIFF. Lowe is currently working on Stolen from Africa, a documentary that follows the journey of two emerging rap artists as they retrace actual slave trade routes.
Claire Hamel-Smith, (Trinidad) Winner of the 2011 Animae Caribe/Trinidad and Tobago Film Company Pitch This! Scholarship to attend the CaribbeanTales Incubator Program, this 20-year-old animator formed Lab206 with some classmates after graduation from the University of Trinidad &Tobago. The studio’s pilot project “The Upstarts,” is an animated sitcom targeting 13 to 18 year-olds.
Francisco Montas (Dominican Republic) wrote, produced and directed the award winning short “Some Sort Of Soap Opera-ish Theatre-Film”. He was Guest Director for a segment of Leticia Tonos’ feature “Love Child”, and wrote the screenplay for “Scent of Oblivion”, an adaptation of the Dominican bestseller, to be directed by Bruno Barreto. His project is "Short Stories Written While On Exile", a Drama woven from 11 short stories written by renowned Dominican writer Juan Bosch
Guetty Felin-Cohen (Haiti/US) is a Haitian-American filmmaker who splits her time between the US, Haiti and France. She fell in love with cinema at an early age at the drive-ins of Port-au-Prince, and now uses the medium for denouncing social and political injustice. Her film Broken Stones, shot in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, won Best Documentary at the Belize International Film Festival and will be screened on September 12 at CaribbeanTales. Her new project is "Ayiti Mon Amour”.
Joleen Decle (Trinidad/US) is a Trinbagonian actor and writer based in Texas. Her debut feature project Caribbean Crush puts a new twist on the traditional boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl love story.
Kalmplex,(Jamaica/Ghana/Canada) born and raised in Toronto, is a photographer, spoken word artist, videographer, DJ, painter, street artist and organic vegan chef who regularly performs at notable Toronto venues like the Gladstone Hotel, Tota, and the Lula Lounge. Her feature documentary project is The Healing Power of Jamaica.
Kareem Mortimer (Bahamas) made his feature film debut with Children of God, that earned him 17 international awards, was released in three countries and broadcast on Showtime. He is now working on Cargo, the story of an immigration officer (Kevin) who becomes a human smuggler, and three Caribbean immigrants whose lives are deeply affected by his choices.
Kimalee Phillip, (Grenada/Canada) is a Toronto-based filmmaker and co-founder of Zenzele Films, a collective of African and Caribbean women redefining the image of Black women in film. She is currently working on Forward Ever Backward Never, a documentary on Grenada’s Revolution from 1979 to 1983.
Marsha A. Davies, (Jamaica/US) is an award-winning screenwriter and producer now based in the U.S. She works in a wide range of genres including science fiction, fantasy and suspense. Her Project “into His Arms is a Caribbean saga of love, family secrets and revenge.
Melissa Gomez (Antigua/Canada/US) is a New York based documentary filmmaker, and researcher/associate producer at AMC. Her short film, “Share and Share Alike”, won Best Documentary at the 2010 Berlin Black FIlm Festival and was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Pan African Film Festival. Silent Music, her autobiographical feature documentary, about growing up with deaf parents, has its World Premiere at CaribbeanTales 2012 on Sept 14th.
Motion (Antigua/Barbados/Canada) is an award-winning emcee, poet, playwright and Hip Hop artist, and the writer/producer of Aneemah’s Spot, which has just finished a successful sold out theatre run at the Toronto Summerworks Festival.
Natalie Wei, (Trinidad/Canada) is a Canadian-born artist, freelance photographer and filmmaker of Chinese-Trinidadian descent. Her debut film Chinee Girl won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the 2011 Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and follows the lives of women of Chinese descent in Trinidad, a group simultaneously visible and invisible, examining their memory, history, identity and unacknowledged influence within this unique culture.
Penny Hynam, (Barbados) began her career at the CBC and Telefilm Canada, co-founded Mobius Productions and worked as script supervisor on 40+ TV and movie sets in Canada, Europe and the U.S. After re-settling in Barbados, she worked as Director of the National Trust, Senior Producer for the Caribbean Media Corporation’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and was founding President of the Barbados Film and Video Association. Her project A Day In a Bajan Life, a series of 15-minute TV vignettes of Barbadian personalities will receive its Canadian Premiere on Sept 10th at CaribbeanTales
Tanya Davies, (Jamaica) is a writer and animator who studied film production in New York and screenwriting in Los Angeles, has written serials for TV and radio, and lectures at universities in the U.S. and Jamaica. Her animation project is Hummy, based on the Jamaican National Hummingbird, an edutainment character geared to pre-school children of Caribbean heritage to help foster positive cultural identity.
Shelton Deverell (Jamaica/Canada/US) is a digital artist who creates engaging video animation, logo designs and illustration for Imax, Nelvana, and other major clients. He is currently working on Inventurer Game” a smart-phone App to teach children about the lives of inventors, beginning with those of Caribbean ancestry.
Sue Ellen Chitunya, (Zimbabwe/US) ia a budding filmmaker from Zimbabwe whose films have screened at the Short Film Corner in Cannes, the Atlanta Film Festival, and the Action on Film Festival. She brings A House of Stone to the 2012 Incubator, a story loosely based on her grandfather and set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe’s war for liberation.
July 26, 2012
