In 2009 CaribbeanTales had the honour of welcoming cinéaste martiniquaise Euzhan Palcy, who graciously provided an interview to current blogger, photogropher and all-around media rat jp hodgkinson ... C'est vrai que ça commence en français mais [it's subtitled so don't panic when you hear only French for the first few seconds].
jph
A Bahamian produced film "Cargo" has been selected to participate at the 2012 CaribbeanTales Incubator program during the Toronto International Film Festival. Cargo is the third feature from award-winning director, Kareem Mortimer.
Cargo tells the story of an immigration officer, Kevin, who becomes a human smuggler to pay off a debt, and his choices affect the lives of three immigrants. These immigrants include a stateless Haitian-Bahamian man, a Cuban hustler and a seventeen-year-old Haitian girl.
Mortimer, who also directed the award winning, "Children Of God" and the family film "Wind Jammers" said, "'Cargo' speaks to how far we are all willing to go to ensure a better life for ourselves and the people we love. This film is specific to the Caribbean but applicable to audiences all over the world."
The Incubator program is a competitive five-day intensive program that includes networking opportunities, a Market Lab, and a Pitching Breakfast with industry representatives. The CaribbeanTales Showcase and Incubator takes place at the Harbourfront Center during the world-renowned Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), offering cross-promotional opportunities. Six projects have been selected including 'Cargo'.
Mortimer said, "CaribbeanTales is a pioneer in how it supports Caribbean films and its storytellers. I am grateful to be a part of such a wonderful program that will help launch one of my most personal projects to date."
For more information on the upcoming production of "Cargo", visit www.mercuryrisingmedia.com.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in the U.S., award-winning filmmaker Guetty Felin says she came of age cinematically while completing graduate studies in Paris, where she was an associate producer for the series "Écrire Contre L'oubli" (Write Against Forgetting) which aired in commemoration of Amnesty International's 30th anniversary. She has since added other roles to her filmmaking credentials, including distributor, marketing/outreach director, screenplay reader, voiceover narrator, curator and teacher. In 2008 she, filmmaker husband Hervé Cohen, and their two sons travelled America to make Closer to the Dream, "an engaging and particularly well-crafted documentary" according to Le Monde. In Closer to the Dream they followed the grassroots movement and primary campaign which resulted in the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States.
"As a child of immigrants," says Guetty Felin, "I'm a post-modern gypsy, a hybrid, and my trajectory and cultural identity pretty much pervades my sensibility as a filmmaker. Cinema is how I engage the world around me, how I explore haunting themes such as memory, exile, foreignness, and the unending search for home." The film she is showcasing at CaribbeanTales 2012 is yet another demonstration of this mindset. Filmed in the aftermath of the earthquake which devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, Broken Stones earned an award at the Belize International Film Festival and, given the haunting subject matter, it looks poised to repeat this feat elsewhere.
With its erected columns and open air, the ruins of the cathedral resemble an ampitheatre where the daily realities of Haitian life unfold. Amidst the vestiges of what was once the most beautiful cathedral in the entire Caribbean, children play, women pray, some carry pails and jugs of water from the nearby tap, a white man dressed in black-hooded priest garb appears out of nowhere, followed by a cameraman, foreign missionaries snap pictures as they pray for lost souls in a house of worship that does not belong to them, men and women roam almost aimlessly in this post-apocalyptic setting ... Beautifully photographed, mixing cinema vérité and observational documentary style, this well-crafted poetic film is personal and yet endearingly political. Haiti, as it has rarely been shown.
Guetty Felin is participating in the 2012 CaribbeanTales Incubator Program and Broken Stones will be screened at 6PM on September 12, 2012, in Harbourfront Centre's Studio Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here and don't forget to follow CaribbeanTales on Twitter and Facebook.
jph
As a student ambassador for Women in Film and Television Atlanta (WIFTA) she made a point of pushing more of her fellow female film students to see beyond the obstacles they regularly face. "Most of them just go to class and hope to learn everything there, but in reality you have to be a driven go-getter because it's a tough industry to break into. Experience is really important."
Chitunya is bringing A House of Stone to the 2012 CaribbeanTales Incubator Program. The film's backdrop is seething racial and political unrest as Paul's flashback narrative, at the request of his grandchildren, recalls the war for liberation fought in Zimbabwe. Loosely based on the life of her own grandfather, this journey to personal redemption fits neatly into Chitunya's goal of creating "groundbreaking projects that transcend cultures and genres."
Up-to-the minute details of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival and the Incubator Program are available on Twitter and Facebook. Tickets are available at the Harbourfront website by clicking on the film of your choice.
jph
Happy Friday everyone!
Bee at '83 To Infinity is hosting a contest for 2 tickets to the Caribbean Tales Opening Gala & screening of Menelik Shabazz' The Story Of Lovers Rock on September 5th!
Spread the details and get your entries in before August 30th!
Happy Thursday, y’all! I’m sooooooo excited for this post, because I’m doing my very first giveaway on the blog! Sorry to all who were inquiring after my FB post last night – I am NOT preggo, but I’m clearly overly excited about doing a blog giveaway…lol!
Remember yesterday’s post about the Caribbean Tales Film Festival, opening on September 5th? Well, get ready – the lovely people at Caribbean Tales have graciously given me a pair of tickets to the opening gala, and I want to give them to one lucky ’83 To Infinity reader!
The Prize:
Tickets for you and a friend to the Caribbean Tales Opening Gala and screening, hosted by the Toronto Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. The gala and screening will be held in Toronto on September 5th starting at 6:30pm, and the film screening begins at 8:30pm. Live music will be provided by Kobo Town – a Toronto-based, Trinidad-influenced calypso band, and DJs giving us the best in Caribbean music. Among the scheduled attendees are Motion (spoken word poet, emcee, and playwright – did y’all catch Aneemah’s Spot?), Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director of the Toronto Int’l Film Festival), Frances-Anne Solomon (founder of Caribbean Tales), and obviously, the Toronto Consulate General for T&T. The main feature of the night will be the screening of The Story of Lovers Rock by Menelik Shabazz, and all this is goin’ down at the beautiful Harbourfront Centre Lakeside Terrace!
How To Win:
Step 1: Follow Caribbean Tales on Twitter and/or Facebook (provided you have Twitter/Facebook and aren’t following them already 
Step 2: Email me at bee@83toinfinity.com or comment below and let me know YOUR favourite Caribbean movie – Shottas? How Stella Got Her Groove Back? Pirates of the Caribbean? If the Caribbean is involved, I wanna know!
WANT BONUS POINTS? Visit the Caribbean Tales Schedule at a Glance, and let me know which feature film you would be most interested in watching!
Get it? Got it? Good! The lucky winner will be announced on August 30th, so get involved, tell a friend to tell a friend, and get those entries in!
Good luck y’all!
There is now less than 2 weeks before the opening Gala of the 2012 Caribbean Tales Film Festival, and another member of the annual Incubator Program people might want to watch out for is 20-year-old Trinidadian Claire Hamel-Smith.
At the 2011 annual Anime Caribe Animation Festival in Port-of-Spain her animated series the The Upstarts won her a scholarship to attend this year's Incubator. The Upstarts is yet another sitcom out of Trinidad & Tobago, and it follows the misadventures of Phil Broker. Phil is called in after his last boss had a mental breakdown and told he must oversee a team of lunatic animators to keep the company afloat.
"I think the CaribbeanTales Incubator will be a great opportunity for Lab206," the lead writer of The Upstarts says. Lab206 is a Multimedia Design and Animation studio co-founded by Hamel-Smith in 2012. "The series is loosely based on our own experiences building the company," she explains. "I'm so proud of my team. We really worked hard on our pitch and I'm glad it paid off. We want the world to know Trinidad has talent and stories to tell."
Here's more information on Lab206 and The Upstarts. Don't forget to follow CaribbeanTales on Twitter and Facebook. And don't forget that you need to buy tickets for some of our screenings, which you can do by clicking on the film of your choice at the Harbourfront website.
jph
The Caribbean Tales Film Festival is coming soon, and we're finding some great coverage around the web! Check out this recent post courtesy of Toronto blogger Bee Quammie, of the blog '83 To Infinity!
Last week, I shared the news (via Twitter and Facebook) that I was teaming up with the Caribbean Tales Film Festival here in Toronto. While the city is abuzz in September for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), I thought I should let y’all know that another festival will be making the city hot!
Let’s backtrack. Caribbean Tales is a multimedia company which was founded by wonderwoman Frances-Anne Solomon in 2001. Offshoots of the company include an educational media company, the annual film festival, and Caribbean Tales Worldwide Distribution – the first film distribution company in the English-speaking Caribbean. With bases in Barbados and Toronto, Caribbean Tales’ vision is to “contribute to an inclusive Canadian society by celebrating the rich traditions of Caribbean heritage storytelling”. Upon meeting with Frances-Anne and the Caribbean Tales team, I learned so much about the heart of the movement – which centres around the tenets of celebrating diversity, telling our own stories, and educating Caribbean filmmakers on navigating the international market.
Photo source: Stud Life Tumblr
So – let’s get to the film festival details! The festival kicks off on September 5th with a gala and film screening at Harbourfront’s Lakeside Terrace, sponsored by the Toronto Consulate General for Trinidad & Tobago. The opening film will be The Story of Lovers Rock by Menelik Shabazz, an incredible veteran Black British filmmaker. I love me some Alton Ellis and John Holt, so you know I’ll be up in that piece on the 5th! Films continue from the 10th-15th at Harbourfront’s Studio Theatre, and schedule highlights include The Batty Boy’s Revenge by Alison Duke and Stud Life by Campbell X (with a panel discussion on queer Caribbean cinema), A Day In A Bajan Life by Penny Hynam, and – wait for it – I’m Santana The Movie by Roger Alexis! If you don’t know about the hilarious Trinidadian puppet shorts featuring the one and only Santana, get thee to YouTube and get familiar!
The Caribbean Tales Film Festival isn’t just about screening the hottest and latest theatrical gems from the Caribbean – it’s also about educating Caribbean filmmakers so that they are able to tackle the international market, get their stories heard/seen, and put the region on the map as a market to contend with. We have Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood, so it’s time to get, er…Collywood (?) out there on the global film scene! In order to assist with this, the Film Festival has created two amazing initiatives. The 48-hour Film Challenge (headed by Michael Miller) puts Toronto up-and-comers to task – can you write, film, and edit a 5-minute short in 48 hours? Completed films will be screened during the film festival, so I can’t wait to see what our homegrown talent comes up with! TheCaribbean Tales Incubator is another initiative – a 3-day workshop designed to educate Caribbean filmmakers on honing business plans, creating film and television pitches, and networking with mentors to learn how to get their films sold. In the 10 days of the film festival, I really look forward to meeting all of the Caribbean talent who make their way up to Toronto – it’ll be an exciting time in the city!
Follow Caribbean Tales on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date on festival details, and hit up Harbourfront Centre for ticket purchase – but do note, there ARE free shows too!
