“Creating a stimulating platform that brings together filmmakers, scholars and the public in order to encourage crucial dialogue regarding Palestine’s film industry, its culture and its politics.”
The London Palestine Film Festival (Lpff) 2019 will run in London from 15 to 30 November, in partnership with The Barbican, Curzon Soho, Institute Of Contemporary Arts (Ica), The Rio, The Tabernacle, Soas and P21 Gallery.
The Festival is proud to open its 2019 edition with the long-awaited, and now Cannes Awarded ‘Special Mention’, film “It Must Be Heaven”, by the honourable filmmaker, Elia Suleiman. The film was also selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Full Programme
It Must Be Heaven
Opening Night:
It Must Be Heaven (2019 l Elia Suleiman l 97’)
Lpff 2019 is proud to open with this long-awaited film from director Elia Suleiman.
Friday 15th November – Barbican @ 8:45pm
Family Affairs: Drama Shorts from Palestine...
The London Palestine Film Festival (Lpff) 2019 will run in London from 15 to 30 November, in partnership with The Barbican, Curzon Soho, Institute Of Contemporary Arts (Ica), The Rio, The Tabernacle, Soas and P21 Gallery.
The Festival is proud to open its 2019 edition with the long-awaited, and now Cannes Awarded ‘Special Mention’, film “It Must Be Heaven”, by the honourable filmmaker, Elia Suleiman. The film was also selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Full Programme
It Must Be Heaven
Opening Night:
It Must Be Heaven (2019 l Elia Suleiman l 97’)
Lpff 2019 is proud to open with this long-awaited film from director Elia Suleiman.
Friday 15th November – Barbican @ 8:45pm
Family Affairs: Drama Shorts from Palestine...
- 11/9/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The Toronto Film Festival has revealed its annual list of top ten Canadian films. Compiled by Tiff’s team of programmers in collaboration with Canadian critics, the ‘Canada’s Top Ten’ list includes Tiff titles Freaks, which scored a significant deal with Well Go, and Giant Little Ones. Scroll down for the full list.
The feature list was curated by Cameron Bailey, Kerri Craddock, Steve Gravestock, Danis Goulet, Ming-Jenn Lim, and Kathleen Drumm, in collaboration with the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Association Québécoise des Critiques de Cinéma.
“Tiff is thrilled to present its uniquely Canadian list that offers a richness of voices, perspectives, and insights into adolescent identity,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of Tiff. “These films expertly examine heritage, family, the fragility of friendships, and the importance of challenging the current state of our world, and are testament to the fact that our Canadian filmmakers...
The feature list was curated by Cameron Bailey, Kerri Craddock, Steve Gravestock, Danis Goulet, Ming-Jenn Lim, and Kathleen Drumm, in collaboration with the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Association Québécoise des Critiques de Cinéma.
“Tiff is thrilled to present its uniquely Canadian list that offers a richness of voices, perspectives, and insights into adolescent identity,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of Tiff. “These films expertly examine heritage, family, the fragility of friendships, and the importance of challenging the current state of our world, and are testament to the fact that our Canadian filmmakers...
- 12/5/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Youth-focused Berlinale sidebar will feature 65 short and feature films from from 39 production and co-production companies.
Source: Berlin Film Festival
‘303’
The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb)has revealed the full list of titles that will play in this year’s Generation sidebar, which focuses on youth and children’s films.
In total there are 65 films, 30 of which are feature length in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions. They hail from 39 production and co-production companies.
The first batch of Generation titles were announced in December.
Hans Weingartner’s 303 will open The Generation 14plus competition, with Weingartner and the cast attending. Danish animation Den Utrolige Historie Om Den Kæmpestore Pære (The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear) will open the Generation Kplus competition.
Maryanne Redpath, Berlinale Generation section head, said: “Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about...
Source: Berlin Film Festival
‘303’
The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb)has revealed the full list of titles that will play in this year’s Generation sidebar, which focuses on youth and children’s films.
In total there are 65 films, 30 of which are feature length in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions. They hail from 39 production and co-production companies.
The first batch of Generation titles were announced in December.
Hans Weingartner’s 303 will open The Generation 14plus competition, with Weingartner and the cast attending. Danish animation Den Utrolige Historie Om Den Kæmpestore Pære (The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear) will open the Generation Kplus competition.
Maryanne Redpath, Berlinale Generation section head, said: “Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about...
- 1/17/2018
- by Jasper Hart
- ScreenDaily
Youth-focused Berlinale sidebar will feature 65 short and feature films from from 39 production and co-production companies.
Source: Berlin Film Festival
‘303’
The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb)has revealed the full list of titles that will play in this year’s Generations sidebar, which focuses on youth and children’s films.
In total there are 65 films, 30 of which are feature length. They hail from 39 production and co-production companies.
The first batch of Generations titles were announced in December.
Hans Weingartner’s 303 will open The Generation 14plus competition, with Weingartner and the cast attending. Danish animation Den Utrolige Historie Om Den Kæmpestore Pære (The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear) will open the Generation Kplus competition.
Maryanne Redpath, Berlinale Generations section head, said: “Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about them. An impressive characteristic throughout the programme is not only the...
Source: Berlin Film Festival
‘303’
The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb)has revealed the full list of titles that will play in this year’s Generations sidebar, which focuses on youth and children’s films.
In total there are 65 films, 30 of which are feature length. They hail from 39 production and co-production companies.
The first batch of Generations titles were announced in December.
Hans Weingartner’s 303 will open The Generation 14plus competition, with Weingartner and the cast attending. Danish animation Den Utrolige Historie Om Den Kæmpestore Pære (The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear) will open the Generation Kplus competition.
Maryanne Redpath, Berlinale Generations section head, said: “Every single selection is an invitation to the audience to experience life from the perspective of youth. They are films with young people, as opposed to about them. An impressive characteristic throughout the programme is not only the...
- 1/17/2018
- by Jasper Hart
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival has completed its selection for this year's Generation sidebar of kids and youth films.
Berlin on Wednesday added a handful of new world premieres and a trio of European premieres to the Generation lineup, with titles including Maria Solrun's Icelandic drama Adam, Iranian features Dressage from director Pooya Badkoobeh and Abbas Amini's Hendi & Hormoz, as well as Fortuna, a Swiss feature from director Germinal Roaux, getting their first festival screening at the Berlinale.
What Walaa Wants, a documentary from Canada's Christy Garland, which looks at the fate of the daughter of a Palestinian woman accused...
Berlin on Wednesday added a handful of new world premieres and a trio of European premieres to the Generation lineup, with titles including Maria Solrun's Icelandic drama Adam, Iranian features Dressage from director Pooya Badkoobeh and Abbas Amini's Hendi & Hormoz, as well as Fortuna, a Swiss feature from director Germinal Roaux, getting their first festival screening at the Berlinale.
What Walaa Wants, a documentary from Canada's Christy Garland, which looks at the fate of the daughter of a Palestinian woman accused...
- 1/17/2018
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance sales slate includes Word Documentary Competition selection Of Fathers And Sons.
Source: Autlook Filmsales
Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales has brought on former Visit Films executive Ania Trzebiatowska as it eyes North American expansion and heads to Sundance with three new titles.
New York-based Trzebiatowska joins as sales and acquisitions executive covering North America, Australia and New Zealand, and will act as both sales agent and producers rep as Autlook seeks to represent more Us titles and act as a conduit for international co-productions.
The Park City sales slate includes Sundance Word Documentary Competition selection Of Fathers And Sons, an Islamic Caliphate story by Return To Homs director Talal Derki that Autlook jointly represents with UTA Independent Film Group.
Rounding out the roster are: What Walaa Wants by Christy Garland, which is in post and follows a Palestinian girl for six years as she trains to become part of the Palestinian Security Forces; and Everybody Loves Madeline by [link=nm...
Source: Autlook Filmsales
Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales has brought on former Visit Films executive Ania Trzebiatowska as it eyes North American expansion and heads to Sundance with three new titles.
New York-based Trzebiatowska joins as sales and acquisitions executive covering North America, Australia and New Zealand, and will act as both sales agent and producers rep as Autlook seeks to represent more Us titles and act as a conduit for international co-productions.
The Park City sales slate includes Sundance Word Documentary Competition selection Of Fathers And Sons, an Islamic Caliphate story by Return To Homs director Talal Derki that Autlook jointly represents with UTA Independent Film Group.
Rounding out the roster are: What Walaa Wants by Christy Garland, which is in post and follows a Palestinian girl for six years as she trains to become part of the Palestinian Security Forces; and Everybody Loves Madeline by [link=nm...
- 1/15/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Feature, documentary, Vr, TV projects set for Venice industry strand.
Venice Film Festival industry strand Venice Production Bridge has confirmed the 47 projects that will take part in this year’s edition of the Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3).
Now in its fourth year, the market will welcome 25 feature film and documentary projects, 15 virtual reality, interactive, web and TV projects, as well as seven Vr projects from previous editions of the talent development lab Biennale College, which are in various stages of development and production.
The teams behind each project will take part in one-ot-one meetings with producers, financiers, distributors, sales agents and further industry attending the Production Bridge.
Full list of projects:
Fiction features (Europe)
All The Pretty Little Horses dir. Michalis Konstantatos (Greece, Germany, Netherlands), Horsefly Productions
Bodyguard Of Lies dir. Charles Matthau (Spain, United States), Babieka Films
Brighton 4 dir. Levan Koguashvili (Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece), Kino Iberica
Cook, Fuck, Kill dir. Mira Fornay (Czech...
Venice Film Festival industry strand Venice Production Bridge has confirmed the 47 projects that will take part in this year’s edition of the Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3).
Now in its fourth year, the market will welcome 25 feature film and documentary projects, 15 virtual reality, interactive, web and TV projects, as well as seven Vr projects from previous editions of the talent development lab Biennale College, which are in various stages of development and production.
The teams behind each project will take part in one-ot-one meetings with producers, financiers, distributors, sales agents and further industry attending the Production Bridge.
Full list of projects:
Fiction features (Europe)
All The Pretty Little Horses dir. Michalis Konstantatos (Greece, Germany, Netherlands), Horsefly Productions
Bodyguard Of Lies dir. Charles Matthau (Spain, United States), Babieka Films
Brighton 4 dir. Levan Koguashvili (Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece), Kino Iberica
Cook, Fuck, Kill dir. Mira Fornay (Czech...
- 7/14/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
New York City’s annual Doc NYC festival kicks off this week, including a full-to-bursting slate of some of this year’s most remarkable documentaries. If you’ve been looking to beef up on your documentary consumption, Doc NYC is the perfect chance to check out a wide variety of some of the year’s best fact-based features.
Ahead, we pick out 13 of our most anticipated films from the fest, including some awards contenders, a handful of buzzy debuts and a number of festival favorites. Take a look and start filling up your schedule now.
“Cameraperson”
Kirsten Johnson’s “visual memoir” has already completed a starry trot around the festival circuit, kicking off with a lauded debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but it still demands to be seen by a wider audience. Johnson made her bones as a cinematographer on a number of well-known (and well-loved) documentaries,...
Ahead, we pick out 13 of our most anticipated films from the fest, including some awards contenders, a handful of buzzy debuts and a number of festival favorites. Take a look and start filling up your schedule now.
“Cameraperson”
Kirsten Johnson’s “visual memoir” has already completed a starry trot around the festival circuit, kicking off with a lauded debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but it still demands to be seen by a wider audience. Johnson made her bones as a cinematographer on a number of well-known (and well-loved) documentaries,...
- 11/9/2016
- by Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, Chris O'Falt, Steve Greene and Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Plus: beIN Network to launch Dreamworks channel in Middle East, North Africa; and more…
A fully restored 30-minute film of The Beatles’ famous Shea Stadium concert on August 15 1965 will accompany the theatrical release of Ron Howard’s authorised documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years.
Apple Corps Ltd., White Horse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment produced the documentary, which Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama will release theatrically on September 15, and unveiled a new trailer this week.
The film marks the first acquisition for presenting partner Hulu’s Hulu Documentary Films arm, which begins exclusive streaming on September 17. However the bonus concert documentary will only appear in theatres.
Studiocanal and PolyGram Entertainment are anchor partners on the film and hold rights in the UK, France, Germany and Australia and New Zealand rights.
Sports broadcaster beIN Network has taken another stride into entertainment after buying Miramax earlier this year and has struck a deal to launch a...
A fully restored 30-minute film of The Beatles’ famous Shea Stadium concert on August 15 1965 will accompany the theatrical release of Ron Howard’s authorised documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years.
Apple Corps Ltd., White Horse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment produced the documentary, which Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama will release theatrically on September 15, and unveiled a new trailer this week.
The film marks the first acquisition for presenting partner Hulu’s Hulu Documentary Films arm, which begins exclusive streaming on September 17. However the bonus concert documentary will only appear in theatres.
Studiocanal and PolyGram Entertainment are anchor partners on the film and hold rights in the UK, France, Germany and Australia and New Zealand rights.
Sports broadcaster beIN Network has taken another stride into entertainment after buying Miramax earlier this year and has struck a deal to launch a...
- 7/28/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Wendy Mitchell talks to four Finish producers headed to Edinburgh, which is hosting a territory focus on the Scandinavian territory this year.
As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.
Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.
Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution
Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...
As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.
Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.
Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution
Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...
- 6/16/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Wendy Mitchell talks to four Finish producers headed to Edinburgh, which is hosting a territory focus on the Scandinavian territory this year.
As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.
Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.
Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution
Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...
As part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Finnish focus, four Finnish producers are headed to the festival for meetings and a panel discussion. The wider delegation also includes the filmmakers who have their current films screening in the focus.
Screen caught up with the producers about their new projects during a visit to Helsinki in May.
Helena Mielonen, Bufo Films and B-Plan Distribution
Mielonen runs the marketing department of Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari’s production...
- 6/16/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Netflix to launch Us-Danish documentary Knox in autumn; Screen speaks to key doc companies about their lineups.
The Danish documentary world has been going from strength to strength – and not just Joshua Oppenheimer’s Danish productions The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.
Screen spoke to three of Denmark’s most prominent documentary production companies last week in Copenhagen, to talk about their slates, which include a new Netflix title with exclusive access to Amanda Knox, two Syrian documentaries, and a Tribeca premiere about insects as a sustainable food source.
All the companies said Danish documentaries were booming thanks in part to generous support systems from the Danish Film Institute, which has specialist documentary funding consultants, to help them create such a range of work now.
As Signe Byrge Sorensen of Final Cut For Real says: “There is a long tradition here for documentary, and its also very diverse. People do all...
The Danish documentary world has been going from strength to strength – and not just Joshua Oppenheimer’s Danish productions The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.
Screen spoke to three of Denmark’s most prominent documentary production companies last week in Copenhagen, to talk about their slates, which include a new Netflix title with exclusive access to Amanda Knox, two Syrian documentaries, and a Tribeca premiere about insects as a sustainable food source.
All the companies said Danish documentaries were booming thanks in part to generous support systems from the Danish Film Institute, which has specialist documentary funding consultants, to help them create such a range of work now.
As Signe Byrge Sorensen of Final Cut For Real says: “There is a long tradition here for documentary, and its also very diverse. People do all...
- 4/13/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
35 projects will be presented to 70 potential partners.
The 11th edition of Dok Leipzig’s Co-Production Meeting (October 26-27) will have a focus on Nordic documentary projects.
The selected Nordic projects include:
Napafilms’ Boys Who Like Girls and Kinocompany’s The Unforgiven (both Finland)Vilda Bomben Film’s Become The Media and Gründer Film’s The Filmdubber in Dar es Salaam (both Sweden)Piraya Film’s Kamera Haram (Norway)Hansen og Pedersen’s Mercedes Man (Denmark, in co-production with Germany)
In total, 35 projects – from the USA to Vietnam - will be presented over the two days to around 70 potential partners, including co-producers, broadcasters, sales agents, distributors, and funders.
Saxonia Entertainment, whose credits include Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline and Alexander Gentelev’s Putin’s Games, will be pitching the German-Russian documentary portrait Nemtsov, while Aheste Film and Les Films d’Antoine will be in Leipzig with the Turkish project Mr. Gay Syria and Kabul-based Afghanistan DocHouse will be looking...
The 11th edition of Dok Leipzig’s Co-Production Meeting (October 26-27) will have a focus on Nordic documentary projects.
The selected Nordic projects include:
Napafilms’ Boys Who Like Girls and Kinocompany’s The Unforgiven (both Finland)Vilda Bomben Film’s Become The Media and Gründer Film’s The Filmdubber in Dar es Salaam (both Sweden)Piraya Film’s Kamera Haram (Norway)Hansen og Pedersen’s Mercedes Man (Denmark, in co-production with Germany)
In total, 35 projects – from the USA to Vietnam - will be presented over the two days to around 70 potential partners, including co-producers, broadcasters, sales agents, distributors, and funders.
Saxonia Entertainment, whose credits include Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline and Alexander Gentelev’s Putin’s Games, will be pitching the German-Russian documentary portrait Nemtsov, while Aheste Film and Les Films d’Antoine will be in Leipzig with the Turkish project Mr. Gay Syria and Kabul-based Afghanistan DocHouse will be looking...
- 10/6/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
It’s been a surprisingly interesting month of moving and shaking in terms of doc development. Just a month after making his first public funding pitch at Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, legendary doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman took to Kickstarter to help cover the remaining expenses for his 40th feature film In Jackson Heights (see the film’s first trailer below). Unrelentingly rigorous in his determination to capture the American institutional landscape on film, his latest continues down this thematic rabbit hole, taking on the immensely diverse New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights as his latest subject. According to the Kickstarter page, Wiseman is currently editing the 120 hours of rushes he shot with hopes of having the film ready for a fall festival premiere (my guess would be Tiff, where both National Gallery and At Berkeley made their North American debut), though he’s currently quite a ways away from his $75,000 goal.
- 7/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.
- 6/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...
- 5/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Films include a collaboration between Sing Sing prison inmates and a leading contemporary dance company from Turner Prize nominated visual artist Phil Collins.
Scroll down for full list of projects
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10) has revealed the titles that will pitch for funding at its MeetMarket initiative, celebrating 10 years in 2015.
A total of 64 filmmaker teams from 19 countries will pitch to international and UK decision makers for research, development and production funding
At Crossover Market, which includes digital titles, a further 26 interactive projects from 12 countries will pitch in one-to-one meetings to a range of specialist decision makers.
Among the Crossover projects being pitched are the latest from Oscar Raby who won last year’s Interactive Audience Award with Assent; and Ram Devineni who attracted funding at last year’s Crossover Market and Tribeca New Media Fund for Priya’s Shakti.
New pitch opportunities this year include a BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Stories commission for young filmmakers, the Guardian...
Scroll down for full list of projects
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10) has revealed the titles that will pitch for funding at its MeetMarket initiative, celebrating 10 years in 2015.
A total of 64 filmmaker teams from 19 countries will pitch to international and UK decision makers for research, development and production funding
At Crossover Market, which includes digital titles, a further 26 interactive projects from 12 countries will pitch in one-to-one meetings to a range of specialist decision makers.
Among the Crossover projects being pitched are the latest from Oscar Raby who won last year’s Interactive Audience Award with Assent; and Ram Devineni who attracted funding at last year’s Crossover Market and Tribeca New Media Fund for Priya’s Shakti.
New pitch opportunities this year include a BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Stories commission for young filmmakers, the Guardian...
- 4/27/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Currently screening at the Royal Cinema in Toronto since last Friday is Christy Garland’s documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, which revolves around a family from Georgetown, Guyana in South America. The family’s matriarch, 75-year old Mary, is an alcoholic in denial. She’s also a talented poet who once set out to write a book of poems. The documentary takes its time to reveal what has caused Mary to become dependent on alcohol. One can assume is perhaps out of boredom, or because of her forgone dream of becoming a published author. After all, Mary has a loving family, which includes three other daughters and several grandchildren. Why couldn’t she...
- 1/24/2013
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Recapping... From Toronto-based art house, world cinema, independent feature films and documentaries distribution company, College Street Pictures, comes a documentary we first profiled in May of 2012, when it was scheduled to screen at the Shefflied Doc/Fest. College Street will open Christy Garland's intriguing-looking documentary, The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, in Toronto, today, Friday, the 18th, at the Royal Cinema. The feature doc's synopsis reads: Georgetown, Guyana, South America. Muscle is juggling a lot of balls. He has his eye fixed firmly on the middle class, hoping to pull his extended family up with him. In the...
- 1/18/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
From Toronto-based art house, world cinema, independent feature films and documentaries distribution company, College Street Pictures, comes a documentary we profiled in May of 2012, when it was scheduled to screen at the Shefflied Doc/Fest. College Street will open Christy Garland's intriguing-looking documentary, The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, in Toronto, this Friday, the 18th, at the Royal Cinema. The feature doc's synopsis reads: Georgetown, Guyana, South America. Muscle is juggling a lot of balls. He has his eye fixed firmly on the middle class, hoping to pull his extended family up with him. In the meantime, his birds need...
- 1/16/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Trinidad & Tobago is a very small country filled with every race, as varied as the innumerable species of rice. "One quality we all share as humans is we are all different from each other," to quote Dylan Kerrigan. T&T seems like a microcosm of the world today at its best. I know I am not seeing the daily or the political problems the people must cope with in their lives, but I do have the privilege not to be a tourist but a participant in trinidad + tobago film festival, a seven year old event. Film, one of the seven new industries this oil-rich republic has designated for development, is vibrant and alive here. This country is not only a tropical paradise with its beaches and its forests, its music and its people of indescribable beauty, but its intelligence -- made of Amerindian, African, East Indian, Asian, Arabic, Spanish, French, British and American traditions as translated by the new generation -- is unique. The new and well-educated generation, as we all know, has a special edge over the old and the mainstream. What do I mean with these flaunting words?
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
- 10/3/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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