Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival

The Trinidad and Tobago film festival (ttff) is a film festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. It takes place annually in Trinidad and Tobago in the latter half of September, and runs for approximately two weeks. The festival screens feature-length narrative and documentary films, as well as short and experimental films.

History

The Festival has its origins in the Kairi Film Festival, a one-off event that took place over three days in November 2002 in Port of Spain. The first Trinidad and Tobago film festival took place in 2006, and was supported by the Trinidad & Tobago Film Company, a state enterprise. Films screened included Sistagod, directed by Trinidadian filmmaker Yao Ramesar, and the documentary Calypso Dreams.

In 2007 the Festival expanded to its current length, and included, for the first time, screenings outside of Port of Spain, including Tobago. The Festival opened with Trinidadian filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon's Canadian feature film A Winter Tale. One of the films shown was the Trinidad and Tobago classic Bim (1974), directed by Hugh A. Robertson. In 2008 the cable television provider Flow became the Festival's presenting sponsor, and the festival expanded further to include technical workshops, and began a partnership with the University of the West Indies. Among the festival's guests that year was the British artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien.

The 2009 Festival opened with the film Rain,[1] written and directed by Maria Govan[2] of the Bahamas. 2009 also saw the inclusion of jury prizes. Guests that year included the Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, director of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize-winning Silent Light, and Hilton Als, theatre critic for The New Yorker magazine. In 2010 the festival held a retrospective of the films of Brazil's Daniela Thomas, and entered into a partnership with the Zanzibar International Film Festival.

In 2011, the ttff, in association with sponsor RBC Royal Bank, hosted the first Focus: Filmmakers' Immersion, an intensive three-day workshop for emerging Caribbean filmmakers. The Festival opened with the Academy Award-nominated animated feature Chico & Rita, and recognised the 100th anniversary of the film industry in T&T with an exhibition, sponsored by bpTT. The Festival's first lifetime achievement award was also handed out, to musician, actor and activist Harry Belafonte, and for the first time screenings were held at the historic Little Carib Theatre.[3]

The 7th edition of the Festival to date took place in 2012.[4] Over 120 films—features and shorts—were screened, with nearly one-third of those films coming from T&T. There was a spotlight on Canadian cinema, which included several films by Caribbean-Canadian directors. The Festival’s industry section included the launch of a Caribbean Film Fund by Tribeca Film Institute and WorldView (an initiative of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association), and a presentation by the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries, ACP, on their film fund.

2012 also saw the expansion of the jury awards, which now consists of awards for local and Caribbean and diaspora films, plus films about the region by international filmmakers. The opening night film was the documentary Marley; its director, Kevin Macdonald, was in attendance.

In December the ttff screened a showcase of films at the Havana Film Festival, the largest and longest-running festival in the Caribbean. The ttff has also entered into partnership agreements with other festivals in the region: FEMI in Guadeloupe, Curaçao International Film Festival, and the Dominican Republic Global Film Festival. The ttff also has a partnership with StudioFilmClub,[5] a weekly Port of Spain cine-club, run by the artist Peter Doig.

The 2013 edition of the Festival ran from 17 September to 1 October. The opening film was Half of a Yellow Sun, a Nigerian-British co-production starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, several weeks prior to the ttff/13.[6] Over 140 films screened at the ttff/13,[7] with the jury prize for Best Narrative Feature going to Melaza, written and directed by Carlos Lechuga of Cuba.[8]

The ttff/13 also included a retrospective of some of the films of pioneering black-British filmmaker John Akomfrah,[9] while the New Media programme entered its third year, with Jamaican artist Olivia McGilchrist claiming top prize for her performance piece Native Girl [10] The Festival's industry programme, meanwhile, had as its centrepiece a three-day conference, co-hosted by UNESCO, on the development of the Caribbean film industry.

Outside of September, the ttff has a programme of free film screenings that takes place in communities across the country. The Festival also holds occasional screenings at its Port-of-Spain headquarters.

Main initiatives

Prizes

One of the main features of the festival is the awarding of prizes to the best films. Juries made up of local, regional and international film industry professionals awards prizes for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Short Film, Best Trinidad and Tobago Feature and Best Trinidad and Tobago Short, among other prizes. Each award comes with a cash prize. In addition, there are audience awards for Best Dramatic Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Short Film.

References

  1. 1. Moore, Gillian (21 September 2009), "Future looks good for Caribbean film", Trinidad Guardian, retrieved 28 June 2010
  2. Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2009 - Interview.
  3. 2. Schapiro, Joshua (October 2011), "Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival: Keep Calm and Watch Films", Sight & Sound magazine, retrieved 7 February 2011.
  4. 3. Levine, Sydney (October 2012), "Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival 2012 Has Wrapped!", "Indiewire", retrieved 2 April 2013.
  5. 4. Doig, Peter (March 2008), “Life in Film: Peter Doig” Frieze magazine, retrieved 29 June 2010.
  6. 4. Mango, Augustin (31 July 2013), "'Half of a Yellow Sun' to Open Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival", The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved 11 November 2013.
  7. 5. Abraham, Anthony (3 September 2013), "Lineup Announced for 2013 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival", The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved 11 November 2013.
  8. 6. Galloway, Stephen (30 September 2013), "Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival Crowns 'Melaza' as Best Feature", The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved 11 November 2013.
  9. 7. Lee, Simon (7 October 2013), "Filmmaker who is shaking the centre", The Trinidad Guardian, retrieved 11 November 2013
  10. 8. Wissot, Lauren (8 October 2013), "Arthouse in the Caribbean: The Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival 2013", Filmmaker, retrieved 11 November 2013.

External links

The official ttff website

The Trinidad & Tobago Film Company