Mas Man, A Film About Trinidadian Peter Minshall, Excites Festival Audiences In Trinidad, London
MIAMI – It won Best Documentary Award at the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival in October and received critical acclaim in London in November. On Sunday, Dec 13, and Tuesday, Dec. 15, Mas Man, the new film by Dalton Narine about Peter Minshall, Trinidad Carnival artist, will test its mettle at the prestigious Bahamas International Film Festival in Nassau.
Minshall, the mas man, has been mingling traditional Carnival elements with novel ideas and selling the hybrid designs in his hometown as upper-crust art for 30 years. Having authored the controversial term , “mas,” a spinoff of masquerade, he has distinguished presentations at Trinidad’s Carnival with themes about the complexities of life and the incompleteness of man on the way to exalting his art as director of the opening ceremonies at three Olympic Games.
Such a bold move has influenced global awareness of Trinidad and Tobago’s principal cultural export, many of the top designers opting to take the Carnival back to its ancient rite of Bacchanalia. But not Minshall. His themes are principally about good and evil, ranging from Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to “The Sacred Heart.”
Luis Camnitzer, a New York artist/art critic, credits Minshall for blending popular art with high art.
Sherry-Ann Coelho wins Queen of the Bands, portraying Marilyn Monroe as “Fly, Fly Sweet Life,” from the 1982 Peter Minshall Carnival band, “Papillon.”
Photo Courtesy of Callaloo Co.
“Minshall pushed the mas into this other sphere,” Camnitzer says, “and made it alive by combining it with tradition, a major cultural achievement. It’s a tightrope that he walks.”
The film was produced and directed by Dalton Narine, a former editor at The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and The Miami Herald.
“There are so many textures to Peter Minshall’s Carnival art,” Narine says, “they all tie into a story line that essentially captures his muse, flair for costumery, as well as the enigma of a man whose main job seems to open confrontation between the good and the bad against the backdrop of the celebrations.”
As such, Minshall’s calling, Narine says, “is to awaken themes about modern humanity that not only display a curious slant in art but also inform audiences that are privileged to discern his work.”
The film examines Minshall’s life and art, a tapestry woven from multiple threads that include his “masography” coursing through 26 years; his design and stage acumen (documented in the 2006 presentation “The Sacred Heart”); his contribution to the Olympic Games; the Carnival stage (the Mas) in Trinidad preparing him for the world stage (the Olympics); and his set pieces of political protest and entertainment provoking parallel emotions in major North American, European and Asian cities.
Dalton Narine
Narine, who grew up in Trinidad and resides in Miami, plans to screen the film at selected locations in South and Central Florida. DVDs will be sold at the sites, which will be announced after scheduling is completed.
Peter Minshall’s first band as a designer, “Paradise Lost,” turns heads in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on its way to the Band of the Year title in 1976 for bandleaders Stephen and Elsie Lee Heung.
Photo Courtesy of Callaloo Co.
View trailer
www.sflcn.com/multimedia.php?id=_-bL-n0i0Nk
