PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) will celebrate its fourth anniversary Sept. 16-29, 2009, by inviting filmmakers from across the Caribbean Basin to submit their films for screening at the biggest film festival in the English-speaking Caribbean. Selected films will be shown at the popular MovieTowne in Port of Spain, as well as other venues throughout the country.
The festival has drawn keen interest from the twin-island’s Tourism Development Company, which deems the two-week Festival and associated workshops a national cultural event.
TTFF originated as a forum for showing films by filmmakers in the region but has broadened its scope to accommodate work by Caribbean producers and directors in the Diaspora and international filmmakers whose movies exude a Caribbean spirit. Moreover, by reflecting Trinidad and Tobago’s multi-ethnic cultures, the submission criteria will admit films from (and about) Latin America, India and Africa.
“We share a historical trajectory with these regions, though we speak different languages” says Marina Salandy-Brown, executive director of the festival. “So we have unique stories to tell. We’re taking advantage of the diversity of cultures.”
Salandy-Brown notes the importance of raising standards and exchanging ideas. For example, the best feature film audiences judged in 2008 was by a producer from Montserrat. The film was about black Britons. Nineteen international filmmakers not only submitted screeners but also engaged in workshops from cinematography to scriptwriting.
Your own film could be about Caribbean people in the Diaspora and how they deal with life in their locality, and it could qualify for the Jury Prize for Best Film or a People’s Choice Award.
Submission of shorts, feature films or documentaries is free and due by April 30. Trinidad and Tobago’s FLOW TV provides a further incentive bonus. Films selected by the cable provider will be shown on pay-per-view in October and November 2009, and producers will receive all pay-per-view fees charged to subscribers for their film.
For more information about the Festival, including submission criteria, e-mail [email protected], or call 1-868-621-0709.
Submit on line at www.withoutabox.com -Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival
