The Caribbean Travelling Film Showcase second chapter

The Caribbean Travelling Film Showcase will soon launch its second chapter. The good news is that this time the showcase will not only reach island states but also those mainland countries bordering the Caribbean basin. This year's edition is dedicated to children. As Juan Jose Ortiz, UNICEF representative in Havana, put it "the initiative should encourage children to focus on an audiovisual culture that has nothing to do with the violence codes of cultural imperialism". The Cuban Cinema Institute, UNICEF and UNESCO sponsor the Caribbean Travelling Film Showcase. Last year 23 regional countries hosted the showcase, which also was screened at Hollywood's American Cinematheque. Filmmakers, producers, exhibitors, academics and regional cultural authorities comment next on the importance of the showcase. Bruce Paddington, Professor at West Indies University, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago said: This is a unique Pan Caribbean experience. It is a very ambitious project enabling almost the entire region to view the best contemporary Caribbean films as well as selected classics. Film is such a powerful art form as it provides a mirror to the region allowing us to recognize our similarities and differences. The Caribbean has never been seen as a region with developed technology and the screening of such technically excellent films will help to counter this image. The region has also been defined as stereotyped by foreign productions and the screenings of films produced by Caribbean filmmakers will demonstrate the ability of its talented filmmakers to tell the Caribbean stories drawn from its rich culture. The individual countries in the region are mainly unaware of the way of life and unique cultures of their neighbors, especially if there are language barriers. The Caribbean Travelling Film Showcase will help to break down these barriers and demonstrate that all the countries in the region draw from a common historical heritage and cultural experience despite their individual differences. We need to educate governments, the business sector, cinema owners and the general public about the availability of Caribbean films and their importance to national and regional development. The education must start in the schools and continue to tertiary level. There is also the need for more national film festivals and a major publicity campaign. Norman de Palm, Producer, Scriptwriter and Exhibitor from Curacao stated: It's long overdue for this region, to know and appreciate its history, its stories, its imagery, its soul. We know more about American culture than about our own. That's a shame, since we have such a rich, layered culture. It's also a start to connect with other Caribbean nations, comparing and identifying with each other. We should celebrate our differences and similarities. We should seduce the main stream movie owners and distributors on each Caribbean island them, force them, convince them to appoint at least own screen in their duplexes for the showing of the Caribbean film productions. Distributors, movie house owners, business at large and the government should also invest monies in producing new Caribbean film. I'm convinced that with more money the quality of the Caribbean films will increase. We are diverse and unique. But there are also lots of similarities. That is part and parcel of our identity. We each have a different identity and that makes us unique. I am certain that we have more in common than differences. There should be government involvement in presenting and promoting the films because they concern our Caribbean identity and define us as a Caribbean nation. It should become a must see and must have been there event. All school children should be allowed to go and visit the film, preferably with an introduction and education material to give them to go home with. The media should be fully involved in the promotion. They should cover it from beginning till the end. Radio, television, newspaper, billboards the whole thing. Angela Patterson. Chief Executive Officer, Creative Productions & Training Centre Ltd. Jamaica expressed: A Caribbean Film Showcase is very important as a way of unifying the region, which still tends to focus on our differences. A travelling showcase will lessen the distances and bring the majority closer to each other as many persons do not get to travel to the other islands. Like reggae music which took many years to be included as a Grammy category and only happened when not only Jamaicans in the Diaspora but lovers of reggae music the world over clamored for it, the travelling showcase will begin to build that ground sell of demand and appreciation so that Caribbean film will eventually take its place in the world centers. Unlike reggae however which is so unique, there needs to be a Caribbean-style of film production. Exposure of each others work will help to develop a sense of style of technique, which will make our work recognizable on the world, stage. It would be the exposure to what our Caribbean family is doing in this area - the themes, the stories, the styles, the experiments - so that we begin to first of all produce more recognizing that there is economic benefit, and that we begin to clamor for our voices and our films to be seen and heard. And like any event it must be promoted widely and consistently so that the public can know it exists so they can support it.

Cubarte News News posted on 5/13/2008 12:03:09 PM

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