Savant Media

30/07/2024

In director Mariel Brown's role as a co-founder of the regional body and as an advocate for the development of the Caribbean screen industries, she recently had the good fortune of participating in a industry development think tank organised by Themba Bhebhe and Chloe Walters Wallace of
The event brought together key Caribbean and diaspora players and provided a forum for ideation and imagining. There is much work to be done, but there is also great energy coalescing around our industry. We're looking forward to what comes next!

22/07/2024

📍❗️NEW WEBSITE ALERT! Folks, after being attacked by 358,000 bots (yup, not an exaggeration) and deleting the old SAVANT website, I'm delighted to share the brand-spanking new, fully updated website with everyone!

👉 Do check it out: http://savantmedia.tv

16/04/2024

We're saddened to learn of the death of Retired Major General Ralph Brown. In 1990, Brown was the Chief of the Defence Staff and he sounded the alarm when, during a football match at the stadium, he noticed smoke billowing out of downtown in the early hours of the attempted coup; he mustered the soldiers in attendance and they headed to Camp Ogden, where, 'He was instrumental in negotiations with insurgents of the Jamaat al Muslimeen which led to their surrender on August 1.' (Newsday)
We are honoured to have been able to do an in-depth interview with him for our documentary, 'Six days in 1990'. During the interview he shared his experiences openly. According to the Guardian, 'Brown never forgave Abu Bakr for that dark moment in T&T’s history...'

05/01/2024

Welcome 2024 and exciting times for '1990'! -

01/01/2024

Watch the full series, 'Inward Hunger: the story of Eric Williams' here: 📺 👉 https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products
Inward Hunger: the story of Eric Williams is a pioneering documentary series that reveals Eric Williams in unprecedented breadth and depth, in the context of the world that shaped him, the forces to which he at times succumbed, and those he fought to change.
📺 Episode 1, Great Expectations, follows Williams from his birth in the British West Indies in 1911 to his dramatic entry into politics in 1955 as he “Let down his bucket” in Woodford Square, Trinidad.

📺 Episode 2, Movement of the People, begins with the emergence of Williams and the PNM as a political force, and the roller-coaster of events that formed part of the West Indies’s struggle for independence, which came to a head for Trinidad and Tobago in 1962.

📺 Episode 3, Power, covers Williams’ public and private life as the leader of a young nation full of expectations, divisions and upheavals, leading up to the dramatic circumstances surrounding his death.

01/01/2024

https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products
Watch the full series, 'Inward Hunger: the story of Eric Williams' here:
📺 👉 https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products
Inward Hunger: the story of Eric Williams is a pioneering documentary series that reveals Eric Williams in unprecedented breadth and depth, in the context of the world that shaped him, the forces to which he at times succumbed, and those he fought to change.
📺 Episode 1, Great Expectations, follows Williams from his birth in the British West Indies in 1911 to his dramatic entry into politics in 1955 as he “Let down his bucket” in Woodford Square, Trinidad.
📺 Episode 2, Movement of the People, begins with the emergence of Williams and the PNM as a political force, and the roller-coaster of events that formed part of the West Indies’s struggle for independence, which came to a head for Trinidad and Tobago in 1962.
📺 Episode 3, Power, covers Williams’ public and private life as the leader of a young nation full of expectations, divisions and upheavals, leading up to the dramatic circumstances surrounding his death.

SAVANT Media is a creative ideation and production company that is working to redress the dearth of Caribbean and Diaspora-focused films and television programmes. Our mission is to provide a nuanced face and a voice to a complex region which, too often, is reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes. Ou...

29/12/2023

By 2010 I was wanting to sink my teeth into a meaty, more complex story. In a conversation before his death, my father had described Eric Williams as a tragic figure. It was an unexpected portrayal, and I realised I'd never truly considered Williams the man, not beyond established mythologies of him as the 'father of the nation' etc.
The 100th anniversary of Williams' birth was coming up, so I developed a series around the core idea of going beneath the myth to discover who Williams was. Looking back, I'm not sure where I got the courage to explore such a challenging and famous person! I was lucky that became the series funder and the brilliant Alake Pilgrim wrote the script.
📺 👉Watch the full series here: https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products
“The film gives new insights into William’s personality omitted from his own autobiography, Inward Hunger, and historical studies. His daughter Erica speaks of the warm, humorous and affectionate father Williams himself may have felt too insecure to reveal in public. Totally disregardful of self, and fearing any appearance of weakness, in his last sudden and fatal illness Williams refused all offer of medical help, or the solace of company, and the day after his death was found dead under an African robe in his study. More effectively than could a printed text, the multiple voices of Mariel Brown’s film present a complex, moving portrait of both Williams and the nation he did so much to create.”- Louis James (Wasafiri, 2013)
Inward Hunger features interviews with Professors Bridget Brereton, Selwyn Ryan, Rhoda Reddock, Ken Boodhoo, Colin Palmer, Pat Mohammed, Brinsley Samaroo; family members Erica Williams-Connell, Peggy and Patsy Gittens; writers Raoul Pantin and Earl Lovelace and many others.
The team:
Producer, director and editor: Mariel Brown
Writer, researcher: Alake Pilgrim
Researcher, line producer: Catherine Emmanuel
Director of photography: Sean Edghill
Composer: Francesco Emmanuel
Narrators: Nigel Scott and Albert La Veau

25/12/2023

Meet the CARIBBEAN 2023 cohort ! 🌟
Today's portrait : Mariel Brown (Savant Media, UK/Trinidad)

19/12/2023

The thing about being a documentary producer is that, outside of production, you spend a lot of time tinkering away at your project alone; it can be quite an isolating pursuit. That's why it's so important to find your community and to connect whenever you can!
In December I had the singular pleasure of attending EURODOC's week-long producer's workshop in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, along with fellow doc producers from around the Caribbean. We were hosted by the marvellous DG Cine and our primary tutor was the brilliant Ina Fichman, producer of 'Fire of Love', 'The Oslo Diaries' and so many other incredible docs! Ina and my fellow participants created an environment of genuine care for and interest in each other and all our projects. It was a safe space in which we were encouraged to challenge and learn from each other.
I left the DR with a profound sense of belonging to a community of doc producers who care about telling the stories of the Caribbean as much as I do. I will always be grateful for this remarkable experience!

Brown EURODOC Dirección General de Cine República Dominicana Intuitive Pictures Tropiques Atrium Interreg Cinuca
Twin Island Cinema Guetty Felin Gilbert Mirambeau Jr. By Klieon John Steve Zebina Thierrin Glasgow-maeda Baez

28/11/2023

I recently started working on a new project. I'm not sure what it is yet, just that it will be about artists based in the UK. Not all projects are clear from the get-go – sometimes I start as a way of willing an idea into being. This may form part of a series of films, or may be standalone; I'll let the material tell me what it wants to be once I start editing. For now, I'm just grateful to Charmaine Watkiss and Robert Macfarlane for taking this leap with me. Here we are filming in London along the Thames and at the Government Art Collection.

28/11/2023

We're glad to be a part of this new alliance of Caribbean film and tv professionals, CAFTPro. Read the full post below!

24/11/2023

Filmed over three years, in Trinidad, England and Scotland, ‘The Solitary Alchemist’ is a moving and intimate portrait of a life in art. You can watch it here 👉 https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products/the-solitary-alchemist-2009
The team:
Producer, director and editor: Mariel Brown
Director of photography: Eniola Adelekan
Second camera: Sean Edghill
Assistant producer: Catherine Emmanuel
Composer: Chantel Esdelle
Sound mix: Martin Raymond

22/11/2023

In 2006 I was hired to edit a coffee table book being produced on jeweller Barbara Jardine by Robert & Christopher Publishers. I had known of Barbie's incredible work for as long as I could remember, but working on the book gave me a kind of access to her that I'd never had before. I was drawn to her emotive work, much of which was imbued with personal meaning and stories from her life. I made the decision to start filming with her around the time we were finishing the book.
Needless to say, I didn't have a plan; no budget, no treatment, no timeline, nothing! Just a real interest in her. I brought in DoP Eniola Adelekan and we started filming. Our approach to lighting was very minimal, we locked the camera on the tripod (no pans, no tilts, no zooms) and we watched her work. We filmed with her at an exhibition in Scotland and we got permission to film in the Victoria & Albert Museum, where one of her pieces is held. It was a slow labour of love for me. Barbie and I became very close friends during the process, and I even grew accustomed to her corbeau, Grommit, flying in for love-ups and a meal from time to time!
Luckily, I was able to raise some money through the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company and the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago. It was a drop in the bucket of what it actually 'cost' to make, but that allowed me to pay for the DoP, pay for new music, sound mix, photography and poster design. Everything else I did myself. We filmed with Barbie for three years, and I spent about six months editing the film.
‘The Solitary Alchemist’ won the ttff award for best locally produced film in 2009. You can watch it here 👉 https://savantmedia.vhx.tv/products/the-solitary-alchemist-2009
The carousel photos are pulled from the soundmix, a mini rough-cut screening, the TT premiere, filming at V&A and with Barbie.
The team:
Producer, director and editor: Mariel Brown
Director of photography: Eniola Adelekan
Second camera: Sean Edghill
Assistant producer: Catherine Emmanuel
Composer: Chantel Esdelle
Sound mix: Martin Raymond

Alchemist Martin Raymond Chantal Esdelle Mariel Brown .adelekan Sean Edghill Jardine The Trinidad and Tobago FILM Company

13/11/2023

In 2005 I was exploring the idea of expanding the work the we were making at SAVANT. Initially, we did small commissioned jobs and Sancoche, but more and more, I found myself wanting to make documentaries – take a story and explore it in depth. Carnival has always been a passion of mine – not so much the fetes and limin', but the panyard practice sessions, the mas camp making and the irrepressible explosion of creativity. I had worked in Minshall's mas camps over several years in my early twenties, and I knew that the combination of personalities, crazy hours of work, creativity and pressure would make for a really entertaining and interesting TV show. So I pitched – then general manager at TV6 – Shida Bolai the idea for a six-part series, 'Makin' Mas with Brian Mac Farlane' and was THRILLED when they decided to commission the series. It was a seminal moment in my career – the first time I was commissioned by a television station to make something! My budget was modest, but I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and went for it!
Filmed in the months leading up to carnival 2006, the series was an all-access pass behind the scenes of the making of a carnival band in Trinidad and Tobago.
Making the series was PACE! We were essentially broadcasting in 'real time', so we'd shoot, edit and race to the TV station with the tapes (yes, tapes!) so the show could air that weekend. It was wild and taught me SO much about what shooting for a reality TV series must be like!
After the series finished airing, I decided to revisit all the footage to see if there was another story in there that I could extract - something that had the creation and performance of the moko jumbie carnival king at its heart. And that was my first long-form documentary, 'The Insatiable Season'.
The crew:
Producer/ director: Mariel Brown
DP: Sean Edghill
Second camera: Eniola Adelekan
Camera Assistant: Kevin Thomas
Location sound: Cedric Smart
Producer: Sophie Wight
Composer: Martin Raymond
Editors: Michael Toney and Rose Long

Mariel Brown Sean Edghill Sophie KMW Martin Raymond Ẹniọla Oriṣagbemi Adelẹkan Michael Sean Toney

09/11/2023

Recently, I've been reflecting on what it means to have been making films and television programmes in the Caribbean – as an independent producer – for the past 20 years. It's no mean feat for an industry with as high a rate of attrition as our own. So I thought I would share some favourite memories from SAVANT productions over the next few weeks.
My cooking and lifestyle series, Sancoche, was where I started my career as an independent producer. I had developed the idea in 1999, and eventually plucked up the courage to try to raise the funding and hire a proper crew to film and edit it. Gayelle TV broadcast the first episode during Easter in 2004.
SAVANT produced six seasons and 96 episodes of Sancoche. The series ran from 2004 to 2008 and was broadcast on Gayelle TV, TV6, GBN (Grenada), CBC (Barbados) and CVM (Caribbean Cable). If you'd like to watch any of our episodes, they are available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com//featured

Sancoche

22/04/2022

'It is important that, at the end of the day, as filmmakers we can say that we put everything we had into making that film at that moment. Don’t hold back. This has given me a lot of peace – knowing that I strained against the bit and did the best that I could. My next film might be better than the last, but I gave the last everything I could and will do the same for the next.' Director Mariel Brown talks about her life in film and television.

https://filmco.org/news/twelve-questions-with-mariel-brown

Mariel Brown is a documentary filmmaker and co-founder of FILMCO. In this interview, she talks about her passion for filmmaking and the challenges she has faced.

05/04/2022

06/08/2021

'“In my films and in my life, I am constantly looking to show untold stories of the Caribbean,” says Trinidadian filmmaker Mariel Brown. Her documentaries, which have won four prizes at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, provide insightful portraits of her fellow islanders. She has chronicled the life of the country’s first prime minister (Inward Hunger: The Story of Eric Williams), showcased the herculean effort behind making a Carnival band (The Insatiable Season), and explored her relationship with her late father, Wayne Brown (Unfinished Sentences), a celebrated poet, author and former contributor to Yachting.'

https://www.yachtingmagazine.com/story/cruising-and-chartering/island-icon-mariel-brown/?fbclid=IwAR2FbOLjNHCPeHGB44LQo28NgKDy9r9gRIvb0U3_iILW5dzfhjzK4Pzdgwc

Trinidad and Tobago's culture, people and history are the stars of Mariel Brown’s documentaries.

30/07/2021

Working on the poster image for Solitary Alchemist with the super-talented Ferreira was such a pleasure! Can’t believe this was twelve years ago!

27/07/2021

Today we mark the 31st anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup.

07/04/2021

If you were old enough in July 1990, this image here, of Abu Bakr flanked by gunmen on ttt, was both confusing and frightening. It was the moment we realised that something terrible had happened. And for many, it was a moment that, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, we would always remember, down to the details of where we were and what we were doing when it happened. If you feel, like I do, that this is a story that must be told and remembered, then please help me raise the money to make this documentary – 1990: before, during and after – by pledging a donation, regardless of the size, to our crowdfunding campaign. Every little bit really helps! Here's the link: https://igg.me/at/1990docseries/x #/

1990: before, during and after

16/03/2021

Hi everyone! We've just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise production funds to make "1990: Before, During and After" and would so appreciate your support! Please visit https://igg.me/at/1990docseries/x/417401 #/ to view our campaign and make a pledge if you can!
'1990: before, during and after' - by award-winning filmmaker and television producer Mariel Brown. is an in depth exploration of the 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad & Tobago.
We need all the support we can get to meet our target and cover production costs. Help us to bring this important story to our television screens.

The four-part doc series, "1990", is an in depth exploration of the 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad . | Check out '1990, documentary series' on Indiegogo.