Charles Officer CTFF Interview
Rest in Peace Legendary Filmmaker Charles Officer 🎬 who left this world too soon this December 1, 2023. We honor his life and his legacy in film 🎥
This interview was hosted by Andria Case of CTV during the 16th annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival). It includes, select cast and crew from Charles' hit Feature Film "Akilla's Escape." Learn about his life and his filmmaking in this laid back virtual interview, right from the set of The Porter titled "Fighting the Odds in Canadian Film."
#ALegend #charlesofficer #restinpeace #blackfilm #canadianfilm CaribbeanTales-TV CaribbeanTales Media Group Toronto Filmmakers Toronto International Film Festival #blackfilmmaker #canadianfilm
Watch the full interview online on CaribbeanTales-TV: https://bit.ly/Charles-Officer-Interview-CaribbeanTales-TV
#ThrowBackThursday
"There is something about the steel pan and #Caribbean Music in general that resonates with the rest of the world". - Tim Wall, Birmingham City University
We are excited to bring you back into the world of #STEELPAN with our #STEELPAN Collection on our Video-On-Demand Platform. Get in the spirit of the bright happy and upbeat music of SteelPan and stream the Collection TODAY: https://goo.gl/PYn6bD
“With all these things happening, they go unnoticed, they go unheard, because the violence against the gay community has been normalized” - Jamaican LGBTQ activist Gareth Henry
Filmmaker Reginald Campbell Jr. gives us an in-depth look at the lives of members in the Jamaican LGBTQ community in "Tolerance" streaming NOW: https://goo.gl/5y4kUY
In this documentary, we get a snapshot of the choices that members of the Jamaican LGBTQ community are forced to make to live in their truth. Here, to be gay may cost a life, literally. Nonetheless, with the injustice and hatred that the community faces there are few among them who view themselves as revolutionaries.
#CaribbeanPRIDE #PRIDE2017 #INTERSECT
"Only God can judge me; that's what i'm afraid of" - George Kazanjian
CaribbeanTales TV is streaming NOW: https://goo.gl/cb3ITw
“A Safe Space” tells the heartbreaking story of the genesis and work of The Silver Lining Foundation. The Foundation’s raison d'être stems from the untimely death by suicide of George, who was 16 year old at the time of his passing. His mother, Katherine Kazanjian, relates the ordeal and the journey to turn this tragedy into an avenue to help other young people. "A Safe Space" shows how a community must pull together in wake of loss.
How does a hardworking man admit the fact that life can't always be controlled ?
International Pride Month Streaming "Ariana" on CT-TV: https://goo.gl/FzjPEM
"Ariana" is a comedic drama which examines how a confident gay professional named Abbas copes with losing control of his home when his live-in grandmother exhibits signs of dementia, and his lover Karl becomes her caretaker.
Abbas has to come to terms with his denial, a stressful practice, his relationship, which is about to end, and the harsh reality that the loving woman who raised him no longer exists.
For International Pride month filmmakers, Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire bring us "Of Men And Gods" STREAMING NOW on CT-TV: https://goo.gl/FYGxh5, which examines the daily existence of several #Haitian men who are openly gay.
Prevalent, yet still taboo, homosexuality and gay culture are allowed to flourish within the context of Haiti's Vodou religion. As "children of the gods," the men find an explanation for homosexuality as well as divine protection. Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic looms as a continual threat and adds a disquieting degree of nihilism to their optimistic attitudes toward life and happiness in Port-au-Prince.
#CaribbeanPRIDE #PRIDE2017 #INTERSECT
June is International Pride Month we are excited to bring you LGBT Films to stream straight to your computer.
"THICK", directed by A.M. Greene and Cheryl Brown, is a tale about a burgeoning apartment complex magnate, Theresa James, who runs illegal businesses in her neighborhood for added financial gain. Feeling the aftermath of the 2010 Recession, Theresa tries to regain a foot hold in her underworld, professional and private life as her employees start to undermine her by looking for a way out of her fledgling criminal empire.
Stream "THICK" Now on CaribbeanTales TV: https://goo.gl/T1RJ8e
#CaribbeanPRIDE #PRIDE2017 #INTERSECT
Did you miss Me On My TV the reality TV show about Caribbean filmmakers on Flow1?
If so, Episode 2 - "Dynamic Duos" is streaming now on Flow-on-Demand and Caribbeantales TV: https://goo.gl/hKkOtb
Participants face the critical comments and suggestions from the mentors as they present their own projects for the first time.
If you missed Me On My TV - Episode 1 - "Sharing the Dream"on Flow1, it is now available to stream on Flow-on-Demand and on CaribbeanTales-TV: https://goo.gl/hKkOtb
We get introduced to the Incubator, the selection process, the participants and their home countries; the expectations of the participants as they undergo 6 weeks of intense preparation, and introduction to the opportunity of getting one’s pilot funded.
#ThrowBackThursday
Our Bajan Celebration Collection celebrates the 50 years of Barbados Independence. Let's continue the celebration! STREAM Caribbean Films from CTTV by Bajan creators: Rommel Hall, Annalee Davis, Jamal We, Menelik Shabazz, Penelope Hynam, Pelle Hybbinette.
Bajan Celebration Collection: https://goo.gl/l71mf3
Challenges come so we can grow and be prepared for things we are not equipped to handle now. - Iyanla Vanzant
Caribbean-Canadian mother Dawn Wilkinson brings us her feature film "Devotion". Streaming now on our video on demand platform: https://goo.gl/6BfCjq
An 11-year old bi-racial girl loses her mother in a car accident because of her father’s drunk driving. As father and daughter begin a new life, she is haunted by memories of her mother’s death and displeased with the new woman in her father’s life. This coming-of-age story seeks resolution between her identity as the child of a white mother and her reluctant forgiveness of her black father.
Black women as a group have never been fools. We couldn't afford to be. - Barbara Smith
For the month of May we are celebrating Caribbean mothers through our Mother's Day focus. Sign-up & stream "Resilience: Stories of Single Black Mothers": https://goo.gl/6BfCjq
Lisa Valencia-Svensson brings us stories about powerful #BlackWomen in her film "Resilience: Stories of Single Black Mothers". It's an intimate, richly detailed documentary that confronts long-held stereotypes by stepping inside the lives of three real women (Nancy, Simone and Gloria) in the real world.
Motherhood is such an evolving journey, and it changes everything.
Sign-up & stream Candice Lela Rolingson film "Positive And Pregnant" and journey through one woman's reality that many women experience.
When a pregnant young woman discovers she is HIV-positive, her world comes crashing down. As she exhausts her possible options, the damage caused by her own errors overshadows whatever hopes she foresees for her unborn child.
Become Aware & Help in your own way. Donate Today! http://www.walkerlelafoundation.org/
In search of my mother's garden, I found my own. - Alice Walker
A young Bahamian girl named "Rain" with no parental role model in her life, must look within herself for strength and discovers she has a gift for running. She receives guidance from her school’s track coach, Ms. Adams, but her hopes and illusions are shattered as her mother's deviant and destructive lifestyle becomes evident to her.
Sign up for a free month trial & stream "Rain" catch her stride in the only place that matters, the spiritual ground deep within her: https://goo.gl/6BfCjq
We are celebrating the bonds of motherhood for the month of May with our Mother's Day focus. Sign-up for a free month trail and STREAM "What My Mother Told Me" NOW: https://goo.gl/6BfCjq
“What the daughter does, the mother did.”- Jewish Proverb
"What My Mother Told Me" directed by our CEO Frances-Anne Solomon is unique in that it is one of the few works produced by a Trinidadian woman about the paradoxes and survival strategies of Caribbean women. Exquisitely beautiful and profoundly moving, the film is a dramatic journey towards one woman's self-discovery.
Stream "Atiba Williams: Pan Prodigy" directed by Christopher Laird on Flow-on-Demand and on CTTV at: https://goo.gl/KGkoo8
"Music builds community and acts as a form of communication. Looking back centuries ago, slaves had been stripped of their cultural identity, their names, their music, so they created new music using things they found lying around". - Tim Wall
Nine-year-old Atiba Chike Williams is the youngest person to arrange for a steel band during the Panorama competition. This film looks at a day in his life, from home, to school, to rehearsal to performance.
STREAM! "Panomundo Part 1: the Evolution of Steel Pan " directed by Charysse Tia Harper right to your computer at: https://goo.gl/KGkoo8
You'll also be able to catch "Panomundo" on Flow-on-Demand!
"It really came from the bowels of our impoverished lower classes and we are extremely proud of that". -Michelle Huggins-Watts, Trinidadian steel pan arranger.
Panomundo is a #Documentary that looks at the history of the steelpan and its global influence. "Part 1: The Evolution of the Steelpan" highlights the development of this instrument on the island of Trinidad & Tobago. It spans from the introduction of slavery on the island in the late 1700s to when the steelpan received international recognition at the Festival of Britain in 1951.
CTTV (https://goo.gl/KGkoo8) is now streaming right to your computer "Walk Like A Dragon".
"It was a slow process, everyone got together and invented the steel pan by using pots and pans and testing them out". - Sterling Betancourt, Trinidadian panman
Talented young pannist Smallman finds himself in jail on a murder charge. Pan pioneer, Mannie, visits him to try to help him. A pilot for a feature film set around the history of the steelband, "Walk Like A Dragon" is an intriguing drama replete with extraordinary images and useful to stimulate discussion on the history of the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago.
Stream "LET'S PLAY PAN" directed by Ian Jones right to your computer at: https://goo.gl/KGkoo8
You'll also be able to catch "LET'S PLAY PAN" on Flow on Demand
A historical chronicle of the development of the steelpan in Trinidad & Tobago – the socio-economic conditions that gave birth in the 20th century to the only complete family of tuned, acoustic percussion instruments. A visit to Panyard Steelpan factory shows how the instruments are manufactured and maintained (blended) by master tuner, Earle Wong in Toronto.
STREAM TO YOUR COMPUTER "LITERATURE ALIVE" Episode 14 Ramabai Espinet: Coming Home NOW AT: https://goo.gl/6BfCjq
Ramabai Espinet is an Indo-Caribbean-Canadian writer. Born in 1948 in San Fernando, Trinidad. In the 1960s Ramabai’s family immigrated to Canada, where she attended York University before earning a Ph.D. at the University of the West Indies. Espinet was first established on the literary scene as a poet. Her book of poetry, Nuclear Seasons, was published in 1991. Her well known children’s books The Princess of Spadina (1992) and Ninja’s Carnival (1993) were published. Her first novel, The Swinging Bridge, was shortlisted for the Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2004. Ramabai Espinet is a woman who writes with the clarity and wisdom of someone who has lived her stories.
#StoriesAboutWomen
