Focus to win $20,000

RBC Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion
Presented by the ttff + RBC Royal Bank
25 – 28 September 2012
Application deadline: July 13
 
The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), in association with RBC Royal Bank, invites applications for the second annual RBC Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion. The Immersion is an intensive four-day development programme culminating in a competitive pitch session with a prize of TT$20,000 for one winner.

Mission and objective
RBC Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion will provide ten selected Caribbean filmmakers working in the documentary field with the opportunity to learn from professional film artists. It will be held from 25–28 September 2012 in Trinidad during the ttff/12 (19 September–02 October).
Focus will include group discussions and exercises on a range of documentary filmmaking techniques and strategies, opening participants to the creative possibilities of the artform.
Each filmmaker will enter Focus with a concept for a feature-length documentary film and in the course of the programme develop a detailed treatment.

Lab facilitators
The facilitators for Focus are two internationally respected film-industry professionals: Jamaican-American filmmaker and teacher Alrick Brown, and documentary story consultant Fernanda Rossi, born and raised in Buenos Aires and based in New York for the past 17 years. Mr Brown is the writer and director of the award-winning feature Kinyarwanda (2011) and producer of the acclaimed documentary Death of Two Sons (2006). Among the many documentaries Ms Rossi has consulted on are the Academy Award-nominated The Garden (2009) and Recycled Life (2007). Her signature presentations have been given to over 40 organisations in over a dozen countries.

Pitch session and competition
At the end of Focus, the facilitators will choose their top five participants. These five participants will then pitch their project to a five-member jury at a public event during the ttff/12. The participant with the best project and pitch, as determined by the jury, will win a cash prize of TT$20,000.

Eligibility
Focus is open to emerging Caribbean filmmakers (citizens or residents of Caribbean countries living and working in the Caribbean) who have completed at least one documentary film (short or feature-length) but not more than two features.

Applications
All applicants must submit a maximum five-minute excerpt of a documentary film project on DVD, stating their role(s) on the film (writer and/or director and/or producer). Applicants must also submit their résumé and a cover letter stating, in 100 words or less, the concept of the project they would be bringing to Focus and what makes it unique. Participants will be determined based on the strength of all three of these items.

Applications should be sent via mail or delivered in person to:
Jonathan Ali
Editorial Director
trinidad + tobago film festival
199 Belmont Circular Road
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago

The deadline for applications is 13 July, 2012. Successful applicants will be notified by 1 August.
Submitted materials will not be returned.

If you have any questions, please contact jonathan@ttfilmfestival.com