Thursday, 9 August 2012

Friday, 27 July 2012

Tell us what Independence means to you



The trinidad+tobago film festival and Flow are inviting filmmakers to submit short films on the topic of Independence to a film competition celebrating the country’s 50th Independence anniversary.

Entitled Side by Side, in tribute to T+T’s national anthem, the competition is seeking the best 50-second films that express what “Independence” means to the filmmaker.

Submissions will be accepted on any interpretation of the word “independence” and filmmakers are encouraged to be as creative as they wish and explore any aspect of what the word means to them.

The competition is open to filmmakers of all ages, amateurs as well as professionals. Submissions will be accepted from July 1 to August 1, 2012.

Directors of the five best films will each win a Flow package of services, valued at a total of $40,000. Additionally, the best film overall will be awarded TT$5,000 at the ttff awards ceremony on September 30. Films are to be submitted via private link on YouTube and must be of a minimum resolution of 720 x 480 NTSC.
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trinidad+tobago film festival 12
you're in focus
199 belmont circular road, port of spain, trinidad+tobago
tel (+)868.621.0709 fax (+)868.621.3473
join our mailing list at http://eepurl.com/xlPj

www.ttfilmfestival.com 

Friday, 15 June 2012

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

Friday, 27 April 2012

Tagore Film Festival - Char Adhyay: Four Chapters (Mon 7 May)

Char Adhyay (1997)
English Title: Four Chapters

Romance
110 minutes


Director: Kumar Shahani

Writer: Kumar Shahani

Stars: Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Nandini Ghosal and Kauskhik Gopal









Adapted from a novella by Rabindranath Tagore, Char Adhyay captures the ideals of the Bengali Renaissance of the 1930s. A group of young intellectuals and revolutionaries, led by the brilliant young Indranath, is fighting for independence from the colonial system.

Ela, a beautiful spirited young man is a member of a group of armed revolutionaries during the freedom struggle. She is at once the mascot and the spirit of the movement. Within the group she meets Atin and falls in love. The unyielding nature of the movement decrees that they cannot be together. As Ela and Atin start questioning the indoctrination and the ideology of the movement, they come into conflict with the leaders of the group. The film is the story of this conflict between beuty, love and humanism and the harsh ideology and the indoctrination of the revolutionary struggle.

Tagore Film Festival - Teen Kanya: Two Daughters (Sun 6 May)

Teen Kanya (1961)
English Title: Two Daughters

Comedy/ Drama
173 minutes

Director: Satyajit Ray 

Writers: Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore (stories)

Stars: Anil Chatterjee, Chanada Banerjee and Sita Mukherjee









The first story is about Nanda, a young man who leaves Calcutta to work as a postmaster in an isolated malaria-infested village. The postmaster is looked after by a young orphan girl, Ratan. His only solace in the village is in teaching Ratan how to read and write. The second story is about a student, Amulya, who returns to his village after finishing his exams. His widowed mother is very anxious for him to marry, and has already picked out a girl. He rejects his mother's choice and, being forced to choose some girl, marries a lively tomboy who is not ready to give up her freedom. Written by Will Gilbert 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055508/plotsummary  

Tagore Film Festival - Khudito Pashan: Hungry Stones (Sat 5 May)

Khudito Pashan (1960)
English Title: Hungry Stones
117 minutes

Director: Tapan Sinha

Writers: Rabindranath Tagore (story), Tapan Sinha (Scenario)

Stars: Arundhati Devi, Soumitra Chatterjee and Chhabi Biswas





The film is adapted from a story called Hungry Stones by Rabindranath Tagore. A tax collector posted to a small town puts up at a mansion feared by the locals because it is haunted. As time passes he grows more consumed by the mansion and its air of romance, and the spirits that haunt it, especially a beautiful woman. Written by Ravenus, India 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054005/plotsummary  

Tagore Film Festival - Kabuliwala (Thurs 3 May)

Kabuliwala (1961)

95 minutes

Director: Hemen Gupta

Writers: Rabindranath Tagore (story), Vishram Bedekar and S. Khalil (screenplay)

Stars: Balraj Sahni, Sonu and Usha Kiran














Abdur Rehman Khan (Balraj Sahni), a middle-aged dry fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini (Sonu) who reminds him of his own daughter Amina back in Afghanistan. He puts up at a boarding house along with his countrymen. Since he is short of money he decides to sell his goods on credit for increasing his business. Later, when he goes to collect his money, one of his customers abuses him and in the fight that ensues Rehman warns that he will not tolerate abuse and stabs the man when he does not stop the abuse. In the court Rehman's lawyer tries to obfuscate the facts but in his characteristic and simple fashion Rehman states the truth in a matter of fact way. The judge, pleased with Rehman's honesty, gives him 10 years' rigorous imprisonment instead of the death sentence. On the day of his release, he goes to meet Mini but discovers that she has grown up into a woman and is about to get married. Mini does not recognize Rehman, who realises that his own daughter must have forgotten him too. Mini's father gives Rehman the money for travelling back to Afghanistan out of Mini's wedding budget to which Mini agrees; she also sends a gift for Rehman's daughter. The film ends with Rehman travelling back to his homeland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuliwala_%281961_film%29