Once more with feeling...

Sorry folks, I forgot two very important workshops: with Ras Kassa and "Chappy" St. Juste. This should be complete... Enjoy.

>>>>> Purchase Tickets Online <<<

FESTIVAL PROGRAM

Thursday July 10, 2008

Opening Night Gala
$20.

6:00 pm: Wine & Cheese VIP Party, River Restaurant
7:30 pm: Shorts Program
Opening Night Feature - Africa Unite by Stephanie Black, The Revue Cinema
11:00 pm: After Party hosted by Jamaican Consulate General, River Restaurant

Friday July 11, 2008

Youth Day hosted by Ras Kassa
$20 for the whole day. Subsidized tickets available for youth & community groups. Call 416 598 1410 for more info

12:00 pm: Literature Alive - Creation Fire
Life & Debt by Stephanie Black, Innis Town Hall - #1
Talk Back
12:15 pm: Literature Alive - Blood Dub and The Matriarch - D'bi.young
Africa Unite by Stephanie Black, Innis Town Hall - #2
Talk Back
3:00 pm: Literature Alive - Fabulous Spaces - Nalo Hopkinson
Wondrous Oblivion starring Delroy Lindo, Innis Town Hall - #1
Talk Back
3:30 pm: Literature Alive - Miss Lou: Then & Now
Raisin' Kane by Alison Duke, Innis Town Hall - #2
Talk Back with Alison Duke

Directing Workshop with Franklyn "Chappie" St. Juste (The Harder They Come)
(Pre-registration required. Please call 416-598-1410)

Harmony Nite
Innis Town Hall. Hosted by Dwayne Morgan
$15 for the entire evening! Subsidized tickets available for youth & community groups. Call 416 598 1410 for more info

5:30 pm Meet & Greet Reception
6:30 pm: Literature Alive: Dwayne Morgan - The Man Behind the Mic
7:00 pm: 'Miss Lou' - Then and Now
Talk Back and Performance by Dwayne Morgan

8:00 pm: A Winter Tale: Art for Social Change - Jamaica 2008 by Mary Wells
8:30 pm: A Winter Tale by Frances-Anne Solomon
Talk It Out! with stars from the award-winning feature - Peter Williams, Michael Miller, Leonie Forbes

11:00 pm After Party hosted by Leda Serene Films

Saturday July 12, 2008

An Afternoon With “Miss Lee” (Leonie Forbes)
$25 for the entire afternoon!

12:00 pm
Lunch with Leonie Forbes @ River Restaurant
1:45 pm Miss Forbes introduces a number of her favorite films.

Miss Lou - Then & Now
Lord Have Mercy!
What My Mother Told Me
Milk & Honey

Music Video Workshop with Ras Kassa (Welcome To Jamrock)
(Pre-registration required. Please call 416-598-1410)

Jamaican-Canadian Media Icons hosted by Andrew Moodie
River Restaurant FREE

2:30 pm :

In Conversation with....Joan Jenkinson
In Conversation with....Hamlin Grange

Night of Tribute
River Restaurant and the The Revue Cinema. $ 35 for the evening.
$10 per film.

5:30 pm : Tribute Ceremony @ River Restaurant

7:00 pm : HeartBeat - Music Is My Life - Tanya Mullings
Life & Debt by Stephanie Black, The Revue Cinema
9:00 pm : Shorts Program
The Harder They Come by Perry Henzell, The Revue Cinema

11:00 pm After Party hosted by CaribbeanTales @ River Restaurant

Sunday July 13, 2008

12:00 pm HeartBeat - The Satalittes.
Glory to Glorianna produced by Gloria Minto. The Revue Cinema $10.00
Talk Back with Executive Producer Gloria Minto

The Art of Clement Virgo.
Hosted by Garvia Bailey
The Revue Cinema $10.00

3:00 pm : Literature Alive - Creation Fire Pt 2 - The Calabash Festival
Poor Boy's Game by Clement Virgo
Talk Back with Clement Virgo

Jamaican Blockbusters
5:00 pm: Literature Alive - HonorBound - Honor Ford Smith
Dance Hall Queen by Rick Elgood The Revue Cinema $10.00
7:00 pm: Literature Alive - In the Shadow Of My Fathers - Rachel Manley
Third World Cop by Chris Browne The Revue Cinema $10.00

9:00 pm: Closing Party. Hosted by Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum
>>>>> Purchase Tickets Online <<<

BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE NOW for CARIBBEANTALES 3rd ANNUAL FILM FESTIVAL: 'FOKUS JAMAICA'!

This years film festival, FOKUS JAMAICA, is just 2 weeks away, featuring the best of Jamaican cinema past and present.

Tickets are now available online at the
FOKUS JAMAICA website.

Buy your tickets for our Opening Night Gala: the Canadian premiere of Stephanie Black's award-winning musical feature documentary AFRICA UNITE.

Made to commemorate Bob Marley's 60th birthday - It is the story of the Marley family's first trip to Ethiopia. After the screening there will be a Talk Back session about African Unity!! and we are hoping that Stephanie Black will be able to join us from NYC.

At the Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Avenue, on Thursday July 10th at 7pm. Tickets $20, including After Party at River Restaurant hosted by the Jamaican Consulate, Toronto.

"AFRICA UNITE is a singular and masterfully executed film that is at once concert tribute, Marley family travelogue, and humanitarian documentary, igniting the screen with the spirit of world renowned reggae icon BOB MARLEY in its every frame. ...There in the capital city of Addis Ababa three generations of Marleys take part in a 12 hour concert like no other, attended by more than 300,000 people from around the world, with the ultimate purpose of inspiring the young generations of Africa to unite for the future of their continent... Includes appearances by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, actor Danny Glover, world music sensation Angelique Kidjo, Bob Marley’s mother Mrs. Booker, and Princess Mary, granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie. Produced and directed by Stephanie Black, Life & Debt; H 2 Worker, and Executive Produced by Rita Marley, Cedella Marley, Danny Glover, and Joslyn Barnes."

In Other Newz:

** CaribbeanTales launches its Youth and Community Program, inviting inner-city youth to meet celebrity role models and participate in an exciting program of events at the Fokus Jamaica Film Festival

** Tune into Canoe Live (SUN TV) this Friday, July 27 at 5:30pm and catch executive chef Selwyn Richards talk about the great food and drinks attendees will enjoy at the 3rd annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival

** Pick up a copy of The Caribbean Camera, or visit http://www.ccn365.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1608&Itemid=2 to read the paper's interview with festival founder Frances-Anne Solomon

** Check out the CaribbeanTales Film Festival on the front cover of WE magazine's June issue! Pick up your free copy on news stands now!

** Grab a copy of Caribbean Uprising International and The Ethnic Umbella to read their Fokus Jamaica festival previews

** Listen to CIUT 89.5 FM, CHRY 105.5 FM and CKLN 88.1FM starting June 30 to hear our 30-second CarbbeanTales Film Festival radio spots

** Pick up a copy of The Canadian Immigrant's July issue to read an interview with Frances-Anne Solomon

** Tune into Flow 93.5 beginning July 1st to hear our 30-second CaribbeanTales Film Festival radio spot

** Listen to Michael Yarde's show Take 5 on CIUT 89.5 FM the week of July 1st to hear his series of interviews with festival attendees: Leonie Forbes, Clement Virgo, Peter Williams and Frances-Anne Solomon

** Be sure to watch Island Style (Rogers Television Toronto) on July 5th at 3pm to see Jamaican Consul General Anne-Marie Bonner talk about this year's festival.

The 3rd Annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival presents "Fokus Jamaica", and announces an exciting lineup of Jamaican films, special guests and workshops

The CaribbeanTales Film Festival is set to hit Toronto again this summer!

Created by award-winning filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, the event is Canada's one and only forum showcasing the best of Caribbean cinema, at home and abroad, classical and creole, digital and celluloid. And this year's focus is on the internationally recognised film and television productions of Jamaica.

Produced in assocation with the Jamaican Consulate, Toronto and Jamaica Trade and Invest (JAMPRO), the 4-day celebration will showcase the rich and vibrant cultural traditions that have made "Brand Jamaica" synonymous with world class cultural innovation, and timeless iconic images of spirited rebellion.

"I never doubted that Caribbean culture had international appeal, because I grew up with the huge impact of Bob Marley on the world’s imagination,” said Frances-Anne Solomon, Artistic Director of CaribbeanTales and Founder of the film festival. “This is why we have chosen to spotlight the importance of Jamaican cinema on the world stage.”

Opening night features the Canadian premiere of AFRICA UNITE. Made to commemorate the late Bob Marley’s 60th birthday the film is a compelling music documentary centered around the Marley’s first family trip to Ethiopia. Following the screening there will be a Talk Back session on African unity

Other highlights will include screenings, Talk Back sessions, and educational workshops aimed at youth and community groups.

CaribbeanTales pays tribute to talents such as: famed music video director Ras Kassa (Welcome to Jamrock), Jamaican-Canadian actor and director Clement Virgo (Poor Boy's Game), cinematographer Franklyn "Chappy" St.Juste (The Harder They Come) Jamaican-Canadian film and television stars Leonie Forbes (Lord Have Mercy, A Winter Tale), and Peter Williams (A Winter Tale, Chronicles of Riddick) and many more..

CaribbeanTales is proud to present a "Perry Henzell Evening", in honor of the late iconic director who created the Caribbean's cult cinematic materpiece "The Harder They Come".

The festival will also include work by new and emerging directors from Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. These will be announced shortly and we are also still accepting submissions for this.

The festival will run from July 10-13, 2008 at the Revue Cinema, and at Innis Town Hall.

THANK YOU from A Winter Tale

Just a big thanks to those who came out to see A Winter Tale in Trinidad, and to everyone who wrote me to say they liked it... it's due to your support that its been extended @ MovieTowne & Trincity despite stiff competition - (Hollywood's biggest hitters for the season, Indiana Jones and Narnia). THANK YOU.

To those who havent seen it yet - you can still catch it before May 27th.

A Winter Tale opened to an enthusiastic audience in Antigua on Thursday night with a Gala Premiere hosted by HAMA TV, and will continue its run there at Deluxe Cinema - Peter Williams and Michael Miller attended.

A Winter Tale will have it's South Africa Premiere at the SABC Africa on Screen Film Festival - with a special screening & Talk It Out at Maponya Mall, Soweto, and VIP Reception hosted by the Canadian Consulate on May 27th.

Actor/comedian Desmond Dube will host the Talk back session, which will focus on Black Men in South Africa, and include students from the Soweto Imagination Lab, and Funda Center and reps from the SAPS Crime Prevention Unit...Lucky Ejim (Sam in the movie) will be there.

Love, Frances-Anne

A Winter Tale stands out amid stiff competition and gets held over in Trinidad cinemas!

MEDIA RELEASE
For Release: Immediately

A WINTER TALE, the award-winning feature film by Frances-Anne Solomon, has been held over for another week by Movie Towne and Cinemas 8, Trincity. The Movie which premiered at a glamorous 40-foot Red Carpet Launch at the historic Globe Cinema in the heart of Port of Spain on May 14, has been receiving rave reviews from patrons for its well-written and relevant storyline, strong character acting and high production values.

'A WINTER TALE opened commercially and held its own against the two biggest Hollywood releases of this year - Indiana Jones and The Chronicles of Narnia. This is an incredible achievement for a small independent movie. I am grateful to the cinemas - Trincity, MovieTowne and Hobosco for their faith in the film, and especially to the Trinidad public for showing that local films have an audience here.' Says Solomon.

Last week, patrons attending the film were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Lead Actors, Peter Williams (of Stargate SG 1, Chronicles of Riddick and Cat Woman fame) and Michael Miller who flew in from Canada for the first week of screenings, and signed posters for fans.

Hundreds of high school students also had the opportunity to see the film during a special series of Ministry of Education-sponsored school screenings, where Williams and Miller along with Director Frances-Anne Solomon signed posters and held "Talk It Out" sessions on the content and impact of the film.

A WINTER TALE also stars well-known Trinidad actor Dennis 'Sprangalang' Hall in is his first serious role in a feature film. In the story, his 10-year old grandchild is murdered in a drug deal gone sour and the film looks at the community's response to this heinous crime.

Sponsors for A WINTER TALE are T&T Film Company, T&T Entertainment Co, E-ZONE Entertainment Ltd., Gayelle the Channel, Synergy TV, CNMG, NCC TV Channel 4, Digicel, Caribbean Beat, Skywritings, Script J, COTT, Rent-A-Amp, Brydens, 2001, Carpet House, E-Z Car Rentals, Kalloos Car Rental and Maria Habib.

END

Contact:
Lisa Wickham
750-6014

A tale to make you weep

The Guardian, Trinidad,
Sunday May 18

BY ATTILLAH SPRINGER

"We got to build a better nation
Clean up Jah creation
Or there will be no future for you and me"
—Fools Die, Peter Tosh

What good is a community without stories? What value is a society without storytellers? I mean beyond crick crack. Beyond the loss of douens to electric lights and Anansi replaced by the World Wide Web.

The carrier of the stories is the carrier of the wisdom and a sensibility that you can’t and never will get from the Red House.

The carrier of the stories is both the revolutionary and the peacemaker. Who shows the community its beauty and its dirt and its light.

A storyteller is a shape-shifter who uses every tool, every image, every sense to draw you in, capture your imagination.

So where the hell are our stories? Who is fictionalising our lives? Who is fashioning our superheroes?

All these questions plagued me before, during and after I went to see A Winter Tale, which everyone should see really.

Because in the absence of our own storytellers our children grow up in awe of someone else’s mythology.

Imagine in all my 30 years on this island, this is the first time I was sitting in Globe cinema to watch a local film.

And it might be set in Canada but I have to take ownership of those emotionally scarred men and the women shouldering too much weight of dying boy children.

And we have too many frustrated artists walking around this town to not understand that the loudness of our self-doubt has a startling ability to drown out our desire to speak our truths.

Aside from the embarrassment, aside from the frustration, I am so glad that A Winter Tale is being shown here and now.

And I’m glad too that they chose the Globe, in the heart of my beautiful stinking city, to show it, as opposed to going to that place in the murdered mangrove.

It’s not a pleasant film. It’s not a kicks t’ing. It’s not the loud, effects-filled, slap-stick foolishness that usually numbs our brains.

And this is not a review but A Winter Tale is bloody brilliant. Especially because you’re not going to leave the theatre feeling all warm and fuzzy.

And especially because you will weep for a fictional dead child in ways that you do not weep when you watch the news.

Frances Anne has all the marks of a good storyteller in that you will feel more sorrow for a place and time and people fashioned out of living truths.

Because everybody knows our men are in crisis. Everybody knows but who wants to take responsibility for finding or creating solutions?

The audience titters uncomfortably at inappropriate times. They steups at the gangsta boy who falls apart when the little boy dies.

They are scandalised at two beautifully naked bodies embracing in grief. They have a problem with the cuss words as if the F word is more obscene than a generation of boys who will never know what it is to be men outside of owning a gun.

We should feel more scandalised by the fact that we have a nation of children growing up absorbing somebody else’s mythology. Who do not know that they too can be superheroes, let alone be on a big screen, playing themselves with a depth and truth that is just plain shattering.

The procrastinating writer in me winces because there are so many other stories like this that need to be told.

And I hear a lot of talk these days about developing a film industry. And it’s important, yes, to industrialise the way we operate our creative potential. Beyond oil or gas or goddamned smelters, our creativity is our real nation-building potential.

But we also have to be able to see the value of the stories that we have to tell and train our storytellers wisely so that the films we make don’t end up looking like the Port-of-Spain waterfront. Tall and empty and bright imitations that are irrelevant to the landscape.

A Winter Tale is now showing at Globe, Cinemas 8,Hobosco and MovieTowne until Tuesday.

Winter Tale cast arrives for premiere

Newsday, Port Of Spain,
Friday, May 9 2008

CAST MEMBERS of Frances-Anne Solomon’s A Winter Tale are set to arrive in Trinidad on Tuesday, in advance of the film’s premiere. Jamaican-Canadian stars Peter Williams and Michael Miller will join co-star and famed Trinidadian comedian Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall and Solomon at the film’s red carpet launch screening and reception on Wednesday, at 6:30 pm at the Globe Cinema.

A Winter Tale will go into general release across the island on May 15 at Cinema 8, Trincity Mall; Hobosco Cinema, San Fernando; and for school screenings only at Globe Cinema, Port of Spain.

The movie’s Trinidad premiere is sponsored by the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company, Skywritings, Caribbean Beat, COTT, Gayelle TV, NCC TV, CNMG, Red 96.7FM, Digicel, Kalloos Car Rental, Synergy TV, E-Zone Entertainment Ltd, EZ Rental, Maria Habib and the TT Entertainment Co.

A Winter Tale’s brilliant cast includes Jamaican icon Leonie Forbes, in addition to Hall, Williams, Miller and a host of other Caribbean and Canadian talents.

Peter Williams, who was dubbed “one of Canada’s finest” actors by the Montreal Gazette, portrays Gene Wright in the film — a concerned social worker who takes it upon himself to start a local Black men’s support group, after a young boy is accidentally killed by a stray bullet. Michael Miller plays opposite Williams as a local high school kid named DX.

In addition to the theatrical release, A Winter Tale’s community distribution project Talk It Out will continue in Trinidad, as the film screens to groups of young people through local schools and community organisations. Solomon, Williams, Miller and Hall will be in attendance during the film’s daily Talk It Out school screenings, to answer questions and interact with students. Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, director and producer. She is the president and artistic director of the two companies she founded: Leda Serene Films and CaribbeanTales.

Recent projects include A Winter Tale (for Telefilm Canada/CHUM Television); Heart Beat (Bravo!); Literature Alive; and the Gemini-nominated Lord Have Mercy!, Canada’s landmark multicultural sitcom, for Vision TV, Toronto1, APTN and Showcase. Peter Williams was born and raised in Kingston, but left Jamaica to attend university. He broke into acting through modelling, and was lucky enough to “learn on the job” through some of his early projects, such as his starring role in the Gemini Award-winning series Neon Rider. His selected credits include: Catwoman, Da Vinci’s Inquest, The Chronicles of Riddick, Stargate SG-1 and Dead Like Me.

Michael Miller was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and has been acting for ten years. He has been featured in commercials for McDonalds, Northwest Airlines and Reece’s Pieces.

Miller has also worked on many Alliance Atlantis productions such as Due South, Straight Up and Drop the Beat.

His selected film and television credits include the Fox Television pilot for Save the Last Dance, as well as Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Animal 2 and Playmakers. Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall is a popular comedian, historian, producer and singer/composer from Trinidad.

He has previously worked with CaribbeanTales in the Gemini-nominated sitcom Lord Have Mercy!