CineLit is an innovative hybrid of film and literature and one of the highlights of the eight annual T&T literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Thirty-one films from over 22 countries, including 17 films in Spanish and Portuguese, all subtitled, and range from award-winning feature films based on the work of some of Latin America’s greatest writers, to children’s animations and stirring documentaries about contemporary life. All free, with a choice of seeing them at UWI, St Augustine or at Nalis, Port-of-Spain, between April 16-29.
Comedy, tragedy, romance are all part of the CineLit mix, plus another chance to see two memorable films in English: the prize-winning Green Days by the River, directed by Trinidadian Michael Mooledhar and adapted for the big screen from the popular Michael Anthony 1950s coming-of-age novel; and in collaboration with Green Screen the Environmental Film Festival, Death by a Thousand Cuts, a striking documentary that tells the story of the unending struggle between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this time over the illicit exploitation of the remaining forest for charcoal that Haitians depend on but which has lead to severe deforestation.
Migration of Caribbean people and its effect is one of the themes of the 2018 festival, and the movement of music with its practitioners as they travelled to escape or find work around the Caribbean basin is a remarkable story. Ferguson is a documentary about Walter Ferguson, the King of Calypso from Limon in Costa Rica where English-speaking “caribeños” settled and their music took root.
In a panel discussion that follows the screening on April 27, Rudolph Ottley, author of Ambataila Women: The Untold Story in Calypso from Chanterelle to Calypsonian 1838-2014, discusses the annual Caribbean calypso festival in Limon with Maria Nunes, the photographer who is archiving T&T’s cultural heritage.
Having its world premiere is a series of films specially produced in collaboration with international partners in an NGC Bocas Lit Fest initiative. Pacific Voices brings together six poets from around the world together with six film makers who interpret their work in short films.
From T&T award-winning director Maya Cozier teams up with Kayo Chingonyi from the UK, and multi-prizewinning poet Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné has her work interpreted by Puleng Langa Sturart from South Africa.
Wayne Brown was a journalist and writer whose name still resonates with many younger Caribbean writers, having mentored several of them in his native T&T, and in Jamaica where he later lived. His filmmaker daughter Mariel Brown’s new film Unfinished Sentences brings the private life of this touchstone literary father into focus and sheds new light on his relationship with the own daughters.
Unlike the other CineLit films being screened free of charge at Nalis, the T&T premiere of Unfinished Sentences will be screened at the Central Bank Auditorium, price $180 to include a welcome cocktail reception on April 26, at 6.30 pm.
Like Green Days by the River, there will be only one screening. All other films receive repeat screenings.
A full CineLit film progamme is at: www.bocaslitfest.com.
CineLit is a collaboration between the Latin American embassies, Spain, UWI and the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. It is part of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. Title sponsor is the National Gas Company; lead sponsor is First Citizens; main sponsors are the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts and One Caribbean Media.
Massy Foundation and UWI are also sponsors.
FILM LIST
MONDAY, APRIL 16
All films screened on
UWI St Augustine Campus
11 am: Mañana no te olvides
(Don’t forget tomorrow)
Comedy/Drama ∙ 2017 ∙ 110 mins ∙ Dominican Republic ∙ PG
Director: José Enrique Pintor
Widowed Roberto, suffering from Alzheimer’s, goes to live with his daughter’s family and unexpectedly he and his grandson, 22-year-old Jan who has Downs Syndrome, find a new closeness and solace in each other.
Venue: CLL Auditorium, UWI
5 pm: Guamá: Entre el mar y la montaña (Guamá: Between the sea and the mountain)
Drama ∙ 2015 ∙ 21 mins ∙ Cuba ∙ All Ages
A film about a multi-layered community project designed to protect the special Guamá coastal region in southern Cuba, vulnerable to the extreme effects of climate change.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
5.30 pm: Ferguson, El Trovador de Cahuita (Ferguson, the Troubadour of Cahuita)
Documentary ∙ 2010 ∙ 25 mins ∙ Costa Rica ∙ All Ages
A documentary on the life and career of the greatest exponent of calypso from Limón, Walter Ferguson, “Calypso King” of Costa Rica’s Caribbean region.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
TUESDAY, APRIL 17
All films screened on
UWI St Augustine Campus
11 am: La Matamoros (Matamoros)
Documentary ∙ 2016 ∙ 60 mins ∙ Panamá ∙ PG
Director: Delfina Vidal
1940s factory worker Marta Matamoros became a pioneering unionist fighting for the rights of Panamanians. Incorruptible and unbending despite imprisonment, she achieved the minimum wage and maternity leave for workers. Her former sister-in-arms recounts her inspiring life story with love and admiration.
Venue: CLL Auditorium, UWI
1pm: La Fiesta del Chivo (The Feast of the Goat)
Drama ∙ 2005 ∙ 132 mins ∙ Peru ∙ 17+
Director: Luis Llosa
Film version of Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa’s best-selling novel, telling the story of Urania Cabral an independent-minded Manhattan lawyer who, after 30 years, returns to the Dominican Republic to face the ghosts of her earlier life there under the ruthless dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, aka El Chivo (The Goat).
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI 5 pm: La Novia (The Bride)
Drama ∙ 2015 ∙ 94 mins ∙ Spain ∙ 13+
Director: Paula Ortiz
Two men, one woman, one wedding and one desire. The story of a passion that destroys the lives of those who suffer the tragedy of a forbidden love. A film full of poetry and cinematic beauty based on Federico García Lorca’s famous drama, Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding). Awards: Goya Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18
All films screened on
UWI St Augustine Campus
11 am: La Fiesta del Chivo (The Feast of the Goat)
Drama ∙ 2005 ∙ 132 mins ∙ Peru ∙ 17+
Director: Luis LLosa
Film version of Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa’s best-selling novel, telling the story of Urania Cabral an independent-minded Manhattan lawyer who, after 30 years, returns to the Dominican Republic to face the ghosts of her earlier life there under the ruthless dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, aka El Chivo (The Goat).
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
1.30 pm: La tierra y la sombra (Land and Shade)
Drama ∙ 2015 ∙ 94 mins ∙ Colombia ∙ 13+
Director: César Augusto Acevedo
Battling illness, poverty and family breakdown, Alfonso and his family reunite to face one of their worst struggles to survive the drudgery and hardship of the sugarcane workers’ daily life. Awards: Cannes Camera d’Or, Best First Feature.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
5 pm La Fórmula del Doctor Funes (Dr Funes’ Formula)
Children’s comedy ∙ 2014 ∙ 82 mins ∙ México ∙ All Ages
Director: José Buil
Film version of Francisco Hinojosa’s novel about Dr. Funes, who discovers a formula to achieve eternal youth, and when he tests it on himself he becomes a 12-year-old who embarks on new adventures with his friend Martín Poyo.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
THURSDAY, APRIL 19
All films screened on
UWI St Augustine Campus
1 pm: Los Libros y la Noche (Books and the night)
Documentary feature ∙ 2000 ∙ 78 mins ∙ Argentina ∙ PG
Director: Tristán Bauer
A film on the life of one of Argentina’s greatest writers, Jorge Luis Borges, based on his thoughts, ideology and literary works.
Venue: The UWI Film Unit, 8 Carmody Street, St. Augustine
5 pm: El Benny (The Life and Times of Benny Moré)
Musical drama∙ 2006 ∙ 132 mins ∙ Cuba ∙ 16+
Director: Jorge Luis Sánchez
The dramatic life of Cuba’s great musician Benny Moré during the 1950s is captured in this fictional account that includes new versions of his songs performed by Chucho Valdes, Juan Formell, Haila and Orishas. Awards: Best male actor, Locarno International Film Festival, Santo Domingo International Film Festival and Madrid International Festival; Best First Film, New Latin American Film Festival, Havana.
Venue: The UWI Film Unit, 8 Carmody Street, St Augustine
FRIDAY, APRIL 20
All films screened on
UWI St Augustine Campus
1 pm: Mutum
Drama ∙ 2007 ∙ 90 mins ∙ Brazil ∙ 13+
Director: Sanda Kogut
This adaptation of the novella General Field by celebrated writer João Guimarāes Rosa is a moving story of loss and innocence told through Thiago, a sensitive and hopeful boy growing up in Brazil’s rugged and arid sertão region of Minas Gerais in the 1930s.
Venue: CLL Auditorium, UWI
5pm: Cenizas eternas (Eternal Ashes)
Drama ∙ 2011 ∙ 113 mins ∙ Venezuela ∙ 17+
Director: Margarita Cadenas
An accident in the 1950s on the mythical Orinoco River in Venezuela destines Ana to live with the Yanomami tribe. Her daughter Elena cannot accept her disappearance and ventures into the jungle in search of her. A touching story of loss, love and survival, inspired by real events.
Venue: AV Room, The Alma Jordan Library, UWI
