News Releases

UWI Film Students Scoop Festival Prizes

For Release Upon Receipt - October 8, 2010

St. Augustine


ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad And Tobago – The Film Programme at The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine has taken the spotlight through the recent successes of its students.

The makers of Quiet Desperation and The Blood and the Bois each won prestigious prizes from the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Both films were produced by students as part of the third-year Capstone course, which requires that students make long-format narrative films. Quiet Desperation received prizes for Best Actor (Errol Roberts) and Best Actress (Helen Jones), while The Blood and the Bois won the People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film.

Dr. Bruce Paddington, co-ordinator of the UWI Film Programme, expressed his delight at hearing of the students’ successes: “I am very proud of the fact that students from the UWI Film Programme won three awards at the 2010 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Renee Pollonais must be congratulated for her sensitive direction of the film Quiet Desperation and Sigmond Cromwell must also be congratulated for having scripted and directed Blood and the Bois.”

Other students who worked on the films include Jimmel Daniel, Chiwale Bartholomew, Solange Plaza and Sara Chow Quan, all of whom were part of the crew for Quiet Desperation, and Naomi Howard, Michael Cherrie, Kavita Rajpath and Michael Ramsingh, who worked on The Blood and the Bois.

Having won accolades in Trinidad and Tobago, both films are now looking to make a splash in international waters. Quiet Desperation screened at the Portobello Film Festival 2010 in London and was warmly received there, particularly by members of the West Indian diaspora. Further plans are in the works to submit the film to other leading film festivals around the world.

The makers of The Blood and the Bois plan to submit the film to the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania as well as a number of other festivals. Naomi Howard, the film’s executive producer, has spoken of her determination to see the film reach the international stage, “We believe in the message of The Blood and the Bois and we want to share it with the world.” Martin Mhando, director of ZIFF and visitor to the TTFF this year, has expressed great enthusiasm for the film and is looking forward to receiving an official submission from the film-makers.

The UWI Film Programme is heartened by the successes of these hard working students and looks forward to their continued success in film production. These awards may be part of a larger groundswell of high quality film production in the nation and region as a whole.        

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

Contact