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May 2012 |
I was brought up in a working class household in England where books were hardly present, apart from the occasional Louis L’Amour western novel that my father enjoyed. It is therefore a great privilege to be recognized as an editor on a unique publication Exploring Caribbean Cinema. I initially thought I should wait to launch the book when I have an English version, but then I considered the scope of the Caribbean: with Cuba having over 11 million people, Dominican Republic over 10 million and Puerto Rico almost four million. The approximate 25 million Spanish speakers certainly dwarfs the English-speaking Caribbean, and we have not taken into account countries like Venezuela, Colombia and those in Central America that share the Caribbean coast. So I should not apologise but celebrate having the book published first in Spanish. The book is unique in that it is the first book on Caribbean cinema to focus on the entire Caribbean region including the English, Spanish, French and Dutch Caribbean. It also includes an essay on the Caribbean Diaspora with an article on independent Puerto Rican films made in New York. It is a comprehensive collection with articles on Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, explorations of issues of the image and representation of the Caribbean, overviews of developments in the French, English and Dutch Caribbean and interviews and profiles on Tomas Guittierez Alea, Rigoberto Lopez and Euzhan Palcy. Of course there are many important films and filmmakers that require more attention and we hope to correct this in the English version. Exploring Caribbean Cinema is one of the few books that have been published that focus on Caribbean Cinema. Others include Ex-Iles Essays on Caribbean Cinema (1992) by Mbye Cham. On Location Cinema and Film in the Anglophone Caribbean by Keith Warner while Gabrielle Hezekiah has explored the work of Robert Yao Ramesar in her book Phenomenology’s Material Presence, Video, Vision and Experience (2009). I have been very lucky to have the participation of some of the leading film and cultural studies scholars in the region including Professor Gladstone Yearwood, the Director of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, UWI Cave Hill and Yolanda Wood, Director of the Caribbean Studies Center of Casa de Las Americas in Cuba. And today I am very pleased to thank two of the contributors Carla Foderingham and Nina Bruni and also wish to mention another contributor Savrina Chinien from UWI St Augustine who was unable to attend. I wish to thank Dr Lance Cowie for his insightful critique of the book, someone who has always been very supportive of my work at TheUWI . UWI and the Dean Funso Aiyejina must be especially thanked, as I was able to undertake this work as a recipient of a one-year sabbatical that I don’t want to end. Finally I wish to pay tribute to my coeditor Luis Notario, and ICAIC publications and the Cuban Government who arranged for the production of the book in less than nine months in order that it could be launched at the Havana International Book Fair in February, an event attended by over one million people and am very pleased that the Argentinian Ambassador and his wife were able to be present. And thanks to Chris Meir and my colleagues at UWI and all of you who came to support this publication. This the address given by its editor Dr Bruce Paddington at the launch of the book, “Explorando el Cine Caribeno,” on May 4 at the Centre for Language Learning, UWI, St. Augustine. The book’s co-editor is Luis Notario, while the contributors to the book included Professor Gladstone Yearwood and Dr. Savrina Chinien from UWI as well as Carla Foderingham and Nina Bruni, both of whom spoke at the launch. Dr. Lance Cowie from UWI provided a critique of the book. |
