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April 2016
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his festival will provide a platform for the cultivation of multinational co-productions with the Caribbean, involving filmmakers operating in various specialized roles and spheres of production activity. The aim is to increasingly locate the region in general and The UWI’s Film Programme in particular, as centres of international film activity, culture and industry. The theme for this inaugural World Festival of Emerging Cinema is Feasting on Film. Emerging cinema in this instance is about the diverse visions of individual filmmakers from around the globe. The UWI’s World Festival of Emerging Cinema will screen some of the best works by contemporary filmmakers, representing all continents, regions and national cinemas, with selected directors in attendance and participating with their regional peers in the discussion and planning of international productions. The festival received 691 submissions from 76 countries including Albania, Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, Congo, Croatia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Luxemburg, Morocco, Palestine, Philippines, Reunion Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine. Among the submissions were three animated features, 54 animated shorts, 80 documentary features, 124 documentary shorts, 40 narrative features and 390 narrative shorts. "Caribbean Man No. 2 (1983)" by Stanley Greaves, one of the Caribbean’s most accomplished artists has been selected as the festival’s poster. The image was deemed ideal, thematically and compositionally, the dynamic range of color impacting on any scale and the street vendor presenting wares iconic in the Caribbean space -- in this case presenting cinema wares from around the world. The frames of his lenses speak to the lens, the eye, the camera and the projector. Over the years, The UWI Film Programme has hosted myriad film festivals including the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, the Green Screen Film Festival, Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago Festival and the Africa World Documentary Film Festival. The Indian High Commission also collaborates with the Programme which hosts its Indian Cine Club. Students of the Programme have won numerous awards for their films which have screened locally, regionally and internationally to consistent acclaim. Festival founder and Coordinator of The UWI Film Programme, Yao Ramesar promises “a veritable feast of cinema. The Festival programmers composed mainly of alumni of the Programme were immersed for months in a reservoir of phenomenal imagery. The experience was a virtual world tour of contemporary motion picture talent. I know audiences will be sated at the end of this journey.” |
The showcase event of The UWI Film Programme’s 10th anniversary celebrations is its inaugural World Festival of Emerging Cinema from May 19-22, 2016. The Festival’s mission is to help prepare future filmmakers as an internationally mobile workforce collaborating with their counterparts from around the world.