According to producer Christian James, he threw all reason out the window by enrolling in The UWI, St. Augustine Film Programme in 2006. At the Sixth Form level, James, 32, had been a science student and was warned against venturing into the uncertainty of the creative industries.
Director Michael Mooleedhar, 32, has a similar story. Yet, seven years after the two graduated in the Film Programme’s first cohort, James and Mooleedhar are collaborating and reaping the benefits of their risky decisions.
Their feature-length film “Green Days by the River,” an adaptation of Michael Anthony’s classic Caribbean novel, was the first opening night film of the trinidad + tobago film festival (ttff) by a local director and producer. The film was released on the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication and helped spawn a resurgence of interest in the novel.
The National Library and Information System (NALIS) chose to relaunch the One Book, One Community initiative this year using the novel and it’s been returned to the syllabi in many secondary school literature classes.
“This film is a gift to Trinidad & Tobago. This book is one that means a lot to people and the country and one thing we hope is that the film will be around 50 years from now in the same way the book has tested time. We’re hoping to have that type of effect,” said Mooleedhar, who also has a Master’s in Creative Design Entrepreneurship from UWI.
Mooleedhar and James said they were lucky to have professors such as Dr. Jean Antoine and Bruce Paddington (ttff Founder). “I think what UWI did was it created a good foundation and base. It opened up our minds to all the different aspects of filmmaking. We probably didn’t come out of it as experts, but we got really good exposure,” said James.
When the project began in 2014, UWI also provided support to the filmmakers in the form of assigning a research assistant from the Institute for Gender and Development Studies to help the team remain true to the pre-Independence period in which Green Days is set. Moreover, the campus turned out to be a talent pool. The production assistants, interns and the two female leads, Vanessa Bartholomew and Nadia Khandai, are all UWI students.
Delicate Adaptation
The coming of age story of Shell, a teenager in rural Mayaro set in 1952 is one that’s not only familiar among Caribbean readers, but also popular. James said the team didn’t feel any negative pressure, however, in doing an adaptation. They worked closely with Anthony, who was supportive of the project from inception and also has a cameo in the film. Mooleedhar says the film is as close to the novel as can be while retaining an entertaining quality. “There’s a difference between a book and a movie. It’s not a play and there’re certain creative liberties you take to make it more cinematic.”
“At first glance the book is such a simple story you wonder how you are going to make this into a movie, but the themes are extremely complex. You’re dealing with a boy becoming a man, with love; so the situation may not be complex, but the emotions are, and the film has to bring that to life.” Mooleedhar explained.
“There’s also the idea of space and the land and what the connection of the land meant to people. I don’t think that connection exists for the majority of Trinidad and we tried to bring out those themes and amplify them and give them visuals.”
For James, simplicity was the key to a successful first feature. “That’s specifically why we chose this story. As first time filmmakers, you don’t want to choose any high concept, time-travelling type of film. You’re still developing your craft and if you can tell a simple story in a unique, poetic way, you can master your craft,” he said.
The story also had a special meaning for some of the cast members. Khandai read the book at a young age and identified closely with the main character. “I read this book when I was 11 when I had just written SEA. It really resonated with me as a young person going from one stage of my life to another as secondary school was a foreign environment. At the time, I felt a lot like Shell did in his new home experiencing all these new things, trying to find his place as a man and his place also as a child continuing to strive to be true to himself,” said Khandai, a 24-year-old medical student in her third year.
For Bartholomew, a final year sociology student, Green Days has reaffirmed her love for theatre arts. “Doing the film definitely encouraged me to stay within the industry and to get back into that creative atmosphere,” said Bartholomew who was active in theatre in secondary school. Like Khandai, Green Days was Bartholomew’s first formal audition.
Next Stop
Working on the film hasn’t only been inspiring for Bartholomew and Khandai; James and Mooleedhar plan to use everything they learned in the past three years on bigger and even better projects. “We’ve spent three years putting energy into this project so we’ll need a short break, but I just want to keep directing. Every time you direct something, you get excited about what you learned and theoretically, you feel like you’re getting better. So I don’t want to wait two years to do something again and forget what I learnt,” said Mooleedhar.
Green Days will be screened at the Belize International Film Festival in November and the Bahamas International Film Festival in December. The team is also planning a Caribbean-wide limited release.
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