SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, 2016 – UWI TODAY
5
CAMPUS NEWS
September 22: LCCS presents Every Cook CanGovern:
The Life,Works and Impact of C.L.R. James
It was standing room only as audience members
packed every aisle in the Centre for Language Learning
(CLL) Auditorium for the screening of Every Cook Can
Govern: The Life, Works and Impact of C.L.R. James. With
no preamble, the film plunges into the history of Trinidad
starting from James’ birth in 1901 in Tunapuna and uses
his literary works to help weave the film together along
clips of James himself, most previously unseen. The crowd-
funded production was also crowd-featured with amateur
volunteers interviewing the people who knew him best and
scholars of his work to give a multidimensional portrait of
the revolutionary figure. The unique film showcases James’
indefatigable pursuit of justice throughout his life starting
fromhis early days as teacher at Queens Royal College where
he would offer classes to the underserved then to his work
as a Labour party person. James’ lesser known time spent
in Nelson England resonated with audiences as it was here
that his dismantling of colonisation started to coalesce with
the beginning stages of perhaps his most famous book, The
Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the SanDomingo
Revolution.
deepens
UWI link
Dr Gabrielle Hezekiah, Lecturer and Coordinator, Postgraduate Programme in Cultural Studies, Professor Emeritus Bridget Brereton,
Director Ceri Dingle, Every Cook Can Govern
Photo Courtesy: trinidad+tobago film festival. Photo: Digimedia Photo and Video
September 23:IGDS and Faculty of Law– Battledream
Chronicle and Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
(contributed by IGDS)
The Martiniquan animated Battledream Chronicle
invited the small but, early afternoon audience to its T&T
premiere to imagine humans as slaves to the virtual in
a futuristic 2100 world. But it is its decidedly sensual,
uncompromising young women, cast as both heroine and
villain, that kept audiences glued to the battle for human
sovereignty and freedom. The anticipation then built as
viewers poured in to the Noor Hassanali Auditorium for the
Caribbean premiere of the first ever documentary feature
on Maya Angelou. It was more than the imagination that
was stirred by this screening of the phenomenal woman’s
life. Tears flowed as those both familiar and new to her
prose, poetry and powerful voice witnessed her personal
and professional truths, minus embellishments.The evening
transformed from quiet enjoyment to joyous celebration as
the audience left contemplating Dr Angelou’s life and work
through a story that, as Director Rita Coburn Whack said
she tried to tell the truths Angelou told with dignity.
September 24: FHE in conjunction with the British
Council and the Trinidad and Tobago – King Lear The
Film
An audience of Shakespeare enthusiasts young and old
commemorated the 400th anniversary of his death with the
screening of King Lear The Film. From the onset the film’s
fourth wall was broken as the audience was immediately
plunged into a kingdom of an unstable Lear played by trini-
born actor DonWarrington who was at the viewing thanks
to the Shakespeare Lives project. Throughout the three
hour screening, Warrington provides a new dimension to
the larger than life character by infusing his madness with
pathos thereby making him humane in the process. During
the Q+A session after the film, the audience had effusive
praise for the film and Warrington’s amazing performance.
In this the 11th year of the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff),
new collaborations with the Faculty of
Law and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) were added to longer standing ones
with the Department of Literary, Communication and Cultural Studies (LCCS) and the Film Programme.
Here are some snapshots of the screenings and presentations:
Warrington challenging a student during an acting exercise
Photo: Kwame Emmanuel Boatswain
This summary was compiled by Jeanette G. Awai -
freelance writer and assistant at the Marketing and
Communications Office, The UWI St. Augustine.
