FISH

Fish was directed by Shaun Escayg, who is a talented Trinidadian animator and filmmaker. Escayg animated the popular character Bumblebee, earning the respect and admiration of famed director Steven Spielberg during production of Transformers 3. Mr.Escayg has had an extensive career in commercials, documentaries and music videos. Fish was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Youtube Film Festival.

This 15 minute film was shot in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where we see two homeless cousins, Fish and Sticky, desperately trying to survive by living on the streets and looking for shoppers in the market that they could easily steal from. This is a regular routine for these two men, finding easy prey and then cleverly escaping the local police. But in recent times, things have gotten harder, leaving the cousins even more desperate than before. One day their petty crime takes a dangerous turn, placing them in a deadly situation.

The film explores the criminal underworld in Trinidad and Tobago, where the director clearly captures the reality of the drug trade in the country and what can happen when people find themselves mixed up in that dreadful world. In this case, the poor, misguided cousins, driven by hunger and desperation, who gets themselves into a deadly situation when one of the men unwisely pockets money that he sees just laying around, money that belongs to a ruthless drug dealer.

The film is in English, but the characters mostly speak in broken Trinidadian dialect which definitely adds authenticity to the film. The film also contains a significant amount of profanity, making it an 18+ film. The extensive use of profanity heightens the criminal element of the film, enhancing the overall effect that the film has on the audience.

This film brings to mind another local film that was made in the Caribbean called The Harder They Come. The Harder They Come is the first film made by Jamaicans for Jamaicans. Jamaica is known for its beautiful beaches and tropical forests, however, The Harder They Come captures the true grim state of the country, something that the previous films made in the country choose to ignore.

Fish exposes the harsh realities of life for many living in the Caribbean, shocking a lot of people by the film's presentation of Trinidad. A presentation that was completely honest about the frightful and disturbing side of Trinidad, a side that people aren't accustomed to seeing. When people think of Trinidad, the things that comes to mind are simple...carnival, brilliant sun, clear blue skies, sandy beaches and blue waters, but this not all that makes up Trinidad, this twin nation is so much more. This film brings to the forefront, the reality of Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. This reality has been unfortunately swept under the rug for far too long, it has been hidden by the commercial caribbean 's image of the "happiest people on earth" the people that "drink and party all day and night, with not a care in the world."  But this film is anything but happy, you instead see the true battle that people are forced into on a daily basis. The struggle of wanting a better life, the pure agony, pain, unhappiness and hardships that are faced by ordinary people on a daily basis and the consequences of decisions that people make, the things that people do just trying to survive the day.

In the film, we can't help but feel sympathy towards the main characters, Fish and Sticky. I'm sure many who saw this film can understand their plight, these two cousins don't steal because they want to, but because they have no other way. The shot where the men look across the water and at the city, you can tell that they, like everybody else wants a better life for themselves, one where what they have to eat won't just be a single shared pommecythere. Also, the title character, Fish, keeps trying his luck with lottery tickets, hoping that one day he would win his way out of the immense poverty that he's drowning in. Alot of people within Trinidad and Tobago live their lives this way, if you take a drive by any lottery booth, on any day, there are long lines, with people religiously buying lottery tickets, hoping that their luck would one day change.

Over the years Trinidad and Tobago has transformed, for better in some ways and for worst in others. When it comes to crime, the country has only gotten worse, due to poverty, a lot of people tend to fall through the cracks and find themselves involved in criminal activities. There has been an increase in crime in Trinidad & Tobago over the years, with mostly violent crimes taking place, while a lot of this is not talked about, it does not make the problem go away, it's still here, damaging the country and its citizens. Port-of-Spain is known for it's scenery and fusion of cultures, but over recent time, the city has struggled under the influence of violent crime, drug cartels have used the city as a transit point for their illegal misdoings.

This film gives Trinbagonians a voice, one that has been stolen from us too many times in the past, a voice to say that this twin island, much like the rest of the Caribbean, is not solely about drinking and dancing and partying on the beaches, there are so many important issues that need to be seen and heard. This film says to the audience that Trinidad and Tobago is so much more than just "a good time", we are people who have stories to tell, stories of real people and real situations.

In a Los Angeles Times Article, dated July 13th, 2012, filmmaker, Stefan Escayg said that he was criticized by tourism and government officials in Trinidad because of his movie. "They say I’m showing the country in not so good of a light,” he said. “And my answer is that I’m speaking for the people who probably don’t have the opportunity to speak for themselves.Crime and poverty is something we don’t like to talk about in the Caribbean; it’s swept under the rug with talk of parties and beaches. But I wanted to show what for many people is the real world.”

Mr. Escayg said that his inspirations for this film came from some great storytellers such as Paul Keens Douglas, Shadow, Peter Minshall and Jamaica's, Bob Marley. Also from his grandmother, Marjorie Hackett.

This film was very successful and goes to show that we should continue using talented local actors for our own films and most importantly, keep staying true to the story.

Trailer for Fish

Full Film : Fish

Trailer for The Harder They Come

DOUBLES WITH SLIGHT PEPPER

This Narrative Short was directed by Ian Harnarine and centers on Dhani, a young man struggling to support himself and his mother, Sumintra, by selling doubles near the busy market. Doubles is the street food of Trinbagonians, it's part of our culture and can be found nearly everywhere in the country, as it is a favorite of many. In the film, we see that selling doubles is the family business, passed down from generation to generation. But times have gotten harder and business is not the way it used to be, making things worse for the already struggling Dhani. One day, after years abroad in Canada, Dhani's estranged father, Ragbir, unexpectedly returns and tries to win back the family he left behind.  With the return of Ragbir, Sumintra sees an opportunity to get what they rightly deserve, the house. Dhani, knowing his father, thinks that he will never sign the house over to them, but shockingly, his father easily complies and gives them the house. We soon learn that Ragbir is fatally ill and is in dire need of a blood transfusion, with Dhani being the best candidate. When Dhani finds this out, it upsets him, making him feel like his father was just saying that he'll sign over the house to them because he needs Dhani's blood. This adds more damage to the already strained and crumbling relationship between father and son. The film takes place during the christmas season and on christmas eve night, Dhani and his family eat, drink and dance to parang music (Trini Christmas Music) like any other Trinbagonian family, only Ragbir gets ill and has to receive urgent medical attention. Dhani is then placed in a situation where he must decide if he will save his father's life despite the strong resentment that he can't seem to let go of.

This film was shot in various locations around Trinidad, such as San Fernando, Gasparillo and Sangre Grande. As said in my previous post, when people think of films showing the Caribbean, they instantly think of sandy beaches, clear blue skies, tall coconut trees, a bright, brilliant sun and blue waters,but this film shows nothing of the sort. Instead we are given a realistic view of a father and son relationship in contemporary Trinidad. The significantly different approach that this film takes is very refreshing as it uses our very own local actors, in addition to displaying the local culture and people of Trinidad and Tobago, something that we rarely see being done in cinemas. It's a film to certainly be proud of.

This film explores various themes such as the bonds within the family unit and the return of nationals to their homeland. The film focuses on the triangular relationship between Son, Mother and Father, where we are exposed to the scars that have been etched into Dhani's heart due to his father's abandonment and also the now mortally ill Ragbir. Dhani is a character that shelters a lot of responsibility, making him a very frustrated, pessimistic young man. The audience can feel Dhani's hatred towards Ragbir, but it is also obvious that while there is a lot of deep seated anger within the family, that does not mean that they don't still love one another, this love is just covered by layers upon layers of hurt and resentment. This resentment that Dhani holds within him seems to be doing more harm to himself than to anyone else.Then there is the eventual forgiveness and healing when Dhani finally reconciles with his father, but it comes at a great cost when we learn that Dhani's blood does not match, leaving Ragbir with a cloudy future.

The film also looks at the return of nationals to their homeland. This is something common in Trinidad, where a lot of times, people migrate to other countries, all in hope of saving up enough money to bring their family abroad to live, so that they can all have a better live. It is known that Canada has a large West Indian community. Many times though, the life that people expect when they go abroad, is not what really happens when they get there. As seen in the film, Ragbir envisioned life different for his family, he wanted to start a roti and doubles shop in Canada, one where all three of them would have worked and made money, but instead, when he came to Canada he found himself living in a basement apartment that he had to share with two other person, washing dishes in a cafeteria for a living. Ragbir was never able to make the money needed to bring his family to live abroad with him, he was unable to offer them the life he planned and because of this he had to leave them behind, resulting in his wife and son resenting him because they thought he has just moved on with his life, a better life and left them behind to suffer.

The film also looks at the doubles culture in Trinidad and Tobago, Doubles is a local delicacy in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two bara (flat fried bread) filled with channa (curried chick peas), which is then topped with mango, shadon beni, cucumber, coconut, tamarind, and extra pepper sauce. This delicacy is the most popular fast food in Trinidad and Tobago and is something that is eaten anytime of the day or night as it can be found almost anywhere. It is seen in the film, that selling doubles is something which has been passed down from generation to generation in Dhani's family. This is a lot like what happens in Trinidad. In Trinidad, one of the most famous doubles vendors is Sauce Doubles in Curepe. Sauce's Doubles has transformed over time, with nearly his entire family now involved, making it the family business. 

Doubles with slight pepper was exceptionally done, bringing forward the culture and people of Trinidad and Tobago in ways that I have never seen before. Like the film Fish from my previous post, Doubles with slight pepper presents us with another example of why we should continue to use our very own local actors to produce films about Trinidad and the wider Caribbean, always staying true to the story, our story, the story that's worth telling. 

Trailer for Doubles with slight pepper

Full Film : Doubles with slight pepper

COWS WEARING GLASSES

'Cows wearing glasses'....yup you read correctly, that's the title..interesting choice don't you think?
The title instantly attracted my curiosity! Urging me to see what this film is all about. 

This 2014 comedy-drama was directed by Alex Santiago Pérez and is set in the region of Puerto Rico. The film is 93 minutes in length; the actors all speak in spanish but there is english subtitles. 

Marcelino, the protagonist of the film, is a bitter, eccentric old man, who teaches a Human Figure Class and is constantly seen as being insultive and brutally honest with his students; what you see is what you get with him. Marcelino refers to himself as a master painter and a line from the film which he said, that really stayed with me was, "in order to be an artist, you have to risk being honest at all times." Truthfulness is something that Marcelino strongly believes in and stands by.  

Finding out from multiple doctors that he's on the brink of losing his sight, Marcelino knows that he must get his affairs in order, mostly importantly his relationship with his daughter, Isabel. Isabel, a writer of self-help books wants absolutely nothing to do with her father and blames him for abandoning her as a child, for his drunken behaviour instilling so much fear in her as a little girl, and for beating her mother and being a horrible husband, all of which disrupted her life profoundly. 

Marcelino tries and tries to obtain forgiveness from his daughter, but to no avail. This film is a man's emotional journey to correct his many wrongs before the inevitable happens. 


I truly enjoyed the intimate story that this film shared with audiences. Overall the film seems to have been received very well here in Trinidad; I asked a couple people who saw the film to comment on whether they liked or disliked the film and nearly all the reviews were positive, applauding the director for a job well done, for a story that's so raw and realistic and last but not least for the actors who played their roles beautifully. 

Some of the comments given on the film were, 
"Oh man, this film was beautiful, sad but beautiful."

"The ending really got me! Such a tragic story."

"The actor who played the role of Marcelino did an exceptional job."

"My first Puerto Rican film and I loved it!"

"I feel the same way that the actor does about pigeons."
(For those of you who have not yet seen the film, Marcelino hated pigeons, considered them to be one of God's seven mistakes.

THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM

This 96 minutes long narrative feature was directed by Andrew Mudge and is set in Lesotho, South Africa and the USA. 

The film opens with a beautiful scenic view of mountainous terrains set against an even more captivating and enchanting sky. The scenery then changes to a busy city; loud, dirty, anything but peaceful and here is where we are introduced to the character of Joseph. Joseph is an angry young man who hangs with the wrong crowd; smoking, drinking, partying and making mischief. Joseph barely goes to visit his old, sick father and when he finally does, he discovers that his father has died while he's been away. We learn that Joseph is actually his christian name, the name that is used from here onwards in the film is Atang, his African name. On learning of the death of his father and his father's wishes of being buried in his ancestral village of Lesotho, Atang reluctantly embarks on a journey that would change his life.

When Atang arrives at his homeland, he meets his childhood friend, Dineo, who is now a lovely, radiant school teacher. Atang falls in love with Dineo, and she becomes central to Atang's journey because through her, Atang takes notice of the true beauty and splendor of Lesotho, the people living, who have all known him when he was just a little boy, to the land he put behind him so long ago and to coming to terms with himself. Atang's journey is one of redemption and transforms him from an angry boy making trouble in the city, to a man of substance. 

I must say, this story was beautifully written and the cinematography was excellently done. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end, never was there a dull moment. Not only was the story well written, the actors all gave very convincing performances, portraying their roles exceptionally well.  In the film, Atang develops a special friendship with a young orphan boy and this relationship between Atang and this child really stood out to me. I believe that the role this child played in the film significantly added to the strong impact that the film had on audiences. This child's performance was fascinating, deservable of the highest praise. The film explores the people, their culture and the folklore of Lesotho, a place that is not widely known; pretty much forgotten, but without a doubt, deserves to be recognised and appreciated! There is an undeniable mystical quality about this place; the shots of the country's vast natural beauty captivate audiences, leaving everyone spellbound. I can tell that this film was given a lot of thought, it was genuinely touching and left viewers with a lot of positive life lessons. It's definitely a great family movie and I would advise anyone to see it. 

See the trailer for the film below :

SOMETHING DIFFERENT : The Great Gatsby Film Review (Collab with Chrissie Dalkan)

Hey everyone!

So I decided to do something a bit different with this post.
It's always good to mix things up a bit now and then...
I wanted to do a collab with one of my classmates Chrissie Dalkan, who's blog is based on books. 
For those of you who don't know, I'm a literature student, so Chrissie and I decided that I'll do a BOOK review for her blog on one of my favorites, The Great Gatsby, and that she would do a review on the FILM version of The Great Gatsby for my blog.

Here's Chrissie Dalkan's review..Enjoy!
Unlike a lot of movies made from books, The Great Gatsby movie is very similar to the original story, well at least this latest remake is. I would say this 2013 remake is the best of its six shabbiest on screen recreations. There are times when dialogue is taken directly from the book.

The Great Gatsby tells the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick Carraway. Nick relates his wild encounter with Gatsby in the 1920s. The entire movie is woven around what it takes to achieve the American dream The style of the movie is as classic as the book (although it includes the use of 3-D), however, it is a movie that can drown you or lose you along the way, mostly because of the director Luhrmann’s frenzied, elaborate technique. On the other hand, this style is probably what makes the movie vibrant and alive. 

The thing about this movie is that you’ll love it if you like Luhrmann’s style, but you’ll hate it if you hate his style. He turns the story into an epic melodrama of real and unreal. For me, the movie was bittersweet, because although the storyline remains true, the theatrics and music make no sense. In this movie, the era is quite important to the story – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby explores the Jazz Age or the 1920s, a time when jazz music represented a cultural movement. The era the story is set in is what influences the themes – decadence, resistance to change, social upheaval and rampant excess. It describes the ‘anything goes’ era that occurred in America after World War I. However, the Great Gatsby movie featured the sounds of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Fergie and Beyonce, amongst others. I heard pop and rap and a lot of other influences, when really, the entire story cannot be told properly without jazz! The entire story is written around the Jazz Era, without jazz, this story is nothing…for me, this was where it failed. 

What saved the movie for me is the superb casting; the actors/actresses, even those in the small roles, were perfect for their roles and really became the characters. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the role of Gatsby with such finesse as though he has indeed become the character. After seeing Di Caprio in this role, I can never imagine anyone else in this role. In the book, Gatsby is so mysterious, that you’d think it would be difficult to embody his character. But Di Caprio gets into Gatsby’s shoes and walks around in them – he makes Gatsby so comprehensible and real to me that although I prefer books to movies, I understood Gatsby’s character better from the movie than the book. Di Caprio shows that Gatsby is really acting the role of the man he wishes he was. We see the calculating gleam in his eyes, the deceptive nature and how pathetic he becomes when his dreams are shattered. Tobey Maguire’s impression of Nick Carraway is also very real – there is this deep melancholy that humanizes his character. Another perfect casting is Carrey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. Carrey becomes Daisy – she is exactly as I imagined Daisy. Daisy is supposed to have an enchanting charm that Carrey replicates it to its fullest potential. She is flirty, beautiful, and lets her men speak for her. Her entire life falls around her and she just lets it. Of course, you’ll hate Daisy – her character is foolish but at the same time you can’t help but admire how well Carrey Mulligan plays the role. 

Therefore, I’d say, what saves this movie is the impeccable casting. However, the soundtracks for this movie do not do the story justice and in my opinion, neither did the director. Including modern hip-hop into a movie that is set right in the center of the Jazz era just undermines the entire storyline. And Luhrmann (the director) tends to dwell too much on creating grandiose landscapes and settings, rather than focusing on the meat of the story. 

However, in all honesty, (as I said at the beginning of my critique) the movie has been made six times and Luhrmann’s remake is possibly the best. The thing about The Great Gatsby is that although it makes a classic book, it may not ever make a great movie – so maybe it’s not Luhrmann’s fault. The book lacks any character for you to feel deeply about; Gatsby is delusional, Nick is passive and Daisy is spoilt and rich. When reading the book, one might pretend to be Nick and be fascinated by Daisy’s glamour and Gatsby’s wealth but on screen, that may be difficult to pull off. So I’ll cut director Luhrmann some slack. 

But I must say, in my opinion, no one has managed to retell The Great Gatsby on screen successfully yet. Maybe it’s just a story that shouldn't be retold or retouched. 

See below for the trailer for the film :

So hope you all enjoyed Chrissie's post,
Click here to see my review of the book version of The Great Gatsby on Chrissie's blog.
Also, click here to see more from Chrissie Dalkan.

FILMS DEALING WITH ISSUES ON SINGLE PARENTING #2 : PELO MALO

Hello again. 
So as promised, I will be continuing from my last post, reviewing films from the film festival that deals with single parenting and children from broken homes.

Hope you all read my last blog post on Behaviour by guest blogger Olivia Andrews.
If not, click here to go to post.

Now moving on, the next movie that I’ll be looking at is Pelo Malo.
I loved this movie, it raised so many issues on parenting, it was definitely worth watching. 

This 93 minute Narrative Feature was directed by Mariana Rondón. The film is a Venezuelan film and is in Spanish with English Subtitles.

The films tells the story of a young boy by the name of Junior, who lives in a small, old apartment with his mother, Marta. Fired from her job as a security guard, Marta becomes desperate and is seen everyday trying to meet her boss to get back her work. Junior, meanwhile, is obsessed with straightening his curly hair. Junior's fascination with straight hair irks his mother, where she begins to think that her son may be gay and even goes as far as taking her son to a doctor in a wave of homophobic panic. Junior's constant need to have straight hair strains the already fragile relationship between mother and son.

Like all children, Junior just wants love, attention and approval from his mother and well to have straight hair. I don't think the child is gay, he's just fascinated with having straight hair, that's all. He looks on at a good looking older boy in the neighbourhood and while Junior's mother and grandmother thinks it's because Junior is attracted to the boy, I believe Junior just wants to look and be like the boy. I can understand that the mother is frustrated as she leads a very hard life, one which single parents know all too well. But Marta goes about this whole parenting thing the wrong way, when she thinks she's helping Junior, she's actually doing more harm than good...and trust me she does a lot of harm to that child, not physically but mentally and emotionally.

As part of a collab with Olivia Andrews, and wanting to know first hand what single parents out there thought about this film and the issues that it raised, I conducted an interview with a single mother who saw this particular film. 
Here is the interview :
Questions asked:
1. How long have you been a single parent?
2. How many kids do you have?
3. Do you work? If yes, part time or full time?
4. Do you get help from anyone to take care of you child/children?
5. Which film from the trinidad+tobago film festival that pertains to single parenting did you see?
6. What were your views on the film?
7. What in the film stood out to you as a single parent?
8. What did you like about the film the most?
9. What did you dislike about the film the most?
10. Does the film relate to your own life as a single parent in any way? If so, how?
11. After looking at the film, together with your own experience as a single parent, what advice would you offer to other single parents out there?

Answers received :
1. 5 years
2. 2 kids
3. Yes I do, full time.
4. Yes my mother.
5. Pelo Malo
6. It was a really good film, glad that I got to see it, it raised a lot of issues on parenting and what children from broken homes go through.
7. What stood out to me the most in this film would have to be the way the mother in the film treated her son. As children normally do, they like to play with their mom’s hair and stuff like that, my son does it, in the movie, when the child tried to be close to his mother in any way, she would just push the child away, as if his touch burnt her or something. It was disgusting the way she treated that poor boy, all he wanted was her love and acceptance, but she deprived him of such, which led to him acting the way he did.
8. I loved how the film showed the mother’s struggle to find work and the things that she had to do to get a job, it’s a very real situation that women face on a daily basis, struggling to get a job to make ends meet.
9. Actually I didn't dislike anything, loved the entire film, very well done.
10. Yes it relates to my life in multiple way, firstly with the struggle for single moms to find and keep jobs while trying to raise their kids at the same time. Also it’s very difficult to see about two children and work full-time, I don't want to work full time because I wish I had more time with the kids but it’s not an option for me. I have to do what I’ve got to do because I have two growing kids to raise, so I often depend on my mother to help me take care of them. Sometimes I think, without her help, I really don’t know how I would cope. Single parenting is really not an easy task.
11. The advice that I would offer to single parents is that all children need is love, don’t substitute love with anything else, nothing will ever do the job as love would. I know it’s hard to find time in such a busy schedule but you have to make time for the kids, show them that you're there, even if they may not see you for most of the day, make some time, somewhere in the day to show them that you are there for them, there to listen about how their day was, what they liked, what they disliked, things like that. It’s really important that you do as it affects the child more than you could possibly imagine.


See below for the trailer for the film Pelo Malo :

FILMS DEALING WITH ISSUES ON SINGLE PARENTING #1: BEHAVIOR (Collab with Olivia Andrews)

Hey all! Today’s blog will be about films from the film festival that were based on single parenting and children from broken homes. 

One of the movies that were shown at the festival that dealt with single parenting was Behavior. For this, I asked fellow blogger Olivia Andrews, who’s blog is focused on single parenting, to review this particular movie for me from the perspective of a single parent herself.

Read Olivia's review below :
I love going to the movies, it is now something that I have passed on to my little girl, as she is quite the film bug who loves comedies and remembers very well. I loved the movies so much that when I was younger I decided to work for a while in the industry. I worked at MovieTowne for two years and would have seen the advent of the film festival.

Back then the movies were much cheaper, I would look at a film each day and was quite intrigued by them. I laughed when they laughed and cried when they did. My favorite film was one called “Rain”. In recent times and last year’s favorite “God loves the fighter” another one that I enjoyed from a while back was “Beast of the southern wilds” I love films where there is victory over the obstacles that we face, tales of struggles.

This year my favorite was of course the one that came out victorious, “Behavior.” This film told the story of a young man who lived with his mother who was a single parent and was on drugs. They shared a small two bedroom which they made work, He had to get a job as a dog walker and caretaker for a man who is suspected of being his father.

Sometimes all we need in life is a chance a to be who we are and really shine through. As parents we have to strive as hard as we can to provide for our children all of their needs, it is sad when children become the care takers of their parents because they do not have a chance to live their lives and be kids. Fortunately for this young man, the teacher saw potential in him no matter how much he messed up she was always there for him and in the end this is all he wanted; someone to be there for him.
The show was filled with single parents roughing it somehow in a new place. They all had to adjust, there was a man that was raising his daughter on his own and because they were from Palestine, they were often picked on, the teacher was also a single parent who had a daughter.

In the end what I learnt from this film is that only when you give up on a child is when they give up on themselves, sometimes the road is long and wary but we have to try and leap those hurdles. Of course there are going to be times when we may trip and fall but we must complete the race.

So readers, hope you enjoyed what Olivia had to say. I sure did, quite interesting and I would just like to thank Oliva Andrews for taking the time to do this review for me. 
If you would like to read more inspiring posts about coping as a single parents, click here to go to Olivia's blog!

Also, see below for the trailer for Behavior

Stay tuned for my next post discussing another film based on children and single parenting. 

Thanks for reading!