Green Days wins award at Barbados Film Fest

Local drama film Green Days by the River added to its success this week with an award from the 2018 Barbados Independent Film Festival (BIFF).

Green Days won the Carmichael Award for Exceptional Storytelling at the second edition of the awards, which featured 35 films. Green Days’ director Michael Mooleedhar received the award at the BIFF Awards Ceremony and final screening on Sunday at the Southern Palms Hotel. Local writer and historian Michael Anthony, who wrote the novel on which the film was based, also attended.

Mooleedhar said the producers were excited to have won the award and it helps to build the film and solidify it as a success. He said the audiences in Barbados were very excited about the movie, as evidenced by a sold-out showing; they had to bring in an extra 20 chairs to accommodate everyone. Mooledhar said from the Q&A segment after the film they could tell that generally everyone enjoyed the film.

Green Days by the River is a coming of age story set in Mayaro 1952 and centres on a teenager named Shellie (Sudai Tafari) who is befriended by a plantation owner named Mr Gidharee (Anand Lawkaran), and falls for his beautiful daughter Rosalie (Nadia Nisha Kandhai).

The film was produced by Christian James.

Green Days opened the TT Film Festival (TTFF) 2017 and was also a big winner, capturing the awards for both best TT feature and people’s choice for best feature film narrative. The film then opened in local cinemas and in November it was screened at the Belize Film Festival and shows at various schools.

Mooleedhar reported that between yesterday and today the film will be opening in cinemas in Barbados and four other Caribbean countries – Grenada, Guyana, Antigua and St Lucia. He said the team is extremely happy to have the film spreading across the entire Caribbean and is in talks with distributors from other regional countries.

Mooleedhar also reported that from next week Green Days will begin a theatrical run in the Bahamas and will also be featured at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles next month and at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland in March.