Piton film fest want to partner with TTFF

Ed Herman
Ed Herman

FOUNDER and president of the Piton International Film Festival (PIFF) Ed Umoja Herman has expressed an interest in partnering with the TT Film Festival (TTFF) to help boost the film industry here and the Caribbean.

"The region has so much to offer the film industry. I’m open to working with people who want to work with me," the St Lucian-born, US-based Herman told Newsday. "Since TT already has a film festival, I would love to have the PIFF support what they are doing by coming on board and bringing our skill set, along with the actors and production people who are working with us,” something that founder and festival director of the TTFF Bruce Paddington said the local festival will welcome.

“I think it’s a great idea for TTFF to have a close relationship and share information with other film festivals throughout the Caribbean. We already have relations with a number of them and we look forward to having relations with the PIFF. The TTFF was instrumental in setting up a Caribbean association of film festivals,” Paddington said, but it needs some revision. He said when that time comes, working with the PIFF will certainly add value to the industry.

A scene from Demedrius Charles' award winning film, Ascension: I am Not My Mother.

The PIFF is a 12-month initiative that focuses on celebrating, exploring, understanding the various aspects that are needed in the production of filmmaking, and highlights the opportunities that are available behind, as well as what is in front of the camera.

"PIFF also works collaboratively with individuals involved in filmmaking and film festivals throughout the global community. It is unique in that its focus is on education, collaboration, and celebration, instead of competition," Herman said.

In 2017 he had reached out to officials of the TTFF with his idea and they had seemed interested. But for some reason nothing had panned out. He is willing to try again.

"The truth about this, it’s very easy to do if we sit down and work together. Since we are based in the US we have access to a very large pool of people who are willing to work with PIFF to empower the people in the region. I would also like to take the PIFF to an island that doesn’t have a film festival and then connect it to an island that does so that we can have a US/Caribbean team pushing film productions along with the boot camps," something he said he and his team have been working on for six years.

Herman admits this year the PIFF will not come off in St Lucia because of lack of support from government. "They feel that they don’t need to support us because we are doing the work with our own dollars. We have shown that we can do it and we have done it with our own money. I didn’t want to move the festival, remember I was born in St Lucia so this is very personal to me. But I need to find an island that wants to grow with us and give the youth another industry in which to work."

Herman, also called Brother Umoja, has a great deal of media experience that has allowed him access to insight in the film industry. He is the founder of Umoja Communications Company Inc. (UCCI); Sisters in Harmony, a global network of women working to guide and support the next generation of young women through mentoring, education and teaching them to live with a purpose and work towards a common goal by harmonising their talents, skills and abilities; blog talk radio show Speaking to Harmony; Caribwood and Umoja Communications Company Network (UCCN). He said UCCI was introduced into the world of media with Umoja Photo in 1991, after which he served as the personal photographer for the Reverend Al Sharpton for six years, and worked with people like the late high-profile attorney Johnny Cochran; educator, civil rights advocate and wife of Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz; and author, activist, civil rights leader and wife of Martin Luther King Jr, Coretta Scott King. Herman said he was also sought out to capture the images of numerous historical, political, musical, and sporting events worldwide.

"Throughout the years, within my multi-media company, I have had the pleasure of interviewing and establishing working relationships with individuals from various media genres such as director Warrington Hudlin, actor Antonio Fargas, South African international music sensation Lira, the Commodores, the legendary Freddie McGregor and Marcia Griffiths, and many others. After years of networking and establishing ongoing relationships with those in the film industry, I also began working with individuals who started or had ongoing film festivals."

One of the key members on the PIFF team is filmmaker Demedrius Charles, who was born in St Lucia and is now based in New York. The writer, director, poet and producer has four shows made for television to his credit, and two off-Broadway productions. He received the 2018 Sir John Compton President Award and the 2015 St Lucia House Foundation Creative Arts Award. He was also presented with an Achievement Award from PIFF for his film Ascension: I am Not My Mother.

In 2014, UCCI launched the Piton Film Festival (PFF), named after the Piton Peaks in St Lucia. "After the resounding global interest from filmmakers and producers of creative art works (features, documentaries, musicians, visual artists, authors) to have their works showcased at the festival, PFF was rebranded as the Piton International Film Festival. Along with this rebranding, came a change in focus from being a competition to focusing on collaboration with a 12-month initiative to assist with global exposure, monetisation, and education. Since, this change, PIFF is now actively working with and promoting hundreds of actors, singers, musicians, filmmakers, producers, directors, from over 52 different countries around the world."

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"Piton film fest want to partner with TTFF"

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