Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival makes strong return

THE former Jamaican film commissioner Renee Robinson believes the time has come for a stronger regional response to the creative sector.

She shared this and other thoughts at the launch of the Greenlight Investor Toolkit, One Woodbrook Place, Damian Street, Port of Spain on September 26.

This was one of many events held during the returned Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) which ran from September 24-30.

Robinson and Red Owl Partners’ social impact producer Nyasha Laing took Newsday through the launch and how it would assist regional filmmakers and producers.

In simplest terms, the toolkit aims to connect Caribbean filmmakers with financiers.

It is an AI-powered tool. It was launched collaboratively between Robinson’s company TidalRise and TTFF.

A release prior to the launch said, “Supported by the Unesco Creative Caribbean Programme, with funding from the European Union and the Organisation of ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific) States and powered by(Swiss-based, AI Analytics platform for the film, TV and advertising industries) Largo.ai, the toolkit represents a first for the region. It tackles one of the most persistent challenges facing Caribbean creatives, limited access to production financing for screen content.”

A presentation about the toolkit was also recently done during Carifesta XV held in Barbados from August 22-31.

Robinson said the toolkit was developed when she looked at how the industry should utilise tools and financing opportunities to build out the region’s creative economy.

“To ensure we are able to use our art, creativity and culture as a way and driver of social mobility and to create an economic path to change the lives of Caribbean people.”

The creative sector could “future-proof” the region, she said.

“It is our competitive advantage and it is an industry that requires a deeper, more robust level of prioritisation. We need to be able to take these things seriously.”

There are other platforms that do this but none of them were specific to the region, she said.

It also grew out of a survey done which her organisation hopes to share soon.

The investor survey was done with about 50 regional investors.

“They were asked about their appetite for investing in Caribbean projects. What would they look for? What would make them say yes, what would make them say no?”

For Robinson and Laing the survey could help demystify film financing, regionally and internationally.

They shared three major insights gleaned from the survey thus far: Developmental financing was available in other parts of the world but not the Caribbean.

Many Caribbean countries had funding or micro grants but not developmental financing.

Most respondents who expressed an interest in financing regionally commercially bankable film projects, wanted to have 50 per cent of financing already locked. This was difficult for filmmakers who did not have access to that kind of financing, she said.

She said if the financier was saying someone needed to have 50 per cent of financing already locked, where would it come from if there were no public sources of financing?

The other insight was investors were moderately confident with screen-based investments but the majority of them felt they needed to be more confident in order to greenlight a project.

The third insight was that respondents wanted to increase their understanding of distribution.

The organisation also did surveying of film commissions across the region. She asked, “How many Caribbean countries have a film commission? How many of those commissions are one person versus a team of people?

“How many of those commissions are within a ministry of culture or industry versus a mega ministry with multiple portfolios?”

She also asked how many of these commissions were looking at incentivising film companies to come to the region and shoot because they believed it could result in heads in beds versus seeing it as an avenue to develop a local economy and ecosystem.

These changes and developments needed to be policy-driven, Robinson added.

Few regional countries also had film funds, which would help provide financial support to filmmakers, she said.

Robinson spearheaded the development of Jamaica’s film fund which was launched in January 2024.

It took more than ten years to do the financial engineering, the structuring, the policy and shepherding it through parliament to get it legislatively approved, Robinson said.

The development of film funds and other initiatives could only happen when regional public instructions started seeing the creative economy as an industry of the future.

While the frameworks existed for the development of most of these things within the region, they were under resourced.

Despite this, a market remained for Caribbean content.

“Everything in our mythology has an opportunity to become a story,” she said.

Caribbean people had common histories, Robinson said.

She said, if, as Caribbean countries say, they prioritise the creative economy, then things had to be done differently and they needed to bolster the existing structures to ensure the sector’s growth and development.

Robinson said the time had come for a more regional, political response to the creative industry.

“I believe, in my personal opinion, the time has definitely come for us to have a Caribbean structure for the creative economy."

About this year's festival

For the festival’s director Mariel Brown a strong turnout at the Republic Day opening indicated that the public was truly happy to see the festival return.

She said the opening night was thrilling as the festival opened with the 2024 documentary/musical Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy Story. The Canadian director Alison Duke film celebrates the life and legacy of Jamaican dancehall pioneer Ophlin “Sister Nancy” Russell.

Brown said it was moving to see TT filmmakers sharing their stories with the public on that day.

Canadian actor and filmmaker Henri Pardo’s Kanaval was also one of the more than 100 films screened at this year’s festival. The film is about a boy taken from his island and dropped on the strange planet of Canada.

He said to Newsday on September 26 that the festival’s return was important for the region, particularly being of Haitian descent.

It was great to come to the Caribbean and present the film among the region’s huge community, he added.

Many film festivals were largely held in the global north (North America, Europe) but to come to the region was a pleasure for him plus it allowed him to meet other filmmakers.

Pardo said Haiti was in a precarious situation but it was largely in Port-au-Prince and, outside of that, the country’s culture, history and spirituality was still thriving.

As a filmmaker it was great to make that active and visible again to Haitians and other people of the diaspora all across the world, he said.

Vincentian filmmaker, curator and creative consultant Aiko Roudette and Duke also spoke to Newsday.

Duke said TTFF was one of the region’s larger film festivals and it was important to bring Caribbean stories to the region so audiences could take it in, talk about it and have discussion.

Roudette said these films and festivals allowed the region to get beneath the surface of who we were and to dig-in to the “complexities and layers” of being Caribbean people.

She said these festivals should make the region’s people treasure themselves, value others and fight for what was authentically theirs.