– Treated to short films shown at TFF

THE Caribbean Film Academy (CAFA) has partnered with EPIC Guyana (Enhancing Potential to Inspire Change), a non-profit local organisation, to show some of the featured films from the Timehri Film Festival 2018 to children of the Sophia Juvenile Holding Centre and Tiger Bay, as well as students from School of the Nations.

Founder of the CAFA, Romola Lucas, and member of the local support team (Guyana) of the CAFA, Sherlina Nageer, hosted the screening and mini workshop for the children at the holding centre.

Lucas, an attorney-at-law, manages the organisation’s programming – promotion, screening, production, and distribution of Caribbean films. Co-founder is Justen Blaize, a film artist with a focus on direction and cinematography.
The short film, “I’ll be There” which Blaize directed, was selected to participate in the 2012 Marche du Film at Cannes.

Meanwhile, the films selected and shown locally included “Sunday,” a short film by Jamaican filmmaker Kyle Chin, “SUGAR,” directed by Michelle Serieux and “POTHOUND” by Christopher Guinness.

“These first two films were specifically chosen because they are based on situations and circumstances that the juveniles can relate to,” EPIC’s Director Brian Backer told the Buzz.
“Sunday” is based on Randy, a gunman on the run. With a vigilante crowd and the police on his tail, he seeks refuge in the neighbourhood church where he finds himself alone with the pastor.

“Sugar” focuses on a young black Jamaican girl from the lower-class who is on the brink of womanhood. She works at a Jamaican resort where she witnesses the influence of tourists on a daily basis. As the de facto breadwinner for her very large family, she faces a crisis of conscience when a tourist couple seems to be the answer to her financial predicament.
“Pothound,” on the other hand, is a story from the point-of-view of a street dog as she observes the world around her. She runs into adversity and forms alliances.

The children were treated to snacks and drinks donated by ‘Value4u’ a member of the John Fernandes Group of Companies. Afterwards, they were engaged during an interactive session to share what they liked about the films and the lessons they learned.
Established in 2012, CAFA is a New York not-profit organisation created to share Caribbean films and support Caribbean filmmakers, in the region and the diaspora.

CAFA’s work provides platforms for the exhibition, production, and distribution of Caribbean stories worldwide. In fact, its mission is to create platforms to support and share the voices and stories of the Caribbean, through film.
EPIC Guyana, on the other hand, works with children who have had law enforcement contact and are detained in the Juvenile Centre in Sophia.

TIMEHRI FILM FESTIVAL
The Timehri Film Festival (TFF) is an annual film festival with the aim of showcasing the work of Guyanese and Caribbean filmmakers. The festival is hosted by the CAFA in partnership with the Caribbean-American culture blog, Rewind and Come Again (RACA).
The mission of the TFF is to celebrate and support the work of Guyanese filmmakers, at home and in the Diaspora, and to share films and stories made in other Caribbean countries, with Guyanese audiences.

All festival film screenings are free and open to the public. In addition, TFF holds several private satellite screenings for audiences that don’t have access to its venues. These include select schools, community groups, prisons and indigenous communities.

For the first time this year, the organisation partnered with award-winning Caribbean director/producer to offer a six day documentary film-making workshop during the period May 29 to June 2, 2018.

The workshop focused on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of documentary filmmaking and participants were taught key production techniques and industry best standards.