Screen Time for Caribbean Tales
Slow and steady wins the race. That’s the approach Frances-Anne Solomon, left, has taken in building Caribbean Tales Inc. into a multi-faceted organization dedicated to the creation, production and distribution of filmed stories from the Caribbean and African Diaspora. Solomon presides over the Caribbean Tales Youth Film Festival this weekend at the TIFF Bell Lightbox where Jamaican filmmaker Storm Saulter’s Better Mus Come premiers in conjunction with an awards gala honouring Canadian broadcasting pioneer Denham Jolly and young filmmaker Ian Harnarine. Harnarine’s short, Doubles With Slight Pepper, was produced with the help of the Caribbean Tales Market Incubator Program and went on to win TIFF’s 2011 Award for Best Canadian Short Film, a prize worth $10,000.
This weekend’s events – the awards gala brunch and screening at noon on Saturday followed by a public screening of Better Mus Come Sunday at 3:45 pm – marks the first time Caribbean Tales has partnered with TIFF and Solomon is happy to borrow some of the Lightbox’s prestige. The collaboration represents a win for TIFF, too, which is kicking off a Black History Month screening series entitled Music, Magic, Clash: New Voices in the African Diaspora. READ MORE
Toronto’s Kastner Wins Int’l Emmy
Congratulations to Toronto’s John Kastner on winning the 2011 International Emmy Award for best documentary for his film, Life with Murder. Produced by JS Kastner Productions in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, in association with CTV, Life with Murder is a gripping portrait of an Ontario couple’s painful struggle to accept their son back into the family after he is convicted of murdering his sister. The doc was the only Canadian program nominated for the 39th International Emmy Awards, which were presented by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in New York City on November 21. This is the fourth Emmy win for Kastner, more than any other individual in the history of Canadian television.
TO Screen Biz a “Good News Story”
Toronto’s screen-based industries were in the spotlight at City Hall yesterday where leaders of three prominent organizations made presentations to Toronto’s Economic Development Committee. Wesley Lui, above left, with Toronto Film Commissioner Peter Finestone, noted that business is booming in the animation sector where Toronto is “the global leader in children’s television production. We produce more children’s content than anywhere else in the world, our revenue has climbed from $37 million in 2008 to almost $60 million in 2010.”
Lui is President of Computer Animation Studios of Ontario (CASO) and Co-Founder of House of Cool, a visual/special effects and animation house. He noted that his business partner, Ricardo Curtis, “was in LA for 12 years working for Pixar and Dreamworks but he didn’t want to raise his family there so he moved back to Toronto. That happens a lot.”
“The Language of Beauty”
Toronto-based filmmaker Cuong Ngo, left, must be a VERY persuasive individual. Somehow, he was able to convince a coterie of Vietnamese movie stars and world-class composers Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie, to work for nothing or nearly nothing on his first feature film, Pearls of the Far East. The movie receives its world premier at Toronto’s Reel Asian Film Festival November 13, which is thrilling for Ngo who cherishes the festival and attends it each year with great enthusiasm.
Ngo’s career has been helped enormously by Toronto’s robust film fest culture. His 2009 film, The Golden Pin, was named Best Canadian Short two years ago at the Inside Out LGBT Film and Video Festival.
“I’m so proud to be part of Reel Asian because they’ve done so much to support Asian Canadian filmmakers,” says Ngo. “I hope the festival will be a springboard because this is an art house film and it’s a foreign film. But I really want an audience to see the film and see Vietnam portrayed like this by a Vietnamese director.”
Get Animated! Free Weekend
Animation fans have something to cheer about this weekend when the NFB Mediatheque (150 John Street) teams with the Toronto Animated Image Society to present Get Animated! a series of programs featuring some of Canada’s finest (and funniest!) animation.
On Friday (October 28) at 6:30 pm Mediatheque shows highlights from the Toronto Animated Image Society 2011 Showcase, then on Saturday at 7 pm, it’s the TAIS program. Family programing is in the spotlight Sunday afternoon at 12:30 pm and on Wednesday (November 2) the NFB’s new release program repeats at 4 pm. All screenings are free but if you want to ensure yourself a seat, be early!
