The ninth T&T Film Festival runs from September 16 to 30. Guardian columnist BC Pires served on the first TTFF jury in 2009 and wrote the jury’s report. BC will pick a Film of the Day for every day of the festival. Non-linear, essentially visual or special-interest films not intended for the Vin Diesel crowd will be designated as “art films.” Films may be chosen ahead of other, perhaps “better,” films if the director (or other filmmaker) is present for a Q&A session after the screening.
Today’s choice is:
Pelo Malo (Mariana Rondon/ 2013/ Venezuela/ Drama/ 93 mins/ Spanish with English subtitles/ For ages 16+) 8pm Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook.
One of the films deservedly shortlisted for the Youth Jury Prize, Pelo Malo is a West Indian film masquerading as a Venezuelan one; more specifically, it is a Port-of-Spain film, just shot in Caracas, in Spanish.
The adolescent boy at the centre of a very Trinidadian story is the son of a widowed mother who would rather her son grow up to be a player than gay. The lengths she goes to in an attempt to forestall what appears, to her, to be her son’s attraction to an older neighbourhood teenage boy constitute some of the film’s most difficult—and most impressive—moments.
Add the boy’s own defining insecurity about his hair, which is not straight like his white mother’s, but curly, like his black father’s—the “Bad Hair” of the title that Trinidadians know as the opposite of “good hair”—and the simmering pot of a tense drama about family relationships comes to a boil.
This is topnotch filmmaking with fine performances and a sparkling script, even in English subtitles and it tells a critically important story for all of us: if the boy is lost, the man is, too. Another little film T&T filmmakers could learn a great deal from and one of this festival’s best.
Best of the rest:
A Writer in His Place Q&A, 10.30am, Haiti Bride, 6pm, MovieTowne PoS; Two Smart, 5.30pm, Little Carib Theatre, PoS; The Intervention, 8pm MovieTowne, Tobago.
• Films start promptly at advertised times. • Starred* films have been or will be picked as daily selections. • Guardian Media Ltd is an official partner of the T&T Film Festival.
MovieTowne,
Port of Spain
8.30 pm
• The Fire Behind: Leo Aguirre, 2014, USA / Narrative Short / 16 mins / English, Spanish, English subtitles / 14+
• The German Doctor: Lucía Puenzo, 2013, Argentina / Narrative feature / 94 mins / Spanish, German, Hebrew, English subtitles / 14+
The Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook
10 am
Secondary Schools Short Film Festival Selections
5.30 pm
• Pillowman: Nile Saulter, 2013, Jamaica / Documentary Short / 5 mins / English / GA
• Two Smart: Shakirah Bourne, Ricky Redman, 2014, Barbados / Narrative / 90 mins / English / 16+
8 pm
• Old Moon: Raisa Bonnet, 2013, Puerto Rico / Narrative Short / 11 mins / Spanish, English subtitles / PG13
• Pelo Malo: Mariana Rondón, 2013, Venezuela / Narrative feature / 93 mins / Spanish, English subtitles / 16+
MovieTowne Tobago
11 am
• 200 Cartas: Bruno Irizarry, 2013, Puerto Rico / Narrative / 98 mins / English, Spanish, English subtitles / GA
3 pm
• Secondary Schools Short Film Festival Selections
5.30 pm
• Vieques, Hands Up: Nadjah Rios-Villarini, 2014, Puerto Rico / Documentary Short / 14 mins / Spanish, English subtitles / GA
• Legends of Ska: Cool & Copasetic: Brad Klein, 2014, Jamaica / Documentary / 102 mins / English / GA
8 pm
• The Intervention: Kimberly Huie, 2013, Canada / Narrative Short / 5 mins / English / GA
• May in the Summer: Cherien Dabis, 2013, USA, Jordan, Qatar / Narrative feature / 100 mins / English, Arabic, with English subtitles / 14+
UWI
6:30pm
• New Media Presentation of Films
Alliance Francaise
7 pm
• The Good, the Bad and the Apprentice: Amiral Gaspard, 2013, Haiti / Narrative Short / 19 mins / Haitian, English subtitles / 14+
• Project 40: Nadia Charlery, Maharaki, Teddy Albert, Khris Burton,Christian Foret, Olivier Ozier Lafontaine, Patrice Le Namouric, Vianney Sotès, 2014, Martinique / Medium-length narrative / 10 mins / French, English subtitles / PG13
• Creole Soup: Karine Gama, 2013, Guadeloupe / Narrative Short / 15 mins / French, English subtitles / GA
• Brooklyn: Pascal Tessaud, 2014, USA / Narrative feature / 83 mins / French, English subtitles / 16+
Medulla Art Gallery, Woodbrook
12 pm to 6 pm
New Media Exhibition
