By Leiselle Maraj Wednesday, September 5 2012

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Festival launch: (Left to right) TT Film Festival director Bruce Paddington, Elyse Guevarra, bpTT Communication Advisor, Ann-marie Ganness, Corporate ...

Trinidad born filmmaker Horace Ove will be honoured at the seventh annual Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) which takes place between September 19 and October 2.

The festival has expanded to 175 full length and short films from Trinidad and Tobago, the region, heritage countries and the diaspora which will be screened at venues throughout the country.

The festival committee launched the event yesterday at the Carlton Savannah, Port-of-Spain. “We have kept going. Quite a few festivals in the region are no more but I think although we have kept going, we have gotten bigger and better,” said founder and Festival Director, Bruce Paddington.

Within the two weeks of the festival narrative, documentary and experimental films would be screened with a special focus on the cinema of Canada.

There will also be workshops, filmmakers’ discussion panels, networking events and presentations on the financing, marketing and distribution of Caribbean films.

Ove, Paddington said, would be honoured for his groundbreaking work in the film industry.

Born in Trinidad in 1939, Ove migrated to the United Kingdom in 1960 and has made 20 films in his career spanning over three decades.

The highlights of his career include the first independent documentary on Black music in Britain, Reggae and his first narrative feature, Pressure, in 1975, which was the first done by a Black-British filmmaker.

As part of its tribute, both pieces will be featured during the ttff.

Prizes have also increased and are now worth over $170,000. Participating filmmakers could also win trips to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York founded by US actor Robert De Niro and SilverDocs film festival in Maryland.

Partnering with one of its leading sponsors, bpTT, ttff honoured several pioneers in the local film industry including filmmakers, actors and musicians. RBC, another leading sponsor, will host Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion for the second year running.

The programme gives ten emerging Caribbean filmmakers the opportunity to learn from professional film artists. The filmmakers will have the opportunity to pitch film ideas for the chance to win a cash prize of $20,000 to go towards film production.

Flow will also offer Video on Demand of all the films in the festival after it ends. One hundred percent of the proceeds go towards the filmmakers.

The festival begins on September 19 with a gala opening featuring the screening of Marley, a full length documentary of the life of reggae icon, Bob Marley.

Films in the festival cover a wide range of topics, Paddington said.

Local themes include parang, stick fighting, Hosay, the work of Mungal Patasar and the late Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Eric Williams.