Tuesday, September 25 2012

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'REEL LIFE': Academy Award winning film director Kevin McDonald and Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs at Columbus Communicat...

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THE OPENING night of the TT Film Festival (TTFF) 2012 was held at Queen’s Hall on September 19 and set the stage for another event which showcases the best of local and regional film talent.

Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited (CCTL), through its Flow brand is once again the presenting sponsor of the festival. This is the fifth year of Flow’s partnership with the TTFF and as stated by CCTL Managing Director Brian Collins at opening night, “the TTFF has the ability to each year produce a festival that somehow seems to top the one from the previous year. The festival committee has clearly developed a recipe for taking the film industry in Trinidad and Tobago to new heights.”

Festival director and founder Dr Bruce Paddington pointed out that, “this year, 120 films from 30 countries will be screened...more than any other year.”

Included in the line up is the film Marley which was screened on opening night. Directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Mc Donald, the film is an insightful documentary about the life of the late Jamaica reggae legend Bob Marley. Mc Donald was a guest of the film festival on opening night and introduced his film. He described Marley as a “prophet, philosopher and guide through life.” Of TT’s film industry, Mc Donald said, “There is clearly a lot of fire and ambition to make great films here. Really, since the 1970s The Harder They Come, that great Jamaican movie, there hasn’t been a Caribbean film which has really travelled the world and broken in internationally in the box office, one has to look at Trinidad and Tobago and say, this is where this is going to happen and should happen”. The festival was founded in 2006 and is the largest event of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean. This year it runs from September 19 to October 2.