Acclaimed T&T Filmmaker Hosts Workshop in Belize

Workshop: From Script to Screen

Facilitator: Yao Ramesar, Film Lecturer, UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago
Tuesday July 12th to Thursday July 14th
9 am – 12 pm / 1 p.m. - 4 p.m (18 hrs)
Government House / House of Culture
Belize City
Participant Level: OPEN TO ALL AGES
$50/day w/ lunch (Total: $150)
$35/day w/out lunch (Total: $105)
BAVIA & Global Parish Members & students with student cards – 20% discount
Scholarships available upon request and vetting (belizefilmfestival@yahoo.com)

An intensive overview of the entire film process from idea to screening a film at a major film festival in 3 phases: Pre-Production, Production and Post-Productions using the film SISTAGOD by Yao Ramesar as a case study. SISTAGOD is the first in a triology that foretells the coming of a black female messiah. The film is very surreal, with a haunting musical score and Orisha songs sung by female calypsonian Ella Andall. There are practically no visual effects and hardly any dialogue in this movie, but instead  a greater emphasis on imagery. Trinidadian Carnival plays an integral part in the film, with the use of traditional characters that are still popular today. To date, SISTAGOD remains the sole Trinidad and Tobago feature film to gain official selection at a major international festival world premiering in 2006 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Yao Ramesar is one of the Caribbean’s most accomplished and prolific directors having created over 120 films on the people, history and culture of Trinidad and Tobago which have collectively screened in more than 100 countries. In 2006 he was honored as the Caribbean’s first Laureate in Arts and Letters at the inaugural Caribbean Awards for Excellence and in 2007 served as the first filmmaker in residence at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine where he has pioneered the teaching of cinema at the tertiary level in Trinidad and Tobago, fostering a generation of emerging filmmakers who have produced over 140 diverse films on Trinidad and Tobago. Ramesar remains a cornerstone of the emerging local and regional film culture, having taken Caribbean cinema to the world under the rubric of an original aesthetic deemed “Caribbeing”, notable for its almost exclusive reliance on sunlight to illuminate the people and landscapes of his films.

This joint course between the Belize Int'l Film Festival and UWI is the first step towards bringing Film as a tertiary level career option to Belize. Further discussions with UB will hopefully make the offering of degree film courses in Belize a reality very soon!!

http://www.belizefilmfestival.com/

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts