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The second annual Film Festival put on by Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago (AFTT) will begin on July 25 and organizer Asha Lovelace is looking forward to another successful year.

Originally published in the T&T Guardian on July 24, 2016

Lovelace is the Caribbean regional secretary of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) and it was while in a meeting of the group that she said she was inspired to create the festival, after realizing that films from the African continent were not seen in Trinidad. “So a place for us to start would be to actually try and have an exhibition space where we can have that kind of exchange from the films from the African continent to the Caribbean, not only Trinidad but the plan is to try to move it throughout the Caribbean.”
Lovelace said filmmakers from the African continent are really pleased to be screening in T&T and there was a good response to the call for films. “Generally there’s no other platform ready for them to screen in these parts. Most of them screen in Europe a lot, in North America and so on, so the Caribbean is kind of new territory for them, and a place I think they also feel the connection with, so they’re really excited to screen their movies in this part of the world.”
The main program of the Festival is recent films from the African continent, and Lovelace said through her connections there, she is able to keep in contact with some of the filmmakers and other people who run festivals to see what is current. She said she has tried to keep the films to two years old at the most. There are also classic films being screened at UWI and Junior films at the Little Carib Theatre.
Lovelace said in the future, she is working towards having the filmmakers themselves come and present their films and do workshops. She said the filmmakers are enthusiastic about the prospect as well.
She said she is confident the Festival will receive positive reviews, as people were very happy to see the films last year. “A lot of people felt that it was a good way to see the African continent without leaving Trinidad, because we tried to select a nice, diverse set of programming. We had people from North Africa, East Africa, all areas of Africa, so we got to see different kinds of film, some films that are more urban, some still a little rural and so on, so you got to see a wide cross-section of the African continent.”
Lovelace said the film community was also happy with the Festival, as “I think because we have been concentrating a lot on the films from Hollywood, it’s always kind of welcoming to see something from somewhere else.”

For more information, call 796-8988, email info@africafilmtt.com and go to http://africafilmtt.com