Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Producer Christoper Anthony Din Chong and director Kevin Adams have teamed up to produce the film Queen of Soca. The film, which is a sequel to Adams’ 2012 short film No Soca, No Life, is one of three films chosen to represent T&T and premier at Carifesta 2019.

The film is currently in pre-production. Din Chong said the film received an award of $250,000 as part of the Take One feature film grant from the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts to make a movie that reflects positively on the twin island. He said this only partially fulfills the need for funding to make a high quality film.

Din Chong said the film is a rags to riches story, something like a Caribbean Rocky. Written by Adams, it follows the story of Olivia, a girl down on her luck who uses soca as a means of lifting the family out of squalor, in defiance of her mother. He said he became involved in producing the film because he enjoyed the short film Queen of Soca is based on. “Given our mutual respect we agreed that my experience and resources would contribute to making the film that he envisioned. It is a Producer’s job to support the Director’s vision and we are both eager to see soca break into the mainstream. We are joining the struggle and doing our part. Film has that ability to reach where other media have yet to penetrate.”

Adams said he was inspired to write the film “because following the success of No Soca, No Life at the T&T Film Festival in 2012, many persons inquired about when can we see Part Two, as it was well received by audiences. The film will touch on many aspects of T&T culture, some more subtly than others.  These include race, religion, the barriers between rich and poor, and more directly, how  our music can transform lives.”

The movie asks, how do we know when we are making the right decisions and the wrong ones? How do we know what our ancestors taught us is really the right way?  Mostly it asks how do you un-culture yourself to a different way of thinking? I can’t say what the audience would take away and that’s what’s so special about a movie. While you hope to plant seeds for the audience to see one thing, they see something else.”

Din Chong said another reason for getting involved with this project is the need for more Caribbean content. “Less than 15 Trinidadian narrative feature films were made in T&T in the last 10 years and I was involved in three of them. There needs to be more movies being made for Netflix and other content creators, to identify with what a Caribbean film is and to add to their catalogue. I am working through my Foundation, the Forward Ever Foundation, to give young people the opportunity to express themselves in the media of film, with the added advantage of continuity within the industry.  This is an exciting era as we are creating our own Caribbean aesthetic one film at a time, we are presenting ourselves, our culture, food and music to the world. I believe that our movies can be a disruptive force in the global film industry.”

Din Chong said he hopes to make major contributions to the film industry in T&T over the next few years. “I am working aggressively with a number of local and Hollywood-based stakeholders to create Caribbean content for export. I intend to bring these projects to life and create jobs directly and indirectly through ancillary offerings. I envisage our movies contributing in part to the diversification of the T&T economy as well as providing significantly to the development of a global Caribbean aesthetic. I anticipate our culture will also influence related industries such as fashion and music.”