Trinidad & Tobago: Talking with Filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon · Global Voices
Trinidad-born <PERSON> is a blogger and award winning filmmaker who has just completed her most recent project, A Winter Tale. Set in the violent downtown Toronto community of Parkdale, the story begins with the gathering of a black men’s support group, which was formed after a bullet meant for a local drug dealer kills an innocent boy. Multi-layered and expertly crafted, the film speaks to a multicultural community’s experience in an adopted land.
A Winter Tale has been well received in Canada – and it recently made its Caribbean debut at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival to an appreciative audience. Part of the hype that has surrounded the film has been driven by <PERSON> herself – she understands the power of citizen media to draw attention to what she calls “Caribbean-themed storytelling”. I caught up with <PERSON> on Facebook to discuss her latest tour de force…and how blogging and the Internet have helped her promote it.
<PERSON>: It’s been a long journey to get this film made – more than four years worth of work from actors’ workshops to finished production. What compelled you to tell this story?
<PERSON>: First as a feminist, most of my films have been from a woman's point of view. For a long time now I've wanted to create something that would be from a male perspective… give men a chance to “explain” themselves, take time myself to explore and faithfully render that different viewpoint.
Second, events in Toronto forced the specific issue of gun violence – about five years ago there was a lot of so called black on black violence – death by gun violence. The “perpetrators” – black men; the “victims” – black men. I wanted to create a piece that would explore the inner lives of these “monsters” who were being portrayed so negatively in the media and press. I wanted to start with the fact that each man, whether “murderer” or victim, has a mother, sister, lover; is somebody's son. And that we are all impacted and compromised by violence.
<PERSON>: Do you think the film has made an impact on the communities it profiles?
<PERSON>: I can't say if it has made an impact on “the communities” but can say that individually people have told me that they were very moved, that the film resonated for them. 550
The overwhelmingly positive reaction has been across the board – from black men – and women, white people, young people.
The most surprising audience for me has been young Torontonians aged around 12-17, many of whom said they identified with the story and characters. Since I never set out to make a film for young people, I was very struck by this.
<PERSON>: Has your process on this film been different from others you’ve made in the past?
<PERSON>: I often use improvisation as part of the script development process, because the actor can bring so much to the integrity of characterisation and specificity of language. I thrive working with actors, and see them as collaborators in the story-telling process.
One thing I did a bit differently in this film is really take my time, particularly in post production. When you are working on a small budget there is a lot of pressure to finish the film quickly. It's said that two things make a movie: money and time. If you don't have money, take time. On this film, the edit period was very long – I re-cut the show several times, kept searching. We also shot pickups very late in the day, when we really could not afford to do so. But I wanted to make the film as good as it could be. I did not want to compromise the film because of our lack of financial resource.
<PERSON>: But you utilized another important resource in technology. When and why did you first start to blog? Did you immediately see the potential of the medium to help raise awareness of your work?
<PERSON>: When I started CaribbeanTales – my multimedia company – in 2001, the aim was to use “any means necessary” to showcase and distribute Caribbean-themed storytelling…to exploit the advances in new technology and the digital revolution to take ownership of all aspects of the storytelling process, from production through marketing and distribution.
Accordingly, we developed a website called CaribbeanTales that aimed to be an interactive multimedia resource for Caribbean culture, literature and the arts. It was daunting because I knew nothing about the web, but definitely saw its potential. 550