The 3rd Annual Flatbush Film Festival: West Indian Edition (presented by caribBEING) closes tonight, with screenings of the contemporary and the classic, both at Brooklyn Heights Cinema in NYC.
First, Ring di Alarm! – the feature film by the The New Caribbean Cinema Series – an initiative that proposes to present the world with a showcase of creative artistry from the region’s up and coming filmmakers. The series is a Caribbean co-production, jointly produced by Storm Saulter from Jamaica and the St Lucian born Michelle Serieux.
Ring di Alarm! comprises of a compilation of 8 short films by different directors, all about life in modern-day Jamaica, made by the New Caribbean Cinema filmmakers’ collective. The filmmakers include Desmond Young, Joel Burke, Kyle Chin, Michael "Ras Tingle" Tingling, Michelle Serieux, Nile Saulter, and Storm Saulter.
It'll screen tonight, Thursday, starting at 7pm.
And at 9pm, Horace Ové's 1975 classic Pressure – a drama about the tensions that exist between first and second generation West Indian immigrants in London.
A longer description:
The film focuses on one black teenager, and his attempt to find his way in a white-dominated society. As Anthony's initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere; potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. While his family come from Trinidad, Anthony was born in Britain and is British. When a Black awareness meeting is violently raided by the police, and Anthony sees these 'organised forces of repression' at work, his political awakening begins.
The film's themes still resonate today, and not just in the city it's set, but should be familiar to people of African descent in locales in which they are a minority.
This is your opportunity to see a rarely screened film – those who live in NYC anyway.
Tickets to one or both screenings can be purchased here: http://caribbeing.eventbrite.com/
We've reviewed 2 films from the festival series – Med Hondo's classic West Indies HERE, and Patricia Benoit's Stones in the Sun HERE.
For more information about caribBEING and the organization's efforts, visit www.caribbeing.com.