Legendary Filmmaker Neema Barnette takes Antigua Lit Fest Beyond the Screen

Legendary Filmmaker Neema Barnette takes Antigua Lit Fest Beyond the Screen
Author

Nerissa Golden

Release Date

Monday, July 22, 2013

Share

Antigua (July 22, 2013) " This August, the Antigua & Barbuda International Literary Festival will proudly host Beyond the Screen an event in collaboration with HAMAfilms and goldenmedia. Legendary and award-winning director Neema Barnette and her husband screen actor Reed McCants will share their wisdom and experience of filmmaking at a series of workshops and special events around Antigua from August 14th to 17th, 2013.

Throughout the four-day event, there will be workshops aimed at writers and novelist who would like to turn their work into viable screenplays. Acting for Film, Digital Filmmaking and Distribution through New Media will be conducted by actor Reed McCants a 20-year veteran of the art form.

Neema Barnette will facilitate From Script to Screen on Wednesday, August 14th and host a special dinner and discussion event on Friday, August 16th. One of the highlights of Beyond the Screen will be a special screening of Barnette's most recent film T.D. Jakes Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the Seventh Day starring Blair Underwood. Reed McCants is also featured in the film.

Organiser of the Antigua & Barbuda International Film Festival Pam Arthurton welcomed the creation of this new event, which will allow for a smaller version of the ABIFF to be held this year.

"Apart from the financial constraints, what held us back in previous years was that the film festival did not have enough volunteers and collaborations. I think if we had more volunteers we could have made the 2012 festival happen, which is why we are very happy to collaborate with HAMA and Goldenmedia. This is the rebirth of the Antigua & Barbuda Literary Festival and Beyond the Screen will be a component of this event for the foreseeable future," Arthurton stated.

HAMAFilms Director Howard Allen said the creation of Beyond the Screen is one of the ways his company has always envisioned giving back to Antigua & Barbuda and also the wider Caribbean.

"Telling our Caribbean stories remains the focus of HAMAFilms and this new event will allow us to work with Neema who has become one of our mentors. This is an opportune time for aspiring filmmakers and writers to learn how to make that transition from a story to a screenplay and the process of making their own film," Allen said.

Neema Barnette is an American film director, and the first African-American female sitcom director. Barnette was the first African-American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony. Her work includes a mixture of film and television. She has directed television programmes as such as The Cosby Show, A Different World, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, Diagnosis Murder, China Beach to name a few.

She has won numerous awards, honours, and nominations, among them an Emmy Award for her after school special To Be a Man, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Sundance Film Festival Award for her film Civil Brand. She owns her own production company Hope Entertainment and is also a professor of film at the UCLA School of Film & Television.

Beyond the Screen is being supported by Carib World Travel and the Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority. To get the full schedule of activities, fees and venues for Beyond the Screen, visit www.trulycaribbean/events.

Latest Stories