The 11th Annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival Returns to Toronto

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Media Release

Release Date

Friday, July 8, 2016

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In 2016, the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF), returns to Downtown Toronto, at The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street, with an Opening Gala on September 7, then daily from September 14 – 17 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

From September 6 – 11, the Festival hosts the 8th Annual CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI). This year for the first time the CTI is sponsored by Flow, the Caribbean’s leading TV and communications provider, as part of its commitment to the development of the Caribbean filmmaking industry. The CTI’s flagship program is the Market Incubator Program (MIP), a marketing and packaging forum for long-running series projects. It includes five weeks of online training, and one week of intensive workshops in Toronto, culminating in The Big Pitch at the prestigious TIFF (Toronto Int’l Film Festival) Bell Lightbox. Winners of The Big Pitch will graduate to the nine-month CTI Production Support Program (PSP), that takes projects from pitch to production and for the first time ever, PSP projects will receive pilot funding from Flow.

"This wonderful partnership provides an injection of energy and resources into the Region's filmmaking process, and has the potential to be a game changer for our emerging industry. There is now, for the first time, a consistent mechanism through which the most compelling regional projects from the most talented producers can get funding and be seen by wide audiences across the Region," says CEO of CaribbeanTales, Frances-Anne Solomon. "I am looking forward to working with Flow, and with producers and other partners to build on this important milestone in the establishment of a sustainable indigenous industry in the Caribbean."

In an unconventional twist to this year’s theme of Caribbean Love, the opening night of CaribbeanTales International Film Festival will feature an equally atypical dramatic film, Diary of a Badman, Jamaica, USA, 2016, 107 minutes directed by Diemiruaya Deniran and starring Jacinth Sutphin who is also the producer of the film.

This year, the CTFF’s programming committee, whose members come from the indigenous and diasporic Caribbean film community, have put together unique evenings that all tie into the complexity of Caribbean Love.

Trinbago-to-the-Bone celebrates performative cultural stories from Trinidad and Tobago. Migrant Tales, showcases different aspects of the Caribbean diasporic experience. Love Thy Neighbour examines serious issues that exist in the Caribbean -- from those that are individually experienced to those of the community at large. LGBT Love unveils different ideas attached to Caribbean LGBTQ representation, which will include the top films from the Queer Trans People of Colour Short Film Challenge. Revolutionary Love, focuses on ways in which commitment to change can alter both the intimate world and the global. #BlackLoveMatters, explores themes of different forms of Caribbean and Black Love while featuring the best films from the #BlackLoveMatters Short Film Challenge. Animated Love that will be the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival’s inaugural evening of fully animated Caribbean related stories. Walk Good, is the theme of the Closing Night that highlights different ideologies attached to the Jamaican dreadlocks hairstyle, its origins, its current state and its future.

This year’s Festival includes nine feature-length and 17 short films in Official Competition for the CTFF Jury and Audience Awards, to be announced on Closing Night - September 17.

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