The tenth T&T Film Festival runs from September 15 - 29.
Every day of the festival, T&T Guardian columnist and film writer, BC Pires, will be picking a Film of the Day. Pires has been writing about film from an informed lay perspective since early 1988 and currently writes a film column, BC on TV, for the Sunday Guardian’s Arts section.
Pires served on the TTFF’s first jury and wrote the judges’ report. A different film will be picked every day, and other worthwhile films mentioned. Because of the limitations of programming schedules, the film of the day may not necessarily be the “best” one. Films with an asterisk have been or will be daily picks.
Today’s film is Sugar Cane Alley aka Rue Cases Negres, Black Shack Alley (Euzhan Palcy/1984/ France – Martinique/ Drama/ 133 mins/ French with English subtitles/ Rated G. Colour) 8 pm Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.
Though classified as French, Euzhan Palcy’s first film (from the Joseph Zobel source novel) is set and shot entirely in Martinique and deals exclusively with the most important (many would argue, the only real) West Indian issue: race relations and their historical causes.
It makes its points without didacticism, through the recollection of a childhood begun in a Rue-Cases Negres—a Black Shack Alley, the film’s alternative titles—nearly 90 years ago. Perhaps because it is presented by New Yorker Video, it is now marketed as Sugar Cane Alley but the literal translation of the title is a truer reflection of its subject-matter. It would be enough if such a film were not hysterical; this one is lyrical. It is superbly shot and beautifully paced. It’s faults are attributable to the tiny budget. This is a fine Caribbean film as relevant today as when made a full anthropological generation ago. Recommended like cold lime juice on the verandah on a still, hot day.
Also consider
BEST FILM OF THE DAY
• Venice 4pm . MovieTowne PoS, Screen 1
Slow West 8.15 pm. Studio Film Club
Trafficked 6.30 pm. VENUE: MovieTowne, PoS, Screen 1
Today’s schedule for TTFF/15
VENUE: MovieTowne PoS
11 am: Secondary Schools Short Film Festival, 90 mins
1.30 pm: The Farewell: Alejandro Alonso, 2014 / Cuba Spanish, with English subtitles/ Documentary short / 25 mins / T&T Premiere/ GA
Denis: Gabrielle Blackwood, 2015 / Jamaica / English/ Documentary feature / 60 mins / International Premiere/GA
4 pm: Boxeadora: Meg Smaker, 2015 / USA, Cuba/
Spanish, with English subtitles/ Documentary short / 17 mins / Caribbean Premiere/GA
Venice: Kiki Álvarez, 2014 / Cuba, Colombia / Spanish, with English subtitles
Fiction feature / 74 minutes / T&T Premiere/16+
6.30pm: Dreams in Transit: Karen Martinez, 2015 / T&T, UK English/ Medium-length documentary / 30 mins / World Premiere / GA Q&A
Trafficked: Sean Hodgkinson, 2015 / T&T / English and Spanish, with English subtitles Fiction feature / 72 minutes / World Premiere / 16+ Q&A
9 pm: Party Girl: Roma Zachemba, 2015 / T&T, Poland English/ Short fiction / 11 mins / World Premiere / (14+) Q&A
Honeytrap: Rebecca Johnson, 2014 / UK English / Fiction feature / 93 mins / Caribbean Premiere / 16+
VENUE: Hyatt Regency
6 pm: Cinema Puerto Rico: a Visual Anthology: Mariel C. Marrero-García, Freddie Rodríguez, 2015 / Puerto Rico
Spanish, with English subtitles/ Documentary feature / 106 mins / T&T Premiere
8 pm: Sugar Cane Alley: Euzhan Palcy, 1983 / Martinique, France French, with English subtitles/ Fiction feature / 133 mins / 14+
VENUE: StudioFilmClub
Building 7, Fernandes Industrial Centre, Laventille
8.15 pm: Slow West: John Maclean, 2015 / UK, New Zealand / English and French, with English subtitles/ Fiction feature / 84 mins / Caribbean Premiere / 16+