Joanne Briggs
Since its appearance at the T&T Film Festival last year, the movie Trafficked has been on its own festival tour. A few weeks ago, it was featured at the New Voices in Black Cinema Festival in New York. Before that, it was part of the Pan African film festival in Crenshaw, Los Angeles. Next stop, Cannes. Yes, the reputable Cannes Film Festival in France.
Writer, producer and director of the film, Sean Hodgkinson of Quirky Studios said these international stops were by chance, blind applications for the respective festivals (he found the NY film festival on Facebook), only to receive positive responses. Just as appreciative are the responses from the audience who view the movie of three young Trinidadians involved in this chaotic and deathly ring of drug smuggling as something that could happen to anyone.
“What makes the movie connect with people is that there are three people in the audience like Penny, Kyah and George (the movie characters). That could be anyone in school, in university,” said Garth St Clair of Eye on Dependency. He and his wife Natasha Nunez are co-producers of the film. They have been involved in reform for those who have dealt with the dark world of narcotics outside and inside the prison system.
The movie script, written by Hodgkinson, is built around his conversation with a prison inmate who was sentenced for being a drug mule. Garth and Natasha arranged the meeting. “From a filmmaker’s perspective, you have to think about the person,” said Hodgkinson.
The response so far has been encouraging. “What is satisfying, when the film is done, there is a ten second silence, then clapping,” said St Clair. At the New York festival, Hodgkinson said Trafficked was well received. “We had a great turn out, and good mix of people — Caribbean and non-Caribbean people,” he said.
The audience has also realised that this scenario could happen to anyone, understanding that it is not exclusive to a single Caribbean country but could occur any part of the world. After the Brooklyn screening, one viewer said vigilance is important. “She said she was now petrified of deserted, quiet beaches. So the point about being vigilant while on vacation definitely hit home,” said Nunez.
But work on the film is far from over. “From the business side, it’s about push, push, push,” said Hodgkinson. Creating films is just not about being seen at TTFF but ensuring that they find a spot in the industrial landscape. While from an artistic perspective, the movie was well done, the purpose of the film is to drive home the message about the dangers of drug trafficking – not the glorification of a kingpin but from those who find themselves consumed in it. Although it received the award for Best Local Film Feature at last year’s TTFF, from the business side, sharing the film’s message continues to be a difficult one.
“Grant funding is not in the right place,” said Nunez. “How are you going to reap the benefits, how are you going to account? This is blood, sweat and tears.”
For example, St Clair said, the film was supposed to be shown in the Bahamas with the support of T&T’s counter-trafficking unit but funding was pulled a day before its screening. “The unit is only three years old but they saw and loved the movie. They even used it at the St James Academy. We approached the Ministry of National Security to sponsor but it was decided that the film was about drug, not human, trafficking. But in my mind, to force someone into drugs, that is human trafficking. A lot of square pegs in round holes,” he said.
Even with the support the film has received from the British High Commission, Hodgkinson, St Clair and Nunez still have to pound the pavement.
“It is so disappointing that your own people don’t support,” said Hodgkinson. “We fought every inch of the way to make it happen. If we have to fight to get things done we will do it. Imagine you put all this effort and you still scrunting. I love making films, I love telling stories, I will continue.”
When the film goes to Cannes, none of the producers will be there to accompany the film because finances are limited. With no hype or presence, the Cannes event may be a hit or miss. But the world tour does not end there. A distributor has shown interest at the New York screening. San Francisco has the Black Film Festival. Toronto is up for consideration, even Indonesia. Back in Trinidad, Digicel IMAX has school screenings of a PG-version for groups of 30 and more.
“Next year, the film could still be going. This has a very long shelf life. This is not for entertainment but for education,” said St Clair.