For our (and your!) friends in the Southern USA and Canadian Rocky Mountains.
We’ll be screening on April 7th & 9th at the Florida Film Festival and on April 8th in Banff, Alberta!
Check out the Screenings page for all of the information and for tickets!
Thanks to Roslin A. Khan for the wonderful review of the film, from a Caribbean post-colonial perspective. Here’s the link to the original piece that appeared in CineCaribes:
http://cinecaribes.com/2013/01/25/doubles-with-slight-pepper-and-the-post-colonial-caribbean/
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While Ian Harnarine, the writer and director of this two-time award winning short film set in post-colonial Trinidad Tobago, describes it as capturing, in an authentic manner, his personal experience with his own father during the latter’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, a North American reviewer sees similarities with the work of the Brooklyn-born playwright and film director, Peter Sollet.
However, from a Caribbean perspective, this short feature may be described as exemplifying the estrangement, alienation, and sense of hopelessness often experienced by colonial and post-colonial subjects, not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but also throughout the Caribbean as well as in other countries once subjected to the dominance of colonialism.
This negative perception of selfhood pervades and provides the circular framework of the story, evidenced by Dhani’s thoughts as a representative of his ethnic group at the beginning and his reiteration of these thoughts at the end. Furthermore, as the plot develops, Caribbean and other colonial and post-colonial viewers can readily identify with the “double” dynamic of estrangement and alienation, accompanied by hopelessness that are skillfully transmitted through Dhani’s convincing and expressive body language, his conflicting emotions, his father’s recounting of his disappointing experience in Canada, and his sincere attempts to make amends, all enhanced by the marked absence of endearing terms such “son” or his name, “Dhani” and “Pa” until the signing over of the property and the realization of the serious nature of his father’s illness.
While the shared joy during the Parang celebration underscores the multicultural nature of Caribbean societies and the revelation of the secret ingredient for the family’s economic survival combine to effectively bring fleeting relief to existing tensions, this relief is soon followed by a return to the sense of hopelessness when Dhani’s blood is not the same type as his father’s. He feels totally powerless and his reiteration of his thoughts at the start of the movie is understood.
Cinematographically, the lighting is excellent and the diction is clear. However, the inclusion of sub-titles successfully makes it more marketable globally and sets the stage for the success of the feature-length film which is sure to be an excellent production.
For more information on Ian’s work and Doubles with Slight Pepper, visit the film’s website here. You can also watch the film here.
Looking forward to screening with Cine Caribes and the Caribbean Film Academy in Brooklyn coming up on Thursday January 17th! Come on by – it’s going to be a great night.
Check the Screenings page for more details and tickets!
Great screening at the ReRun Theatre in Brooklyn on Friday December 14th at 8pm. This is a great venue with food and drinks (and the best popcorn in the world!).
This is part of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, who has been doing amazing work on behalf of all of the filmmakers.
Head over to the “Screenings” page for the details!
Earlier this week it was announced that we were one of the recipients of the Harold Greenberg Fund’s development grants!
This is high-profile support from an organization with a hugely successful track record. Needless to say, we are incredibly proud of this.
We are still in the development and writing stages, but this support is further encouragement that people care about what we’re doing and want to see it happen!
You can check out the official press release here.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be screening in Portland Oregon, Huntsville Ontario and the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival.We can’t wait to share the film with all of these places.
We’re especially excited about the screenings in Trinidad! The film was shot on location all over the island and it will be somewhat of a homecoming for us all.
If you’re available to make it to any of the screenings, please say hi!
Doubles With Slight Pepper won the Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! competition at the Toronto International Film Festival a few days ago.
Needless to say, this is a massive push forward for the project. There were 5 other incredible projects, so it means a lot to come out on top.
The award comes with $10,000 which is amazing. The money is great, but the real prize is getting the project noticed by the industry, which has already happened.
Here’s the Variety article about it http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118059159
and also a Toronto Star article too: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/tiff/article/1255467–tiff-2012-six-minutes-to-win-it-in-pitch-this-feature-film-contest
If you haven’t seen the film at Festivals around the world, or if you want to see it again you can now purchase the film on iTunes and watch it as many times as you’d like forever!
If you like it make sure to tell your friends and if you didn’t like it – tell your friends anyways!
In one of the most surreal moments of all time, the newspaper of record for us all, The New York Freakin’ Times just posted their article on the film!
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/seeking-a-new-york-audience-for-a-film-rooted-in-trinidad/
Of course, this is something that means a lot and will hopefully spread the word about the film and everyone involved.
Thanks to everyone for their support!!
There has always been more to Doubles With Slight Pepper than what the short film ended up being!So we’re all terribly excited to bring the entire feature film to the big screen. It’s going to take a bit of time and a bit of money to make it happen.
But, we just got selected for the Toronto International Film Festival’s PITCH THIS!
We’ll be pitching the story for $10,000, which will go far in this process. Although the money would be great, we’re just hoping to bring the story to more people as we gather more supporters.
If you’ll be attending TIFF, make sure to circle September 11th on your calendar and drop by to root us on!
