We won the award for BEST SHORT FILM at the Bushwick Film Festival in Brooklyn! It’s amazing to have the film reach so many people and it’s all due to Festivals. Congratulations to the cast and crew of the film!
After a successful festival run (which still continues!), the film is now available to stream on Vimeo! Thanks to Short of the Week we’ve had over 10,000 views in less than 24 hours. I could never imagine that. Check it out here:
The feature adaptation of the short film was recently selected by IFP to take part in their Emerging Storytellers program!
If you’re unfamiliar with the program here’s what they say:
The premier talent pool for new voices on the independent scene, RBC’s Emerging Storytellers presents 25 U.S. narrative features in early-stage development with little previous marketplace exposure. Writer/directors have a variety of experience, having previously established themselves through the festival circuit, as well as web, advertising and new media platforms.
As you can see – it’s a pretty big deal! I’ve loved the films that they’ve supported over the years and the other selections look pretty amazing. Needless to say, it’s going to be a really busy time in September. But, we’re looking forward to it.
You can read more about the program and the projects here!
We’ll be screening in Toronto on July 31st, 2013 at the Revue Cinema!
What makes this special is that we’ll be playing along with Janine Fung’s documentary La Gaita, which is about the Lara Brothers based out of Trinidad. If you don’t know who the Lara Brothers are, they are one of the few traditional Parang groups around. What’s Parang? It’s the Spanish language music that’s played in Trinidad around Christmas. Their music is featured in the trailer for Doubles With Slight Pepper and in key scenes in the film. It’s going to be a great night of music and film! Hope to see you there!
Short notice – but we’ll be screening at Brooklyn Borough Hall as part of Caribbean-American Heritage Month celebrations!
Here’s a quick article to get you up to speed!
2:30pm at Borough Hall!
We screened in Paris last year at UNESCO, but we’re back in the City of Light in a few weeks as part of the Champs-Elysees Film Festival, which has a great lineup!
Check out the Screenings page for all of the details, or just click here!
We’ll also be screening in Toronto in the coming months – details in a bit!
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/
————————
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!
Doubles With Slight Pepper 