One feature narrative is ‘Sally’s Way‘, a feature film specially for children, Directed by Joanne Johnson and the three feature documentaries are: ‘Lara Brothers‘ by Janine Fung; the recent and amazing film on the story of pan, ‘Pan – A Musical Odyssey‘ by Jerome Guiot & Thierry Teston and ‘Art Connect‘ by Miguel Galofre. The other six are wonderful short films: ‘One good deed‘ (another children’s film) by Juliette McCawley; ‘Glass Bottom Boat‘ by Maneesh Rampersad; ‘Dubois‘ by Kaz Ove; ‘Paradise Lost‘ by Christopher Laird; ‘Popo’s Journey‘ by Ryan Lee and ‘Small Man‘ by Mariel Brown.

‘Sally’s Way’ a Children’s film is a first from the Caribbean to have a feature length film made for kids. To date, it’s unheard of as very few films are made for this important and lucrative market. Set on the Island of Trinidad, Joanne Johnson says, “This Brown Cotton Outreach film, is proud that the first ever children’s feature film from Trinidad and Tobago will be screened in Toronto at the Caribbean Tales Int’l Film Festival. It’s an auspicious 10th year for CTFF and to help mark this milestone is an honor. It’s vital that Caribbean people across the region and the diaspora find community in harnessing a market and audience if we are ever to establish a tradition of film and cinema. The commonality of our West Indian experience is important to us as we fill the need for authentic, original Children’s content with a Caribbean aesthetic…”

At a recent media launch held at the Consulate General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto on July 8th, CaribbeanTales unveiled its 2015 Programme.

“CaribbeanTales continues to have its finger on the pulse of a dynamic movement of evolving film expression across the region and its Diaspora,” says founder and filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon. “In just ten years, a very short period of time, our film stories have matured to become stunningly assured, explosive, transgressive, probing, beautiful and urgent. And this is what we see represented on screen in this year’s selections.”

CTFF, runs alongside the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and also features an intensive five-day Incubator Program for Caribbean and Diaspora filmmakers, followed by a Pitch Breakfast at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (Toronto Int’l Film Festival facilities) and many exciting networking events.

CTFF’s 2015 programming committee, consisting of movers and shakers from the Caribbean film community, has worked hard to put together a line-up that will surely WOW audiences. The festival’s uniquely themed Program consists of evenings of features and short films ncluding Caribbean SCI-FI new exciting Caribbean science fiction stories; Vanishing legacies covering important Caribbean traditions; Trini-to-the-Bone, a celebration of old and new Trinidad culture; Jamaican Symphany legendaries and the best of the Jamaican music culture; Queer Caribbean, spotlighting new LGBTQ films; Shifting Perspectives, a partnership with the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival that focuses on mental health issues; After The Exodus, exploring themes of reparations, slavery and trafficking, and #AllBlackLivesMatter – Caribbean, that addresses in fiction and documentary the escalation of tensions between Haitians and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic…

The September 8 – 13, 6th Annual CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI), is an internationally recognized platform that offers selected filmmakers the opportunity to hone their creative and business skills, through workshops and one?on?one mentorships with world-class specialists. CTI will culminate in The Big Pitch, when participants present their developed film projects to international funders and buyers.