CaribbeanTales gears up for summer 2009

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CaribbeanTales – one of Canada's premier multimedia companies – once again takes Toronto by storm over the next few with with a stellar line-up of theatre and film screenings, workshops, forums and panels all celebrating the rich diversity of contemporary Caribbean and Caribbean-Canadian culture.

"Our company is growing and naturally we are incredibly excited to be partnering with such dynamic Canadian institutions as Hot Docs, the University of Toronto, and The Fringe," said CaribbeanTales founder Frances-Anne Solomon.

In May, at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (April 30 – May 10), CaribbeanTales will be co-presenter of Luciano Biotta’s film Rise-Up, screening at Innis Town. The piece dives deep into the Kingston ghetto where reggae was born, documenting real-life interviews with local established and underground musicians including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare.

In July, CaribbeanTales in association with Leda Serene Films will stage the world premiere o Solomon’s new theatrical production Lockdown at Toronto’s largest theatre festival, the Toronto Fringe Festival (July 1–12). Lockdown’s fictional story traces the fortunes of a diverse group of young people held hostage during a high school lockdown. The play stars a number of established performers including Jamaican icon Leonie Forbes (What My Mother Told Me, Lord Have Mercy, A Winter Tale), and rising Toronto actor Michael Miller (A Winter Tale, Get Rich or Die Trying) alongside a diverse ensemble of talented young actors selected through citywide auditions held across the Greater Toronto Area last June.

Lockdown follows the success of Solomon’s highly acclaimed feature film A Winter Tale (for which Caribbean Beat was a media sponsor), which just recently was nominaed for a the Paul Robeson Diaspora Award at FESPACO 2009 (Africa’s equivalent of the Oscars) and won special mention in that category.

The fourth CaribbeanTales Annual Film Festival (July 9-12) will also partner with New College, University of Toronto, and U of T’s Caribbean Studies Program. This year’s theme, Caribbean Film: a Tool for Education and Social Change, features presentations and screenings from filmmakers and producers from Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, the Eastern Caribbean, the UK, Africa, and the U.S.

As Canada's only standalone festival, it will present four days of exciting film screenings, thought-provoking Talk Back sessions, industry panels, hands-on workshops, a filmmakers’ forum, and a youth day.

This year’s festival honours the award-winning career of director Euzhan Palcy, from Martinique, who became the first woman of African descent to ever direct a Hollywoodfilm, MGM's A Dry White Season, starring Donald Sutherland, Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon. Considered by many as one of the world's most influential filmmakers, Palcy is best known for her debut feature Sugar Cane Alley which won over 17 international prizes.