Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Film about Notting Hill Carnival coming to CaribbeanTales Film Festival  By Stephen Weir  The Notting Hill Carnival was born out of race riots and murder way back in the sixties. A new movie about the UK’s bad boy of festivals takes a look through the eyes of a young British woman as she heads down the road in costume to find out the truth about the famous 4-day annual August fete. A People's Art – The Genesis of Freedom is a documentary by England’s Tony Oldham.  The hour-long film will make its Canadian debut this fall as part of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival here in Toronto. Ayesha Casely-Hayford is glad she didn’t listen to her mother’s advice to stay away from Notting Hill. No, the young British/Ghanaian actress and lawyer now says that she is the better person for buying a modest mas outfit and jumping up both at a chocolate throwing J’ouvert party and the grand parade through the ancient streets of London (the Notting Hill area is near Kensington). Photo above: Ayesha (

FILM MAKER, ACTRESS AND COMEDIAN HAS  LEARNED TO  PLAY THE GUITAR DURING THIS  LONG LONG SHUTDOWN Wow.  But You’re Not Black is travelling to cities this fall we Canadians can’t get to. Earlier this month the Caribbean Camera printed my story about the short autobiographical movie by Scarborough’s  Danielle Ayow which will be showing at next month’s CaribbeanTales Film Festival.   What we didn’t say was that even though the movie has never been shown to a paying audience before, and while most theatres and film festivals have had to go online – Ayow’s funny and brave story is already making waves! Why is there so much interest in the 30-minute film about Ayow’s struggle to be seen not as a Chinese woman but as a Trini! As part of the paper’s semi-regular feature about how members of the Caribbean Canadian community is handling the Pandemic quarantine, I went back to ask Ayow a few questions about how she is doing these days and dig a little bit more into what is making But You’re Not

On The Road With Grace & Saleem Director Jian Hennings found his actors on Facebook and then took them on a Trinidad road trip. Hennings, director and writer of Grace & Saleem , concedes that it is damn hard to make a “road movie” in Trinidad. “It is a small island, you can drive around our little world in 3 or 4 hours.” Everyone has seen a road movie, from Thelma and Louise to Dumb and Dumber ; the genre has been a cinema staple for over 60 years. These are films where the main characters are usually unknowingly on a journey of self-discovery. The destination is rarely as important as the experience of getting there. Move over Hollywood. While most road movies are Made-in-America, Hennings has lensed this all in Trinidad making it the Caribbean’s first authentic On The Road movie. It is a good one. Grace & Saleem is a love story of an unlikely couple told via three distinctive chapters of their relationship together. They have a soul changing road tri

Caribbean Tales Film Festival is going online!   The theatres were booked, the movies picked and the stars were making plans to come to the city and walk the Caribbean Tales International’s (CTFF) red carpet this September.  On Wednesday the CTFF advised the Caribbean Camera’s Stephen Weir that while the show must go on, it will not be taking place in any bijous in the year of COVID 19! “It is not happening in theatres this year. It will be a live-stream festival,” spokeswoman Fennella Bruce told the Caribbean Camera. “ It won't (be held in any movie house), unless there is a drastic change in COVID-19 protocol from Provincial and Toronto Health Officials.” The 15th annual movie fest will now run from September 9th until October 2nd and will take place on-line with eight individual nights of films and 25 short films of live-stream entertainment.  As well, during the summer months there will be community programming made available through the festival’s innovative

Coming to a computer screen near you is this year’s  Caribbean Tales Film Festival  (CTFF). by Stephen Weir Because of the current virus shutdown, the CTFF will be holding a virtual festival this summer., the Caribbean Camera has learned. “ Like every other festival in the city, we have been impacted by the virus,”  explained Dianne Webley, director of the festival. “This is our 15 th year and there is no way we are going to shut down.,” she told The Caribbean Camera. ” However, those events that we had hoped to put on in the summer months will now be held online. Information will be posted on its website soon.” According to the Webley the festival was set to hold a July 8th media launch, the Festival’s first annual Fundraiser and Reveal of this year’s films. This will, in one form or another, be held online.  “ We also were set to do a number of community outreach projects including film showings with Regent Park (community group). We have contacted the movie

--> Proposed Jamaican Film Gets The Nod From The Big Pitch By Stephen Weir Horrific crashes are the stuff movies are made of. The Titanic. The Hindenburg. The Twin Towers. And if the judges at the Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) are right the next Jamaica feature film to be made is sure to be the second biggest train wreck of them all. The CTFF has given the nod to a film proposal that wants to create a drama around the most famous Jamaican train wreck you have never heard of! The 1957 crash of a packed train near Kendal, Jamaica. “Yeah you probably never heard of the Kendal. I didn’t, and I am Jamaican,” said award-winning filmmaker Gabriel Blackwood.   “When I did learn about the Kendal crash I knew I had to tell the story. You know when the train derailed over 60 years ago, it was the world’s second worse train wreck!” filmmaker Gabriel Blackwood picture by sweirsweir Kendal is the name of the feature length film the young Jamaican is geari

Grab your popcorn. CTFF About to Open. Annual Filmfest has Snakes on the Brain for Gala Night By Stephen Weir When the  Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF)  opens in a couple weeks, the first film of the annual flickfest will have the audience thinking they have snakes on the brain when the theatre lights come back on.   Rattlesnakes  is a full- length feature that has rattlers not just in the personalities of the principal actors but literally on camera too.  The Canadian debut takes place September 4th, right on College Street in Toronto’s Little Italy.    The film will be feted at the festival’s early evening 2019 kick-off and street party, followed by an 8pm VIP filled screening across the street at the Royal Cinema! This is probably going to be the first movie an audience will ever see where they will see the names of three snakes in the final credits! Slash and Strike don’t get much screen time or any lines to speak, but they do rattle audiences when the hiss and sh

Hope the other festivals won’t get into a tiff over Yardie's Canadian premiere tonight in Toronto thanks to Caribbean Tales Festival First time director Idris Elba By Stephen Weir Don’t tell TIFF but The Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) has scored a big one! Thursday night – July 4th - the CTFF is showing Yardie at the downtown Royal Cinema. This is the Canadian debut for a feature length thriller that was directed by British film star Idris Elba. “We tried for it last year, but, they wanted to make a big splash and tie Yardie into a screening with a distributor, it never happened” explained Dianne Webley Co-Director of the CTFF. “We continued to push to get the movie for Toronto and a year later here we are having the Canadian premier at the Royal Cinema this evening (Thursday July 4th). We are using the showing to introduce the line-up of films for this year’s Festival, so Yardie will get a terrific splash!’ The movie’s plot takes viewers from Jamaica to E