Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Open the Door and Where are all the People by stephen weir If it wasn’t for the model in a sexy Mas costume standing in the window of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival’s Dundas Street West storefront, you wouldn’t know that inside, new movies and short films were being shown in what looks like an old store then a movie theatre. Dubbed the CTFF Hub, the space was used last Thursday night for the Wednesday night launch of the 19th annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival. Judging from the size of the audience, Caribbean Camera wasn’t the only one that had trouble finding the Dundas Street location (near Bathurst). In years past, the opening night of the CTFF was something you wouldn’t miss if you were in the neighborhood of the designated movie theatre or Harbourfront. Loud music, models and TV crews, mainstream media, and even the odd TIFF refugee were present. Big names, from the Mighty Sparrow to Machel, made a point of being out on the street with the rest of us, waiting to get in and

  The Curtain Rises, The Show is About to Start. Cue Marcus Garvey’ Ghost         Greeter in Mas costume welcomes people to the start of the CTRR opeing party By Stephen Weir Caribbean Camera Sept. 4 If all went well last night, after The Caribbean Camera was put to bed, the 19th annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) is now well underway. Get ready, Toronto— from now until late night on Sunday, September 25th, the city will be buzzing with virtual movies, short films, and several not-to-be-missed in-person events. This is not your typical film festival. Unlike previous years, most of the 50 or so movies, short films, and television shows will be screened online. However, there are still several in-person events that are expected to pack the Harbourfront Centre’s film theatre and the CTFF West Studio at their Dundas Street West headquarters. Last night’s opening was held at the CTFF Hub, featuring films from Canada, St. Lucia, and France, including the documentary Brave. This 25-m

  Soca. Calypso. Helping Children. Its Roy Cape, and he has the Jean Augustine Trophy to Prove it Two film festivals are taking place in Toronto simultaneously this week. Where do you think the paparazzi and cameras (except ours) were on this past Saturday night when celebrities like Sean Penn, Willem Dafoe, Spike Lee, Lil Nas X, Nickelback, and Viggo Mortensen were spotted on King Street? Well, most readers probably already know the answer. The world's attention was focused on Saturday night TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival). It's a shame because they missed the opportunity to cover a historic Caribbean evening at the CTFF (Caribbean Tales Film Festival) a few blocks away. Call it a Big People Party that combined a birthday fete for the famed retired Grenadian Canadian politician Jean Augustine, the showing of a Trinidadian documentary about saxophonist Roy Cape, an award presentation and a live wild performance by Ozzie Gurley which ended with two of his brass sectio

DON’T BE GLUM THE CTFF IS ENDING ON A BLUE NOTE  This Sunday night’s audience that catches the documentary, "Behind the Blue," as it closes out the annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival should yell out "Encore." Hopefully, director Kenderson Noray will hear the call and give it another Toronto run (around 2024 Carnival time, please).   Behind the Blue  is the history of the Paramin Blue Devil. It is a film all about the Blue Devil bands who continue to tell their stories of triumphs and failures while scaring the living daylights out of those not in the know.  Both in Trinidad and Toronto, the Blue Devil has taken part in the Jab Jab J’ouvert. But here in Toronto, their role has diminished at the annual carnival, and many don't understand why they dance and preenion the parade blue route.   “The Blue Devil in competition always appears as a pair - The King Devil and the minion who restrains the devil from the world,” Noray told the media before a screening i

Turtle Meat and Popcorn. Caribbean Tales Film Festival goes down the Eden River with a paddle It all begins on Wednesday. The Annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival kicks off its 2023 program at Harbourfront, showcasing "Eden River," a creepy, eerie, suspenseful American movie made on a river. It is 1961, and three poachers are paddling along a swampy river in Belize in a boat that has seen better days. They have no food, only a bottle of what looks like homemade hooch. They are illegally hunting for green turtles, hoping to score big by selling poached turtle meat. However, there are no turtles to be found. There is no mosquito repellent, and there is no motor at the stern of the single mast dinghy. Oh yes, and there is no love lost between the three men, even though one of them swears he is the half-brother of one of the other sailors, and the third claims he believes in love, peace and the Bible. Arguments and a man overboard, accompanied by a musical score about Zombies, le

The Best Carnival Film Gets Its Redux This Weekend    Stephen Weir -  It was the best movie almost no one saw at the opening night of September’s Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF).  The good news is that the Bell Fibe TV service is delivering a Christmas present to subscribers and showing the movie on December 23 rd  and the 25 th . Toronto Caribbean Carnival: Fun and Free , is  an hour-long documentary about the annual Caribana festival. When it kicked off the annual Toronto CTFF it got a long and loud standing ovation from the audience in a mostly empty Carlton Cinema theatre. Now Bell subscribers in Ontario and Quebec can catch the TV movie film premiering on their One Caribbean Channel twice over the Christmas weekend. It is showing at 8pm on Friday and again at 9pm on Sunday night. Toronto Caribbean Carnival: Fun and Free   is an hour-long documentary about the annual how Torontonians celebrate Caribana, be it as performers on as part of the million-person audience crowding the

  Yes it over. The theatre is empty. The screen is black. The annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) has gone dark for the 17 th   time … sort of. Late last week the venerable CTFF announced the winning films in its 2-week downtown Toronto movie fete. And while there were no big surprises in the movies that took top awards (The Caribbean Camera was accurate in our predictions), the CTFF announced that from this week until October 22nd, people can watch virtually all the movies that were screened at the movie marathon.   It is not clear if the 2022 film festival was a success or not – there were certainly excellent films screened and people did come out. But it wasn’t the same festival we have grown to love. After years of showing the film entries at the comfy 400 seat Royal Cinema on College Street,  this year CTFF moved downtown to one of the Carlton Cinema’s smallest and most uncomfortable theatres (150 seats) screens in the building. And while many nights it was sold out, that

  The Film World Agrees The Martinique Animated Movie OPAL Is Golden IF Alain Bidard makes it up to the Caribbean Tales Film Festival on September 23 rd  he probably won’t bring all his film festival trophies with him when his animated movie, Opal, is shown in Toronto.  There is not enough room in his suitcase for all the awards the Martinique producer/director has captured since the movie came out last year. He has  already won 48 awards and 73 nominations worldwide and will be in the running for some titles at the Toronto festival as well. Alain Bidard (right) is the only Caribbean animation film director who has won that many recognitions.  He  is an animation film producer/director from the French island of Martinique. Over the past 20 years, he has produced and directed animated feature and short films, animated series, and live-action films which won more than 60 awards and 250 nominations in festivals worldwide. The movie gets its Canadian debut on September 23th at the 17th ann

Third Caribbean Tales Film Festival Entry To Look At The Caribbean Identity By Stephen Weir As the 15th annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival (CTFF) “reels” towards its Saturday night conclusion we have noticed a sub theme running through three of the keynote movies that are showcased this fall.  This trio of principal films is all about identity – be it race, colour or sexual orientation. Writing in the Caribbean Camera I have reviewed two of those movies in past issues of the paper; But You’re Not Black and Queer Coolie-tudes .   Yesterday the paper screened the disturbing third movie, Malpaso , made by Hector Valdez, a Dominican Republic moviemaker who did his schooling in Montreal at McGill University. But   You’re Not Black  is a quirky 30-minute documentary made by Toronto comedian and filmmaker Danielle Ayow. She is a Chinese-Caribbean-Canadian woman who, driven by people’s inability to separate her skin colour from her culture, tries to own the Trinidadian identity she knows sh

Caribbean Tales Film Festival's BoomFlik headliner Jamaica's first horror/gangsta film is Nefarious (real bloody too)   Review by Stephen Weir   Lock the doors. Bolt the windows.  And whatever you do, after you seen Jamaica’s horror film Nefarious don’t go walking the streets of Kingston, Jamaica at night. No matter what. This Jamaican  horror film – it was made in 2018 – is coming to Canada for its first public showing at the 15th annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival. It's headlining CTFF’s September 18th Boomflik  An evening dedicated to the screening of Jamaican films No matter how many  made in Jamaican movies viewers might have seen over the 15 year history of the CTFF, no one has seen a Jamaican film  like Nefarious – the island’s first ever horror/gangsta flick. Gang bangers, bandit street fighters. vampires and demons walk the streets of a Kingston ghetto, killing everyone who gets in the way. Mark (played by high school teacher/actor Kevoy Williams) tries to live o