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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...

Film Festival Entry Lockdowns student’s fear of school shootings. By Stephen Weir The fear of gun violence in US schools is raising students’ stress levels to Code Red.  Generation Lockdown , a new 17-minute film about mass shootings in schools, will in all likelihood scare students, concern parents and make educators wonder if it could happen here in Canada. Lockdown – the protocol that American schools follow when there is a threat to students – means locking and barricading classroom doors and windows. The students hunker down clutching their teacher waiting until the emergency is over.  “ Lockdowns have become a hallmark of American Education and become a by product of the United States’ inability to curb its gun violence epidemic,” explains New York City based director Sirad Balducci.    “We hope this film will incentivize parents to be the first in the line of defense by removing kids’ access to guns in the home and giving them tools to iden...

How to defend yourself against a gangsta with jerk chicken and other bon mots from Zeen? Zeen? is a “mocumentary” film that takes a comedic view on making highbrow White movies about Jamaica.  Zeen (got it?)? This made-in-Markham shorty is the Caribbean Tales Film Festival’s (CTFF’s) marquee movie for this fall’s Red and White Comedy Night. The September 14th online screening is showcasing five Canadian comedic short films, and organizers guarantee Zeen? will “have you laughing out loud” as you watch on your smartphone or laptop. The 15th annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival runs from September 9th until October 2nd. This year, because of the virus shutdown, the CTFF will take place online with nine nights and more than 25 short and feature films of live stream entertainment. “My goal with the movie was to examine the reasons why white people might misrepresent, misinterpret or place judgment on Black culture and realities, “said director, writer and star Carlyx Passailaigue...