Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

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...

400 reasons to listen to Reggae Music out front of the American Consulate!  Atlantic Mas puts on  carnival style BLM demonstration  By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera In Toronto this year’s Fourth of July was marked with a Caribbean style protest parade through the downtown streets. And, maybe because a Mas Camp from the Toronto Caribbean Carnival organized the event, this was a protest that managed to score important political points along with a good dash of Jump Up. The Atlantic Mas bandleader Akil Heywood spoke to the media in an hour-long media scrum outside of the Toronto city hall last Saturday morning. There have been many Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations in Toronto this year, but Heywood noted to the Caribbean Camera that there has been little or no representation from the Caribbean community.  Turn up the Soca and Reggae music that all changed after the media scrum ended and the afternoon protest march began. Talk about a demonstration...

Sit back. Relax. Turn On Your Smartphone.  Caribbean Tales Film Festival goes online in September 2020 Generation Lockdown By Stephen Weir Break out and bags of Orville Redenbacher's popcorn. You will need a shopping basket full to get through this year’s Caribbean Tales Film Festival  (CTFF) - and, oh gosh you are going to have to make it yourself.  The festival is going online this year, so all the movies will have to be enjoyed at home on computers, phones and pads. Last night the CTFF held a digital media launch for the coming virtual film fest. They announced the names of nine feature films and hinted at a coming lineup of 25 short movies that will be part of the 15th annual CTFF. CTFF runs from September 9th to October 2nd and will take place on the Video-On-Demand CaribbeanTales-TV (CT-TV) platform with livestream entertainment.  The film festival describes “CT-TV is an innovative subscription-based digital streaming platform that provides ac...

Caribbean stars win big at JUNOs By Stephen Weir A long anticipated and much delayed award ceremony took place on line over the past week. The JUNOS, which honour Canada’s best recording artists, were originally scheduled to be given out on stage in Saskatoon in mid-March but were cancelled because of the Virus lockdown.  On Monday evening the 42 JUNO Awards were presented online. The big winners were  singer-songwriter Alessia Cara (3 awards) and Sean Mendes (Single of the Year Award). For the second year in a row, nine-time JUNO Award winner Avril Lavigne won for JUNO Fan Choice Three Caribbean Canadian performers from the GTA were nominated for Junos in the categories of Reggae, R&B /Soul Recording and Rap. Brampton’s Daystar Peterson (aka Tory Lanez) Tory Lanez maintained his reign of the Rap Recording of the Year category, marking his third consecutive win, as well as being the first artist to win in both the Rap Recording and R...

Frying Plantain is cooking up cold cash for first time author  Toronto's Zalika Reid-Benta by Stephen Weir Two Days in June. Two $10,000 prizes.  Last month young Zalika Reid-Benta won two different literary Prizes in the space of two days!  On June 25th her book, Frying Plantain won the $10,000 Kobo Emerging Writer’s Literary Fiction Prize.  The day before it was announced that she had won the  Writers’ Union of Canada’s annual   $10.000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Zalika Reid-Benta, a Toronto-based Jamaican Canadian novelist, burst onto the literary scene last year when the House of Anansi Press published her first book.  Her debut story collection Frying Plantain is a series of linked short tales centering on the coming of age of Kara Davis, a young Jamaican Canadian girl growing up in “Little Jamaica” (the Eglinton West neighbourhood in Toronto.) Kara is caught in the middle between her Canadian identity and her de...

Wailers wait it out indoors while their new record soars high in charts around the charts By Stephen Weir The Wailers are enjoying one of their most successful records in decades, but for drummer Aston Barrett Jr, these days he is spending a lot of his time musing about the meaning of life.  While their new song One World, One Prayer climbs up the charts Barrett is holed up in Miami, talking to the media and waiting for the day when the worldwide virus lockdown is finally over. Bob Marley and the Wailers recorded, toured and made history together between 1972 and 1981. Today, the Wailers carry on the mission with band members who are legitimate members, children-of-legends and a host of immensely talented musicians. It was the request of the late Bob Marley that the Wailers keep his music alive after his death. Although they haven’t had a new record this century the Wailers continue to tour the globe playing Marley’s reggae sound! On any day in any other time, ...

Thursday’s Online Walk of Excellence for Jane and Finch. By Stephen Weir Mr JT on YouTube Last Thursday, North Toronto students got the online surprise of their lives while watching a live YouTube broadcast of the annual graduation Walk of Excellence.   Not only did community leaders, entertainers and family members take part in the 2-hour social media broadcast, so too did the Prime Minister of Canada and the Mayor of Toronto! In past years, Grade 12 students graduating from area high schools -- Emery, Downsview, Westview, CW Jeffreys and James Cardinal McGuigan have taken the Walk of Excellence from their schools to a grad party put on by York University.   In 2020, the year of the pandemic, the March was left to a small group of pan players while students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 took part on-line. The broadcast was a mix of live footage from musicians performing on Finch Avenue West and Jane, to taped messages and live student posts.   I...

Protest bring Blacks and Whites to Toronto demanding change By The Caribbean Camera Inc. on June 13, 2020 I was probably one of the oldest people taking part in Saturday’s Queen’s Park march and demonstration. Everyone was so polite, even one of the giant police horses that were hidden away north of the Parliament Building showed some difference as I walked by. On a sunny warm Saturday afternoon thousands of people marched from Trinity Bellwoods Park in the west end of the city to Queens Park to protest anti-black racism and police brutality. And that was just one of two marchers in Toronto another parade started at Nathan Phillips Square and ended at the Yonge-Dundas Square for two hours of speeches, sign waving and chanting. Both events went on without a hitch. There was no violence, and the only arrest that the Caribbean Camera heard about was at City Hall where a white man showed up in black face. Protestors suggested that the police did the man a favour by ta...

Gwyn Chapman to the rescue in Brampton Chapman and Toronto's Mayor Tory The Peel District School Board has just fired its education director over his handling of anti-Black issues in Brampton schools.  And the Peel Regional police are facing heavy criticism over two police shootings this month.  While things are looking very bleak in Brampton, help is on the way. Two days ago it was announced that popular columnist and photographer Gwyn Chapman has agreed to become a Senior Advisor of the just formed Black African and Caribbean Social, Cultural and Economic Empowerment and Anti-Black Racism Unit. The city of Brampton formed this new unit with the full support of its city council. It is the first of its kind in the city’s history. IT is estimated that there 80,000 Black African and Caribbean Canadian citizens living in Brampton. That is the second largest visible minority in the city. Ms. Chapman is a Caribbean Canadian who was born in St. Lucia. “I am please...

                      7th Annual Walk of Excellence Pannist Will Perform at Jane/Finch This Thursday. Press Release What :  Jane & Finch graduates Walk With Excellence When  : June 18th., 2020, 10.00 am - 11.00 - Pannists play at designated spots throughout the community from Wilson/Keele to Shoreham and Jane. Earl LaPierre Jr. AfroPan Who  10.30 am - 11.00 am Earl LaPierre Jr. pannist travels from Westview Secondary home origins of Afro-Pan, Canada’s oldest steelband to the intersection of Jane & Finch. Where : 11.00 - 12.00 pm Pannists play at intersection York University Faculty Association gathers to symbolically mark the passage from high school to post secondary. 11.00 - 12.00 - Virtual Walk on Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Youtube This year’s 7th annual Walk With Excellence parade, will be virtual with some physical elements. Steel Pannists will create a day...