?Robert Yao Rame­sar has made more than 120 short films on the peo­ple, his­to­ry, and cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go. He holds a BA in Film Pro­duc­tion and an MFA in Film Di­rect­ing from Howard Uni­ver­si­ty in Wash­ing­ton DC, and is a lec­tur­er in Film at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, Trinidad. His first fea­ture film, Sistagod, pre­miered at the Toron­to In­ter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val in 2006. His new fea­ture, Sistagod II: Her Sec­ond Com­ing, pre­mieres at the Trinidad & To­ba­go film fes­ti­val 2009.

What was the first film you re­mem­ber see­ing?

Born Free. When the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo was look­ing for a home for two li­on cubs, I des­per­ate­ly want­ed to raise them, like in the movie. My moth­er taught me my first les­son about the dif­fer­ence be­tween film and re­al life.

What was the most re­cent film you saw?

I just watched Talk to Me by my friend Kasi Lem­mons, star­ring Don Chea­dle.�Kasi's di­rec­tion is pitch per­fect in this one.

If an Mar­t­ian came to earth and want­ed to see a film, what film would you rec­om­mend?

I'd rec­om­mend any­thing by [Stan­ley] Kubrick, David Lynch or Tim Bur­ton. The Mar­tians might think twice about in­vad­ing, stick­ing around or even be­friend­ing us.

Which film­mak­er do you most ad­mire?

The Ethiopi­an di­rec­tor Haile Ger­i­ma was my men­tor and taught me film­mak­ing. It's great to open a book on�the his­to­ry of cin­e­ma and spot him on Page 13 or see him pick­ing up two of the ma­jor awards at the last Venice Film Fes­ti­val. He's bad and still kick­ing ass.

What's the best piece of film­mak­ing ad­vice you ever re­ceived?

"Make�Your films." – Haile Ger­i­ma

Have you ever walked out of a film screen­ing?

Oc­ca­sion­al­ly. I some­times sleep in the cin­e­ma. A lot of the time, when I trav­el to fes­ti­vals, I'm ex­haust­ed from mak­ing and mov­ing my lat­est film and can't stay awake. I've slept through some re­al­ly great movies. The loud snor­ing is the worst though. A vi­able Caribbean film in­dus­try: pos­si­ble, or wish­ful think­ing?

The Caribbean film in­dus­try and cul­ture�is–right now. There is no time like the present. The fu­ture is now.

�

What ad­van­tage does film-mak­ing have over oth­er art forms?

Film is a re­nais­sance art. It in­cor­po­rates many arts and can have its own au­ton­o­my.

Can cin­e­ma change the world?

Cin­e­ma can, has and will con­tin­ue to change the world.