The UWI Film Programme celebrates its tenth anniversary with a World Festival of Emerging Cinema, to be held from today, for four days–May 19-22. Venue is The UWI Film Programme, Carmody Street, St Augustine. The festival is free and open to the public.
The festival promises a wide menu of films from emerging filmmakers. There will be more than 200 films from 52 countries, including Colombia, Netherlands, Mexico, France, Spain, Guinea-Bissau, India, Italy, and the Caribbean.
The films span contemporary issues of religion, migration, race, and women's rights, as well as films about coming-of-age, science fiction, psychological thrillers and dark comedies. There are dramas, documentaries, animations, and many feature films to choose from, as well as experimental short works. Film lengths range from seven-minute shorts to movies over an hour long.
The festival is promising something to please many different tastes. One 2013 movie from Portugal, for instance, is The Thorn of the Rose, a thriller-mystery about an attorney whose success is threatened by mystery woman Rosa, with whom he falls in love; director is Felipe Henriques.
Another film, Gazelle–The Love Issue, will appeal to drama lovers and those interested in Brazilian culture and nightlife. Gazelle is about a gay Brazilian flight attendant called Paulo with an after-hours alter ego named Gazelle.
The 14-minute film from Finland called Occupy Jamsa is a dark comedy piece about a fired construction worker called Pate who fortifies himself in a digger.
Climas, a feature film, explores the circumstances of three very different women from different parts of Peru–Eva, Victoria and Zoraida. Eva is a young girl from the Amazonian jungle; Victoria is a wealthy socialite from Lima; and Zoraida is an elderly peasant from a destitute village in the Andes. It's three stories of discovery shaped by different parts of the same fragmented country.
Film lovers can go online, to the UWI Film Programme's Facebook page, to download a schedule.