Gillian Moore

?Two weeks of lo­cal and Caribbean di­as­po­ra film screen­ings came to an end on Tues­day night at the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the T&T Film Fes­ti­val 2009, where hon­oree Ge­of­frey Hold­er took the spot­light.

The ac­claimed ac­tor, dancer and painter was ho­n­oured as the fes­ti­val screened Car­men and Ge­of­frey, an in­ti­mate doc­u­men­tary by Lin­da Atkin­son and Nick Doob, on Hold­er's life and work with dancer wife Car­men de Laval­lade. The film was named Best Film of the fes­ti­val, now in its fourth year.

Hold­er used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to im­part words of wis­dom to his coun­try­men at the event, at­tend­ed by dig­ni­taries, for­eign and lo­cal film-mak­ers, ac­tors, artists and in­dus­try per­son­nel. In a stir­ring im­promp­tu talk punc­tu­at­ed by dra­mat­ic flour­ish­es, jokes and ad­mo­ni­tions, and de­liv­ered in his trade­mark bari­tone, Hold­er en­cour­aged those present to use their in­ner re­sources to cre­ate orig­i­nal and in­spir­ing work, in spire of en­vi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges: "Go in­side your­self and get the an­swers."

Hold­ing his tro­phy in one hand and a cane in the oth­er, Hold­er, 79, said the award was the first recog­ni­tion he had ever re­ceived from the coun­try of his birth. The clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place at Movi­eTowne in In­vad­er's Bay, start­ing off with the Car­men and Ge­of­frey screen­ing, fol­lowed by cock­tails and an awards cer­e­mo­ny at the Movi­eTowne Ball­room. Prizes were giv­en out af­ter a per­for­mance by the St Au­gus­tine Cham­ber Or­ches­tra and a dance chore­o­graphed by Dave Williams were fea­tured. The award for Best Lo­cal Film was won by The Soli­tary Al­chemist by Mariel Brown. In the Peo­ple's Choice cat­e­go­ry, Coolie Pink and Green by Prof Pa­tri­cia Mo­hammed won Best Short Film, while The Ghost of Hing King Es­tate, pro­duced by Fran­cis Es­cayg and di­rect­ed by Ho­race Ov�, won Best Dra­mat­ic Fea­ture. The Peo­ple's Choice award for Best Doc­u­men­tary was won by Dal­ton Nar­ine for Mas Man, a film on the work of Pe­ter Min­shall.