Mas Man Pe­ter Min­shall, the doc­u­men­tary di­rect­ed and pro­duced by Trinidad-born free­lance jour­nal­ist Dal­ton Nar­ine, has won the pres­ti­gious Grand Ju­ry Prize for Best Doc­u­men­tary at the New York In­ter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (NY­IFF). The doc­u­men­tary, a com­pelling 56-minute avant garde doc­u­men­tary about Caribbean car­ni­val de­sign­er Pe­ter Min­shall, has al­so re­ceived an ho­n­ourable men­tion at the 58th Colum­bus In­ter­na­tion­al Film + Video Fes­ti­val which will be held in No­vem­ber. Nar­ine de­scribed the doc­u­men­tary as nei­ther sto­ry nor bi­og­ra­phy, but a por­trait of the Trin­i­ty Cross and Em­my Award-win­ning de­sign­er who com­piled mas­bands across three decades and served as an artis­tic di­rec­tor for Olympic Games in Barcelona, At­lanta and Salt Lake City.

"We made a very in­tense ef­fort know­ing that the film had been ac­cept­ed to be shown at the New York Film Fes­ti­val. We pulled out all stops in edit­ing it to be shown at the ma­jor fes­ti­vals," said Nar­ine, speak­ing from his base in Flori­da, yes­ter­day. Apart from the New York Film Fes­ti­val, he said the film had been nom­i­nat­ed for three oth­er best doc­u­men­tary prizes at film fes­ti­vals in Ire­land, Wales and South Africa. Mas Man was named the best doc­u­men­tary at the 2009 T&T Film Fes­ti­val as a work in progress (with 87 min­utes run­ning time). The fi­nal cut is 56 min­utes. NY­IFF di­rec­tor Rich Rossi said, "There were a to­tal of 65 doc­u­men­taries screened at the NY­IFF and Dal­ton Nar­ine's artis­tic mer­it, con­tent and orig­i­nal avant garde style on Mas Man was a favourite among the se­lec­tion com­mit­tee and ju­ry."

NY­IFF founder Stu­art Al­son com­ment­ed, Mas Man Pe­ter Min­shall is sim­ply bril­liant in every way and it's a fes­ti­val high­light. Di­rec­tor Dal­ton Nar­ine is tal­ent­ed and the movie is a hit with our NY au­di­ence as well as dis­trib­u­tors and crit­ics." Nar­ine has fo­cused on Trinida­di­an art and cul­tur­al tra­di­tions in the 14 doc­u­men­taries he has pro­duced, di­rect­ed and writ­ten?in a span of 25 years.?The?col­lec­tion of fes­ti­val films and made-for-tele­vi­sion pro­grammes in­clude: Mas­quer­ade,?Streets of Colour, The Min­shall Tril­o­gy, Danse Trinidad, Mas Fever, So­ca Na­tion, King Car­ni­val and Panora­ma, Fes­ti­val of the Pans. In 2003, he pro­duced?a doc­u­men­tary for TV on steel­pan in­no­va­tor Bertie Mar­shall in eight days.

Here's what the crit­ics are say­ing:

"The Caribbean Lin­go se­ries proud­ly salutes Nar­ine for cel­e­brat­ing Min­shall and show­cas­ing the sig­nif­i­cant Caribbean art form of 'mas' on film on the world stage via the New York In­ter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val." – Mis­ani, New York Am­s­ter­dam News

"The film... looks at the mirac­u­lous ca­reer of Min­shall–the mul­ti­ple win­ner of the pres­ti­gious Trinidad Car­ni­val Band of the Year ho­n­ours whose vi­sion­ary cre­ations have been used in cer­e­monies at the 1987 Pan Amer­i­can Games, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1996 At­lanta Olympics, the 1994 World Cup and the 2002 Salt Lake City Win­ter Olympics." – Jared Mc­Cal­lis­ter, New York Dai­ly News

"Min­shall's work is a su­perla­tive ex­am­ple of the rich­ness and di­ver­si­ty of Trinida­di­an art and cul­ture..." – Caribbean Life and Times, New York

"Pro­duc­er/di­rec­tor Dal­ton Nar­ine and ed­i­tor Bene­dict Joseph are to be con­grat­u­lat­ed by all who love the sev­en realms and be­yond..." – Si­mon Lee, Trinidad Guardian

"Ad­mirable." – Sheila Ram­per­sad, Sun­day Ex­press

"I was ready to dis­sect the film, but it dis­sect­ed me. It blew me off the plan­et." – Avotc­ja, ra­dio host, KPOO-FM, San Fran­cis­co