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Sunday, July 13, 2025

Trinity Rose: Barbados’ teen filmmaker making waves across the globe

by

Fayola K J Fraser
21 days ago
20250622

At just 17 years old, Bar­ba­di­an film­mak­er Trin­i­ty Rose is set­ting the in­ter­na­tion­al cre­ative world ablaze.

Her short film Per­turbed, which ex­plores the of­ten-si­lenced strug­gles of men­tal health among Caribbean youth, has been of­fi­cial­ly se­lect­ed for screen­ing at the 2025 Caribbean Film Fes­ti­val this June.

The bold, emo­tion­al­ly raw piece was writ­ten and di­rect­ed by Rose, who chan­nels her per­son­al bat­tles with bul­ly­ing and self-dis­cov­ery in­to the heart of the nar­ra­tive. For this ris­ing star, Per­turbed is more than just a film—it’s a state­ment.

Rose grew up in Bar­ba­dos as the “weird girl” in class—la­belled and bul­lied for her love of car­toons and ani­me, things that didn’t quite align with the ex­pec­ta­tions of her peers. But her pro­cliv­i­ties and in­nate cre­ativ­i­ty would soon be­come her su­per­pow­er.

A twist of fate came when her fa­ther land­ed a back­ground act­ing role and con­vinced an agent to give both Rose and her younger broth­er, Zion Rose, an op­por­tu­ni­ty to act. That small break snow­balled in­to a pas­sion for act­ing and sto­ry­telling, lead­ing the sib­lings to join pro­duc­tions and even­tu­al­ly take their place be­hind the cam­era.

The turn­ing point came dur­ing a youth film camp host­ed by the Min­istry of Youth, Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty Em­pow­er­ment in Bar­ba­dos. With the act­ing high wear­ing off and the de­sire to ex­plore all facets of film­mak­ing, Rose turned to writ­ing.

Along with her broth­er, she penned a 35-page screen­play ti­tled The Mys­tery of Tri­zone Camp and sub­mit­ted it to Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos Mia Mot­t­ley. This bold move sig­nalled not on­ly her am­bi­tion but al­so her readi­ness to con­tribute to the is­land’s grow­ing cre­ative land­scape.

In 2023, Rose’s jour­ney took her to the New York Film Acad­e­my, an op­por­tu­ni­ty fa­cil­i­tat­ed by Car­ol Roberts and the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Foun­da­tion. There, she spent a week learn­ing and prac­tis­ing the nuts and bolts of film­mak­ing—writ­ing, di­rect­ing, edit­ing, and man­ag­ing a full film crew. One of her biggest chal­lenges? Con­dens­ing over three hours of footage in­to a tight two-minute ed­it.

“It was so hard but it was such a proud mo­ment,” she re­calls. “See­ing a film school for the first time, walk­ing the streets of a big city, man­ag­ing a film.”

Fol­low­ing this ex­pe­ri­ence, she re­ceived a diplo­ma in film­mak­ing from the New York Film Acad­e­my.

Her cre­ative en­er­gy is not lim­it­ed to film, and Rose has an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant cre­ative new out­let: fash­ion. A lover of vin­tage styles from the 1920s to the present, she de­signs bold, colour­ful out­fits in­spired by Bar­bie dolls and car­toon char­ac­ters. She wore one of her most re­cent pieces—a graf­fi­ti-splashed satin jack­et—at the Caribbean Film Fes­ti­val last week.

Her fash­ion de­signs have even graced the run­ways of Berlin Fash­ion Week 2025, a ca­reer-defin­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty. She in­sists that “my film­mak­ing and fash­ion are the two dif­fer­ent sides of me, my clothes are bright and bold and colour­ful, while my films are dark and scary”.

To­geth­er with her broth­er, Rose is mak­ing an im­pres­sion across mul­ti­ple dis­ci­plines—film, fash­ion, and act­ing. Their sto­ry has been fea­tured on the cov­er of Caribbean En­ter­tain­ment Mag­a­zine (May 2024) and in South Africa’s PPMC Mag­a­zine (Is­sue 142).

Their faces even adorn the show win­dow of Se­li­ma Op­tique in Paris, just steps from the Lou­vre.

Rose’s unique con­trast—dark, haunt­ing films and vi­brant, whim­si­cal fash­ion—cap­tures her du­al­i­ty as an artist.

She cites Tim Bur­ton as her favourite di­rec­tor, drawn to the eerie and mys­te­ri­ous as­pects of his work. “Thrillers are re­al­ly pow­er­ful,” she says. “I can ex­press things through my films and base char­ac­ters on peo­ple from my re­al life.” The same ap­plies to her fash­ion, as in her wardrobe, she em­braces pas­tels, fluff, and sparkle—ex­press­ing joy and in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty through every stitch.

Be­ing se­lect­ed for the Caribbean Film Fes­ti­val has been an emo­tion­al ride for Rose. “I was re­al­ly ner­vous,” she ad­mits. “But see­ing so many Caribbean cre­atives in one place—it was like Hol­ly­wood in the Caribbean.”

Rose felt in­vig­o­rat­ed by her time at the Caribbean Film Fes­ti­val, and in­spired to con­tin­ue cre­at­ing, as “there are so many scenes and films right here for us to cre­ate in the Caribbean”.

Through Per­turbed, Rose wants to change the con­ver­sa­tion around men­tal health and bul­ly­ing. “Why do we bul­ly peo­ple for be­ing dif­fer­ent? I re­mem­ber be­ing slapped in class for just be­ing me. Those ex­pe­ri­ences are what I write about.”

As a film­mak­er, she’s learn­ing to han­dle crit­i­cism with grace. “I had to play a male char­ac­ter, and I stud­ied my dad for a long time and re­al­ly pre­pared,” she says, “and I was told I missed the mark, and I went home and cried.”

But lat­er, Rose un­der­stood that it wasn’t per­son­al, but a mo­ment to learn and grow and im­prove. She chan­nels that vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in­to her screen­writ­ing, trans­form­ing per­son­al wounds in­to sto­ries that res­onate far be­yond her is­land home. Many of her films speak to the over­looked, the mis­fits, the dream­ers.

Trin­i­ty Rose may still be in her teens, but she’s al­ready re­defin­ing what it means to be a Caribbean cre­ative. Ac­knowl­edg­ing her sup­port sys­tem, in­clud­ing her fam­i­ly, her gen­er­ous spon­sors and her com­mu­ni­ty, she feels blessed to be mak­ing strides in the in­ter­na­tion­al film are­na.

Whether in the di­rec­tor’s chair, the fash­ion stu­dio, or on stage, her sto­ry is one of bold imag­i­na­tion, fear­less vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and re­lent­less dri­ve. And for the re­gion, Rose’s as­cent of­fers a glimpse in­to a new gen­er­a­tion of tal­ent—one that ho­n­ours its roots while tak­ing on the world.


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