Film And Memory In The Caribbean

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture, hosted by me, Dr. Alexandria Miller. Strictly Facts teaches the history, politics, and activism of the Caribbean and connects these themes to contemporary music and popular culture. Hello, hello everyone. And welcome back to another episode of Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture, where we explore the stories, histories, and cultural legacies that shape the Caribbean and its global diaspora. One of the most powerful things about some of the works and things that we create is film and its ability to hold memory. Through moving images, sound, archives, landscapes, and storytelling, filmmakers can preserve histories that might otherwise be forgotten, challenge the narratives we inherit, and create new ways of seeing ourselves in our communities. And for the Caribbean, where so much of our history has been shaped by colonialism, migration, displacement, and fragmented archives, filmmaking becomes ever more significant. It becomes a way of reclaiming voice, a way of documenting lives and experiences that have too often existed at the margins, a way of connecting people across islands, languages, and diasporas. Today's episode explores the intersections of Caribbean filmmaking, memory, history, and black storytelling, spotlighting how filmmakers navigate the tensions between archive and imagination, and how film collectives like the Caribbean Tales Media Groups crossed Continental Forum have helped shape Black diasporic cultural production. Because Caribbean storytelling has never only been about entertainment, it has also been about preservation, resistance, survival, and imagining futures otherwise.

Meet Meschida Philip

Speaker 2:03

Joining us today to talk about her experiences and the work of the Cross-Continental Forum is director, producer, and creative industry strategist, Meschida Philip, whose work brings film production and screen industry development in the Caribbean together. And so, Meschida, thank you so much for joining us for this episode. Do let our listeners know a little bit more about you, where, of course, in the region you call home, and what inspired your passions as a filmmaker and storyteller. And ultimately, what specifically about film spoke to you as a medium?

Speaker 2 2:39

Hi, thank you so much for this opportunity. And it's wonderful being here today. And as you warmly introduce me, my name is Meschida Philips. I am Grenadian born and I share space currently between Grenada and the US. I've been doing that now for some years. My focus is documentary filmmaking, as well as I'm now dabbling into new media, um, which is really, really exciting. And I am also the Executive Director of Mprojekts Creative Group and Founder and Festival Director of the 12°N, 61°W Grenada Film Festival. I've been doing that now for eight seasons, and um, yeah, it's a good time. Um, as far as film is concerned, coming from a small island like Grenada, where the culture is so rich, and a big part of my history and my lived experiences come from a space of migration. So um that was the epitus for me getting into the film business as a director producer, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. I've been dabbling in the creative space for years. My trajectory spans from music production all the way now to actual film as the medium that I'm outputting.

Speaker 4:09

So, yeah, a little bit about me.

Growing Up Grenadian Through Migration

Speaker 4:12

It's wonderful to have you. I was actually going to start with that question about, you know, how did growing up in Grenada really shape the kinds of stories you feel compelled to tell now as a filmmaker?

Speaker 2 4:24

As I mentioned, um, Grenada is a small island with a very large history. And one of the most impactful memory for me was during the Grenada Revolution. I was a kid then. Um, and that is a staple in my timeline because not too long after that, about two years after that, my mom migrated to the US. And that was a very defining moment for me. I was on the 10, I'm not gonna say my aged, but I was under 10 years old at the time. And um the last of three children by my mom, and um, she was my anchor, and um unaware of how long um she would have been gone for, that became a thing. So basically, I was separated from my mom for about seven, eight years um until we were reunited again. So that bond was broken um during that time. But um, she has always been present in our lives, um, but we did not have that intimacy of the relationship, you know. Um, so yeah, that kind of subconsciously put things in place, and it's not until I was an adult um I started to really explore personal issues and how I was actually handling certain encounters in my life, and um I started to think about who I am, why I was responding to things the way I responded to the things, why I had such difficulties in connecting with people, trusting people, and the whole nine yards. And I actually um sought out therapy to find answers. And when I had the opportunity to go into grad school, um, that was my thesis. I wanted to figure out if there was anyone else that shared similar experiences like I did. So yeah, this was just a thesis process in me trying to figure out answers to the question. And that just led into something completely different.

Speaker 6:52

Thank you for sharing

Making Scars Of Our Mother’s Dreams

Speaker 6:54

that. You know, we oftentimes talk about this concept that what Dr. Claudette Crawford Brown calls barrel children, right? Um, and having had the opportunity to watch your first feature film, which is entitled Scars of Our Mother's Dreams, which I will, of course, link for our listeners to also check out, it raises, as you were saying through your thesis work, that it wasn't just an independent um, you know, situation. It wasn't just you, right? It wasn't just the children of Grenada. It's a Caribbean-wide, but of course, you know, worldwide when we get into the politics of migration and necessity and all of those things. But your film was previously a part of the Cross-Continental Forum. Um, and I think really deals with some of these lived realities and the aftermath of, you know, barrel children's experiences or what Dr. Crawford Brown calls barrel children's experiences. And so for you, what emotional or you know, historical questions really inspired the film? I'll let you answer first before I take give some of my takes. But um, additionally, why was it really important for you to explore these themes, especially of like, you know, emotional trauma, childhood abandonment, things like that?

Speaker 2 8:15

As I mentioned, the film began basically with my own quest to seek answers. It was my lived experience growing up with not just one absent parent, but both my parents migrated. My dad migrated years before. Um, and my mom, who was the the staple, the foundation, in my um experiences, she then left. Um, so for years I carried that wound um without fully understanding it or having the language for it. You know, growing up in the Caribbean, you're basically told what to do. Like you don't question, you don't question what adults say, um, the elephant in the room, you know, you really don't really express certain things. And um I think having the experience of the consistency of my mom in my life, meaning back then it was um mail, you used to write mail, right? And letters. So um just imagine um I would be experiencing something. I write my mom. It would take maybe like two weeks for her to receive it, and then another two weeks for her to respond, for me to get her response. Um, so you're talking about a month thereabout, give or take, right? So by the time I get a response and she's trying to nurture us and and and soothe us, that issue is already gone, right? The urgency in dealing with um the situation at hand was not something that was tangible. Um, so we had to seek other ways in which, meaning my sister and my brother, um, we had to seek other ways in which we were comforting each other and raising each other in that sense. So my eldest sister was responsible for for us, right? Because she understood things a little bit different. So, which is quite interesting because her experiences as the first is completely different from my experience as the last, and then my brother in the middle. So when I started this journey, girl, it was not pretty. Because now I am asking questions. And it's like, why you want to discuss dirty laundry or why you want to bring this up right now? And you know, what is the problem, you know? And my family was not really comprehending, in my opinion, um, what I was trying to seek answers for, because now we categorize it as different things. It can be either selfishness, it can be either you're difficult. There are so many different descriptors, right, for the way in which someone would respond to things without having answers, because we never discuss these things. So I recalled having my mom and my my oldest um sister who sat them down when we were having conversations. It wasn't pretty. It was really, really intense, right? But we had to discuss it. And only then as an adult, I came to find out that my mom did not just leave. She left for vacation, found an opportunity, stayed, and that led to her working and making certain sacrifices in order to give us a better lifestyle, right? But as a child, you don't know this. And these are conversations that is not discussed within families. So by the time we were reconnected, like I mentioned, the distance and that emotional bond that should be so easy between a mom and a child was no longer there. So now you have a whole slew of different emotions now to figure out. Am I rebelling? Am I doing this? Am I doing that? So it's like you're now deemed a certain way, right? So these were moments of hard truth. And I think at the end, it became better. Um, and while going through um this research to prepare myself for my thesis film, that's when I discovered the barrel trial syndrome. I did not know this was actually a terminology. And I discovered um Dr. Crawford. I think I actually went down to Maryland, if I'm not mistaken, to meet with her, to have further conversations about it. So I really went deep into it. I spoke to different um psychologists and therapists to understand better. Because as a documentary filmmaker, I think you have um a responsibility to do adequate research because now you are actually informing people of certain things, right? And I wanted this to answer questions. I did not want my voice in the film initially. I did not want it to be like, oh my gosh, here she goes, right? Self-serving. So hence the reason why I actually sought out different people who had similar experiences to get this layer. And I recall when we were editing the film, I said it just felt empty because something was missing. And it was my personal experiences that opened up the film, but allow other um individuals to answer the questions that was posed.

Barrel Children And What Gets Unsaid

Speaker 2 14:16

Is this a problem?

Speaker 14:18

I realize we've been using the term and not all of our listeners might be familiar. Um, and so before continuing on the conversation, I just want to give a brief nod to that. So for anybody who's not aware, um Dr. Crawford's term barrel children really refers to the phenomenon in which, you know, children are left back home in the Caribbean or, you know, certainly other places as well. Um, but from a Caribbean context, they're left at home in the Caribbean, often under the care of grandmothers and aunties and, you know, other family members, while their parents go abroad, usually to the, you know, global north, US, UK, Canada, et cetera, um, really in search for better opportunities. And as Meschida was sort of pointing at, right, there's obviously the disconnect between the emotional care and connection that espouses because of the distance, but you may have um oftentimes the more financial resources, right? That's also where the term barrel comes in because you may be able to get the shoes and the, you know, marina and whatever it is for school that your parents are sending home to you. Um, but that emotional distance is certainly there. But as you were you were talking, that was certainly something that I thought of being able to watch the film, right? And see how I think I was really captivated that you started with your story, right? And also then parallel off to other people's experiences. And I think for me, it was one of the things that I really greatly took away and appreciated, especially at the end of um the film, was hearing how people are parenting themselves, right? Because you're now speaking to these people as adults who are reflecting back on their experiences, um, the hurt that they experienced, but also how that has then not only translated into how they aim to be parents, but also the work that they are doing within the community to better support others who are have gone through sort of similar instances. And so for me, it really led to this question of like, what power do you think film holds in being able to impact this memory? Um, just because ultimately, you know, we can write about things, right? You know, this could have been a research paper, for instance, or something, right? Um, much like Dr. Crawford's work, but it is a special thing. Um, and I don't know if I have the word for it, um, but it's a special thing to see it captured in film this way. And so, sort of how do you hope that being able to capture this through film impacts memory and social change? And ultimately, what conversations were you hoping that the film would inspire?

Speaker 2 17:08

Initially, I did not know what kind of conversations the film was going to inspire. I honestly had no clue. I just knew I wanted to tell the story, and I'm like, okay, so the story is told, but I did not realize how deep this resonate globally. And as you said earlier, although the film featured Grenadians, this is a universal issue. Migration and immigration, the migrant tale is something that all cultures experience, right? And people have different reasons for migrating. Um, but it comes down to the fundamental part in most times wanting to do better for their children. And out of everyone that I spoke to at the time and continue to speak to after this film was premiered, that is the same sort of conclusion that was drawn. We migrated, we left because we wanted to do better. But as life has it sometimes, you have people who start new families. There are those who migrate and never look back. So there is childhood abandonment that takes place because they start a whole new life and forget about where they came from. Then you have um situations like myself, where there is years of disconnection, and sometimes it's very hard for you to ever regain that emotional connection with your parent. So there is always a disconnect. Then you have the viewpoint of the parent and their experiences as well, that this film did not really address to um, because we only took one aspect of it, right? The sacrifices of the parents as well, leaving your family and having, depending on what job you took out here, like in my mom's case, she was a domestic worker. So basically her responsibilities were raising other people's children. Whereas your kids are left and being raised by someone else. So you have that um emotional and mental and psychological issues that she also and parents like her had to deal with, right? Then you have the issues of the caregiver who now take up the responsibility and become that staple for that child. And when reunification comes around, that child now is leaving the safety of the caretaker and whatever relationships that they probably had with that caretaker now. So it's it's just a lot, it's very complex, right? And very dynamic. So what I recognized is that this film served us was a conversation starter, and it was um a small window into people looking in observationally to say it's not just me and how can I do better? You see, because our society and our culture is not one where therapy was introduced at a very young performative period. So there is the silence and the unspoken um elephant in the room syndrome that is taking place, and you just have to know how to fix it. So when we were finished with the production of this film, you're hearing from the subjects, the majority of the subjects who were part of this, thank you. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to verbalize how I felt all these years and to get it out. And it's an opportunity for them themselves to make different decisions in how they are choosing to parent their own children. You see, several of them had the opportunity to leave and they made the decision to stay because they did not want their children to go through the same kind of trauma that they themselves went through. Because it's not in all the situations, but sometimes you will see from Dr. Crawford Brown's um study. There are abuse that takes place, physical, sexually abused that takes place with kids left behind, um, broken homes. I called it the waiting syndrome because that's how I, that's how I had described my period and for myself, right? The waiting syndrome. Because I waited for so long. And I realized that that also transcended in my adult life. Because whenever I was dealing with situations, nothing was urgent for me. I always waited. I was waiting to see what will happen. I am waiting to see this. So I had to like really make sense. So coming out of this, this film also gave me some personal insights in how to heal myself as well and become a stronger version of myself. You're right. There is something about seeing something on screen, hearing people's voice, seeing the emotions, right? Versus that of just reading it. Because now it becomes real through the visual means. So this was an opportunity in this film where the conversations that I was having with these people provided an opportunity for hearing. To me, that's the takeaway with this from the historical context and how it shaped memories and social changes.

Speaker 23:37

Thank you. I think that that brought together a lot of my thoughts, just, you know, having watched it and being able to, especially at the end, as I was mentioning, see people hug their own kids, right? Having told this story about their own experiences as children, and then see them hug their own kids, you know, and grandchildren, right? See how this experience has shaped them as a person, but also the adult that they chose to become and how they chose to parent, to nurture, right, to sort of end cycles. And I I very much so agree that, you know, there is a power in being able to visualize that, um, that, you know, I think wouldn't be captured in such a heart-wrenching way, right? On paper or, you know, for instance, in a different medium. You were talking about other people's responses to the film, right? And,

Cross-Continental Forum And Black Story Power

Speaker 24:33

you know, that this is very much so a global issue. And that, of course, brings me to the cross-continental forum because um your film was premiered there a while back. And so for those who are unfamiliar, um, the Caribbean Tales Media Group has a what one of their staple programs called the Cross-Continental Forum. It's actually running now through September and specializes on bringing black producers across, you know, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, the UK, and Latin America to really foster sustainable industry growth within filmmaking. And wanted to ask you, personally, given your experiences having participated, um, what was your time in the program like? And how do you think it helped shape you as a filmmaker and strengthen your relationship with black creatives across the world?

Speaker 2 25:25

Um, participating in CCF, the Dark Girl, um, won it in Barbados two years ago. It was a very transformational experience because it placed me in a room where producers and filmmakers from across the Caribbean and Africa and the wider diaspora were in the same safe space. And we had an opportunity to be honest about the fact that all of us were grappling with similar or the same fundamental questions about whose story gets told and who gets to tell them. You know, there's a responsibility, right? A fundamental responsibility in that. And I honestly believe after having the opportunity to premiere Scars one at Caribbean Tales and also traveling with this film to other um international spaces that had very diverse audiences, if someone else told that story, I'm not sure if it would have had the same kind of impact. But the mere fact that we are in this particular situation, I had the opportunity to go in and listen and tell the story not just from their experiences, but also from my own personal experiences, gave this film depth and gave the and increased the production value for this film that it is not just a film, but it's also um an archival piece, right, that can be studied and dissected and transformed and also expanded on, right? Because in as much as we are living in a very digitalized space where things, you know, there is a sense of um connection, the ease of connection is still better, the trauma of migration still exists underneath, right? Because now, I'm not sure which one is worse, honestly. If waiting four weeks to get a response and not knowing what your mom is doing versus the urgency of seeing that your mom is living a good life or your dad is living a good life in the foreign space, right? And you are separated from them, right? And you don't have that. And in the event that they went on and have additional children outside of the kids left behind, there is that sense of competition and belonging that is there. So the issue is still something that is quite relevant because people are still migrating. You see what I'm saying? So having the opportunity to showcase this project for the audiences that this was intentionally made for, that also gave me the language and the strategy that I wanted to focus on doing more work from a social context that had deeper meaning and understanding. So a lot of the things that I do, I really focus on the psychological and social impact of our people. And I try to put it forth where you're left with questions or answers to the questions that was raised in the piece. You see what I'm saying? As an opportunity to start a conversation and a discussion around it. So um, yeah, both um CCF in Barbados and the festivals provided me with a path forward to tell more Caribbean um stories and understand how important Caribbean cinema is in this whole ecosystem. Because representation is huge and lack of representation for so many years have been existing. So myself and other Caribbean filmmakers who are taking up this film of telling our stories, our experiences through our lens, that is something that I feel is really needed. And I think that is what gives me that driving force every day to get up and just continue to do more, despite the challenges, is something that we know that we just have to do.

Speaker 30:35

Given that, I want to um ask my next question, really, just sort of within the framing of your expertise as a filmmaker, because having participated in a program like CCF, although based in Barbados, when you participated, um, as we already said, it brought together black filmmakers from across the world, right? Um it's really a diasporic program, which I find, you know, amazing and very, very necessary for the work that all of us are doing when we're talking about, you know, building black histories, black stories, black creative work. And I think just from a historical perspective, there are of course a lot of similarities that can be drawn between, for instance, the Caribbean and and the and countries in Africa. Um, and so for creatives such as yourself who are coming together, we don't really see as much of that collaboration. And, you know, you can speak to it particularly from like a filmmaking perspective, but um, you know, I think that that also applies more generally beyond filmmaking as well,

Funding And Distribution Barriers

Speaker 31:45

right? So what do you think really are the barriers that exist um that limit the extent to which deeper collaborations between the regions are like, you know, impeding and impacting the ways that we work together?

Speaker 2 32:00

Well, we start with the basics, right? Um, as far as barriers is concerned when coming to filmmaking, the basics, you start there, funding the funding infrastructure, right? So if you're based in the Caribbean, there are certain financial barriers that we are not preview to in the sense of the accessibility and ease of being qualified for certain funding resources and also just basic banking transactions in the Caribbean becomes very problematic, right? And um when I started a few years ago, because I'm still pretty young in that industry, but when I started a few years ago from Grenada, the industry was not as advanced as it is right now. There wasn't that much support in forging financial funding for creatives who wanted to pursue things like filmmaking and other creative ventures. So most Caribbean countries or most small island countries like ours face that funding infrastructure challenges and also finding ways in which you can now reach out to someone, say like in Africa, to co-produce a film with. So fast forward several years later, we have a new government that prioritized the creative sector in Grenada, and film is one of those sectors in which attention is being placed. So there are certain incentives that make it much easier. There are certain um memorandum that was signed by the government with um certain African countries. So there is now relationships that are being implemented to make things a little bit easier for not just funding resources, but also human resources, cross-cultural exchanges, right? And accessing um those territories as well. Another barrier that we find is the distribution network, right? So um historically you would find a lot of Caribbean filmmakers um going through the film festival route, especially for Caribbean film festivals. So back then you had um Caribbean Tales, you had um Silid Horizon, um, you had Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, um, then you had Jamaica at a film festival, Barbados and the film. So in order for us to get some level of visibility for the work that we were putting on, you will see that a lot of us were going through those spaces of utilizing film festivals. However, there's still a disconnect as well, right? Because most people did not even understand that that opportunity was also available, right? Because, you know, in the Caribbean, you just basically learn. You learn on your own. You want to do something, you learn on your own, right? So that was another barrier, especially if you did not have individuals in the diaspora that could have supported you and show you the way as well. Lack of formal co-production treaties that was existing amongst different um Caribbean countries as well as international spaces. So, again, making it a little bit more difficult for us to have these opportunities for our producers to go out there and um get the work. And even if you went on your own quite often and you would reach out to these international infrastructures and spaces, you also risk the possibility of maybe, um, let me let me try to frame it very diplomatically, being cheated, right? Um, because sometimes you just don't know. Because we we we still have this full level of hope, right? We believe, we are excited. We're very passionate people from the Caribbean, right? You just want your story to be told. But if you don't have the expertise, you rely on others who sometimes just take advantage of you. And you saw that happening a lot, right? And then the visibility gap, because um, the Caribbean is also lumped into Latin America. So we are not necessarily that's through the distribution chain, as well as giving us our own identity, right? And um, just the geographical location of how it is in the Caribbean, traveling from one country to the next also was very expensive. So having this kind of collaboration amongst different islands also poses own challenges when everyone wanted to have the best production um industry, right? Because every island had their own mandates and every island had their own um intentions, right? So you had all of these different barriers um when I just started and still exist in some way, shape, or form still, right? But I must say the internet and also the film festivals, the Caribbean film festivals, and also certain um online infrastructures like um Nancy TV, are providing opportunities for Caribbean people to be seen. And there are the internet provides us an opportunity to do further research and be able to now get more visibility for the work that we are doing. So in spite of the fact that there were barriers, we are also seeing all of the opportunities that is coming on board, right, in the last three, four, five years, which I think the Caribbean right now is really buzzing. And having this bridge between the Caribbean and Africa, as well as the um North American diaspora and Europe, but most of that synergy that is currently the intentionality, I should say, that the government of the Caribbean now is advocating for in reaching out and closing gaps between the Caribbean and Africa to provide us with more opportunities. That to me is um revolutionary. And it's also very inspiring for emergent filmmakers and seasons filmmakers right now to be able to reach wider audiences.

Speaker 39:18

Certainly.

A Future For Global South Co-Productions

Speaker 39:19

And I think that gets to, for me, one of the points of you know, why we're even having this discussion. CCF recently announced their first co-development grant, um or the winners rather, of their first co-development grant. So to your point about, you know, different organizations and film festivals really supporting creatives, these are you know really important for filmmakers and other creatives looking for avenues to really distribute their work, um gain more international recognition and you know, boost collaboration. I additionally want to ask, sort of in your view, because you know we're talking about um collaboration and black storytelling, what does it look like ideally for you, you know, if you were to envision a future of really mass, not mass, uh, but you know, uh an ideal avenue or an ideal pathway by which black creatives were really collaborating with each other across different islands, across different nations. What would it look like and feel like for you?

Speaker 2 40:28

Wow. Um what that future would look like for me. What is is actually present right now and it's current right now, um, because CCF is actually in um in motion, right, and making it um happen, right? But ideally, that future looks like for me where a filmmaker from Grenada and a filmmaker from either Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana can access a shared co-production fund specifically designed for the Global South partnership, you know, with um no requirements that you have to go through the Western or the traditional institutional ways to qualify for. That's one aspect of it. The second aspect of it is what we alluded to earlier, was direct distribution pipelines. Having the opportunity to be in Africa um two years ago and seeing one, the vastness of audiences, right? And there is a quest to learn, that cultural exchange, right, between the Caribbean and Africa, right? So that direct distribution pipeline between Africa and the Caribbean markets, I think that is huge for us to expand streaming and broadcast deals between the regions. Um what the future looks like. I would say a well resourced physical and virtual infrastructure where it allows us to meet annually and keep filmmakers in active relationships year-round, um, not just once a year. And, you know, President and CTF and the entire team there, they already started that. And there are other individuals who are following suit and has partnered up with them to make this a reality, right? Learning, learning exchanges. That's another thing, right? And just having that opportunity for someone from the Caribbean to get that opportunity to maybe go study film in, say, Nigeria or Ghana, right? And learn from them how they're doing it, because they are just producing things, right? And the quality of the films is top-notch, right? So just having that opportunity for that um educational exchange, right? That to me is important. And um where we can see more fusion, more fusion of um Caribbean slash African um storytelling, because we have shared experiences. There's only um a matter of time that we're seeing more or we're discovering more fusion in the storytelling. I think those add so much depth. That's one of my projects that I had actually proposed for this year to CCL because I wanted to do a project that is very inclusive of the dynamics between the Caribbean and Africa. So I'm excited to see what that would look like. And this is what That future looks like an opportunity to go to a market, a film market, where resources would be available to us to say, yes, we believe in this story. We understand why this needs to be made, with us having to justify why we think it's important. Because fundamentally and through lived experiences, they know the reason why it needs to be made. So yes, that's a very important question. I think that the final note on that I would say is, and let me, let me, I want to frame it right. The future I see is a world where the economic model for black storytelling does not require us as black filmmakers or Caribbean filmmakers to dilute our cultural specificity to access the market, where the richness of our particular story is the selling point. I think that to me would be the future that I envision.

Speaker 45:12

That's beautiful. Thank you.

Favorite Films And Feature-Length Dreams

Speaker 45:14

I couldn't have you on here without asking you about some of your favorite films. Um, just because I'm always interested. And so while of course the the focus of our conversation today has been around cross-cultural storytelling, so they they can be cross-cultural if you'd like, um, but they don't have to be. But I'd love to for you to share with our listeners um some of your favorite examples of, you know, Caribbean films and the way that they shape and, you know, really reflect who we are in our histories and experiences.

Speaker 2 45:50

That is just an unfair question for someone who programmed. I know.

Speaker 1 45:56

So much films, right? Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 46:02

Um where do I start? So um a staple for me is the harder they come, right? Um, right? Because that's one of the first films as a kid I recall seeing that was Caribbean, it was Caribbean people on screen, right? And it was just so raw, right? And just so cultured, right? Um, so for me, um, The Heart Didn't It Count was was one of that. And then um through my process when I was actually producing the Scarlet of Mother's Dream, there was um a film called Um, I think a Barrel Stories Project. Um, but that was done by um Lisa Haywood, she's from Barbados, and to me that just spoke and it expanded on what it was that um I was doing. And um there is another film, it's not Caribbean, but it spoke to the sense of familiar um cultural exchanges, right, and experiences. There was a film called The Nanny, and in it um basically a Nancy was the protagonist in that film, right? And the domestic um worker was African, and it just the same, the same concept um of the same barrel child um syndrome aspect, right, was layered with that of the Anancy story that was brought into it. So that folklore aspect came into that space. Um, I thought that was a really, really nice um film. And then Machel Montano film, uh Bazodee. So Bazodee to me was a film that I think is worth studying, right? Because it dealt with that whole intersectionality between the African, Caribbean, and then the Indian, right? When we were in um Ivy Course um two years ago, and we were talking about Caribbean films that picked up distribution, I believe that was one of the films that picked up distribution in Africa, right? And it was well received. And I was like, wow. So you see, there is a desire for our films to be seen, right? Quality films to be seen. And I think because of limited resources, most times we limit ourselves to making short films because that's what we can financially manage. But the opportunity to make feature-length films, um, and that's another thing, ideally, the future would have would be having more feature-length, high-valued, production-valued film that is representing us coming out with our voices made by our people, um, coming out from the Caribbean, that there is no way we cannot get the the visibility that we know is possible for stories coming out of the Caribbean.

Speaker 49:31

I know I asked a hard question, but you also just answered my final question, um, which was which was in a way, sort of, you know, how how can these co-productions um either within the region or, you know, interregionally, um, really help shape global perceptions about black storytelling and storytellers. And I think you've really covered that for us, right? Um, by being able to share that it's not, you know, on one hand, of course, as you were saying earlier, it's about the pooling of resources, of about, you know, better distribution, etc. But really, I think what I took away from what you said a moment ago was the fact that who we are and what makes us special um when it comes to the work that filmmakers and other creatives are doing should be at the heart of our work and um instead not not needing to diminish it for the sake of getting production and you know, other details

Final Takeaways And Listener Resources

Speaker 50:39

like that. And so I ultimately really want to thank you, Meshida, for joining us um for this episode. I think this is one that I learned a lot from. Um, I will, of course, include for our listeners um links to the films that you mentioned, and of course, links to Scars of Our Mother's Dreams. I really enjoyed watching it. Um, and I think, you know, several of our listeners will as well. And so with that, thank you so much for again being a guest on the show, sharing more about not only your work, but also the work of Caribbean Tales Media Group. Um, for our listeners tuning in, for seasoned filmmakers, for budding filmmakers, I cannot recommend enough um checking out Caribbean Tales CCF programming. It is one that I think brings, again, together storytellers from the region, from across the um Black diaspora to do amazing work, right? To continue pivoting, um, sharing, learning from one another, and really building up um the work of Black storytelling and filmmaking for us to learn and work together from one another. And so with that, thank you so much all for tuning in. Links, as always, will be on our website in our show notes, etc. Until next time, look more.