A TOP AMERICAN film producer is calling on Hollywood to make space for films that depict the culture of this region, as the opening gala of Caribbean Tales Film Festival 2012 comes off tonight at Frank Collymore Hall.
Gina Belafonte, the youngest daughter of singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, said festivals like CaribbeanTales, now in its third year, is one of the ways to get regional culture into mainstream film.
“This festival is important in that it gives the local and international community a chance to see indigenous stories of the Caribbean. And we don’t get the opportunity in mainstream media to see that,” said Gina, whose biodocumentary about the life of her father will premiere at the festival.
“We’re hooked into blockbuster action or technologically spectacular movies, which have their place, but I find [that] the same way rap music has been co-opted, so has the storytelling of Caribbean people.
“Festivals like this need to be promoted and supported, and the Hollywood community needs to make space for them,” she said.
She will attend tonight’s opening of CaribbeanTales, an entity with bases in Barbados, Toronto and New York that showcases works celebrating and exploring Caribbean themes and issues of interest to the Caribbean diaspora.
