AT a film symposium held at its St. Augustine campus, the University of The West Indies (UWI) announced that it has launched the school’s first-ever Bachelor of Arts degree film programme last week.

Envisioned by campus Principal Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, the programme was designed by Dr. Jean Antoine-Dunne, with the assistance of lecturer and Trinidadian documentary filmmaker Bruce Paddington, and offers its film students two degree options: a major of 36 credits and a special degree of 45 credits, in either film studies or film production.

Upon graduation the programme’s students would have “an in-depth knowledge of the theory, aesthetics and history of film”.

Additionally, the successful film student would have acquired a skill-set that consists of: screen writing, production, scheduling, budgeting, directing (and assistant directing), lighting, sound recording, location scouting, videotaping, interviewing and editing.

Prospective film students would gain experience through lectures, discussion, research and visits to professional film production agencies, coupled with compulsory course work in: introduction to cinema, film, literature and drama; studies of early and silent cinema; Caribbean and Latin American film and sound and visual dynamics.

In the three days symposium speakers were: Argentine filmmaker Rolando Prado; Dr. Harvey O’Brien of the University College Dublin, Ireland; Jamaican filmmaker Franklyn St. Juste of “The Hard They Come” fame; Ralph Maraj, chairman of Trinidad & Tobago Film Company; Puerto Rican lecturer and filmmaker Sonia Fritz and Trindadians Dr. Jean Antoine-Dunne and Bruce Paddington.

In his address to the symposium T&T’s Film Company, Ralph Maraj, announced another first for the local budding film industry, with the launch of the first Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

The festival will be staged at the MovieTowne cinema complex, Audrey Jeffers Highway, Invaders Bay, Port of Spain and begins on Tuesday, September 19, and runs for four days, concluding on Friday.

The Jamaican film
Glory to Gloriana
is the festival’s
feature film.

RALPH MARAJ, chairman
of Trinidad & Tobago Film
Company, announces the
launch of the Trinidad &
Tobago Film Festival.

The symposium’s feature
lecturer, Dr. HARVEY
O’BRIEN of the University
College Dublin, Ireland.

With 40 film to choose from, the film makes comes from: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, United Kingdom, United States and Trinidad & Tobago.

Film-lovers will have a choice of: Features, Documentaries, Shorts, Comedy and Drama to choose from.

The feature film of the festival will be the Jamaican film Glory to Gloriana.