Vele kleuren, één regenboog/Many colours, one rainbow/Beaucoup de couleurs, un arc-en-ciel/Muchos colores, un arco iris

From Colin Robinson, Trinidad & Tobago

Remember when…? In the 1990s, I received one of those maudlin chain email reminiscences curating the archetypes of growing up in Trinidad . What was striking about it for me was that this imaginary past included a neighbourhood buller. Of course he was a pederast and of course he was the subject of an extrajudicial cutarse, but it demonstrated in a clarion way that we are not imagined as invisible in the region’s history or, as dancehall’s worst imagination proposes, as outside the Caribbean social order. Indeed, the Caribbean has a long history of imagining same-sex desire and gender transgression in our music, literature and visual art. While we have not always been imagined in our full humanity, or through our own imaginations, or in roles other than gender jesters, that imagining has not been always been trapped in the prism of violence or the drumbeat of genocide. “What are the words you do not yet have?” Grenadian-descended Lesbian Audre Lorde asked in “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” Imagination, I believe, is as fundamental to liberation as power is. How are those of us who have been born into independent citizenship imagining the Caribbean we will leave our futures?

What is powerful about CARIFESTA is that it celebrates the richness, the resilience, the diversity and the skillfulness of Caribbean imagination. What is similarly powerful about SASOD’s cultural project of illuminating the Caribeanness of same-sex desire in the context of CARIFESTA is how it prevents our forgetfulness or ignorance of how sexual and gender diversity have been often complicated and sometimes seamless aspects of the incredible callaloo that is Caribbean cultural expression, and vibrant parts of the experience and muse of our many artists. SASOD @ CARIFESTA X highlights some distinctly GLBT-identified voices and visions, their talents and products, and their relationships to the process and conditions of Caribbean cultural production. It promotes the best tradition of dialogue – about transformation, and the role of culture in it. It documents how power shapes culture. And, finally it demonstrates the agency of Caribbean communities to create cultural expression for our liberation.

Homosexuality in the Caribbean-Crawling out of the Closet' Professor Claude Douglas -Grenada

"... a sociological analysis and an erudite commentary on sexuality as a critical function of human identity. In the book Professor Douglas discusses a taboo issue: the maneuvers of homosexuality within the English speaking Caribbean. The Grenadian professor writes against the prevailing idea of a specific brand of Judeo-Christian theology, which affirms heterosexual norm -- a religious orientation that pervades the Caribbean mind. While the book speaks directly to the homophobic particulars of the Caribbean experience, it fails to explore fully, how relationships of justice are exercised within the milieu of the Caribbean's sexual ethics..."

"Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles" edited by Thomas Glave, USA/Jamaica

"...The author and activist Thomas Glave has gathered outstanding fiction,nonfiction, memoir, and poetry by little-known writers along with selections by internationally celebrated figures such as Reinaldo Arenas, Audre Lorde, Achy Obejas, Assotto Saint, José Alcántara Almánzar, Michelle Cliff, and Dionne Brand. The thirty-seven authors hail from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Suriname, and Trinidad. Many have lived outside the Caribbean, and their writing depicts histories of voluntary migration as well as exile from repressive governments, communities, and families.

Venue : Sky 7, Pere Street, Kitty
Admission $1,000 by ticket, $1,500 at the door
Doors open at 8pm

Dos Patrias : Cuba y la noche (Cuba/Germany) Documentary

Framed by the beautiful poetry of the Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, this revealing documentary features memorable portraits of five gay men and one transsexual woman living in and around Havana. This film is screened at a time when Cuba is making strides to address the issues faced by people like those in the film (84 mins)

Contributed by Director Christian Liffer

Coolie Gyal (Canada)
In this coming-out story, an honest and sincere letter is read from a daughter to her parents. A familial montage is incorporated with a heartfelt narrative filled with the expectations and anxieties of a young woman. ( 7 minutes)

Contributed by Director Renata Mohamed

BIOGRAPHY:
Renata Mohamed is a Toronto-based Indo-Guyanese filmmaker born in the British Virgin Islands. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design's Integrated Media program. Renata has been involved with numerous arts organizations including the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival and the CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, as well as the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) and the Documentary Organisation of Canada (DOC). Renata was recently selected as one of the participants for the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2008 Talent Lab.

Her first short film “Coolie Gyal” has screened at more than 40 festivals worldwide. She recently completed her second film “Secret Place” and she is currently developing a documentary that will explore the folklore and supernatural tales found throughout the Caribbean, tentively titled “Jumbees.” For more information visit www.renatamohamed.com

Float (Bahamas) Short drama
Jonny, white Bahamian artist who faces loosing his scholarship, chooses to escape for a weekend island trip where he meets a young man named Romeo. . (34 mins)

Contributed by director Kareem Mortimer

Fresa y Chocolate (Cuba/Spain/Mexico) Comedy/Drama
Diego, a cultivated, homosexual and skeptical young man, falls in love with a young heterosexual communist full of prejudices and doctrinary ideas. First come rejection and suspicion, but also fascination. Fresa y chocolate is the story of a great friendship, that is, a great love between two men, which overcomes incomprehension and intolerance. This film was produced in Cuba and is recognised as one which had criticisms of the Government. Winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and other awards(104 minutes)

Venue : Sidewalk Cafe, 176 Middle Street, Georgetown
Admission : Free
Time : 7pm

Thursday 28 August, Film night,
Venue : Polo's Sports Bar
Admission : Free
Time : 7pm

Songs of Freedom : (Jamaica) Documentary takes us inside the world of Jamaican gays and lesbians and tells compelling stories of individuals courageously carving out meaningful lives, despite the taboo against their sexual identity. (75 minutes )
Contributed by Director Phillip Pike

Not in my Family (Belize) Documentary
Not In my Family takes at look at the MSM/trans experience in Belize as it relates to the coming out process, HIV/AIDS, work, media reports of homophobia and violence. It explores the issue of tolerance at the policy-making level, the sexual rights of the population, barriers to services as well as the confusion about sexual orientation in the Belizean Society. (95 mins)

Contributed by UNIBAM (United Belize Advocacy Movement)

Paradise Lost - Trinidad
(on loan from Deni James)

In Paradise Lost, the filmmaker domiciled in the UK, returns to Trinidad to find out what it really is like to be a queer Trinidadian. She interviews her parents, and Trinidadians.

What you discover is a complex country mixing tolerance and censure, religion and ritual, forming an uneasy relationship with queer folk.

Each interviewee shares their story to produce a powerful testament to the flexibilty of the Caribbean culture and the universal survival of the human spirit. (24 minutes)

Sea in The Blood (Trinidad) Documentary
(Contributed by Richard Fung, Director)

Sea In The Blood is a personal documentary from Trinidad born, Richard Fung, about living with illness, tracing the relationship of the artist to thalassemia in his sister Nan, and AIDS in his partner Tim. At the core of the piece are two trips. The first is in 1962, when Richard went from Trinidad to England with Nan to see a famous hematologist interested in her unusual case. The second is in 1977 when Richard and Tim made the counterculture pilgrimage from Europe to Asia. The relationship with Tim blossomed, but Nan died before their return. The narrative of love and loss is set against a background of colonialism in the Caribbean and the reverberations of migration and political change. (30 mins)

Devil's Day - Trinidad
The dancefloor is a sacred sanctuary where we release, reaffirm and renew with dance-- and a little hot paint. Shot at J'ouvert in Trinidad (8 minutes) This film could not be shown since it was lost in transporation. We Thank Sean Drakes for his generosity