CaribWorldNews reports that Barbados-born poet, historian and cultural critic Kamau Brathwaite  is set to host a selection of films from the Best of CaribbeanTales Film Festival 2010 (CTFF), at New York University from April 26th to May 1, 2010. The four day mini-festival is part of the Marassa 10 2010: A Festival of Caribbean Film, Story and Imagination, set for the Institute of African American Affairs, 41 East 11th St., 7th Floor in Manhattan.

The stellar collection of films to be screened include six feature films and several shorts.  On Wednesday April 28 at 6 p.m., the opening film will be Stephanie`s Black`s masterful, Africa Unite.  Part concert tribute, part Marley family travelogue,  this electrifying film follows the Marleys` on their first-time-ever family trip to Ethiopia to commemorate Bob`s 60th birthday. Stephanie Black will be in attendance to participate in a talk-back after the film.
This will be followed at 8 p.m. by Calypso Dreams, directed by Geoffrey Dunn and Michael Horne and executive produced by music legend Eddy Grant with narrative commentary by David Rudder. This authoritative  documentary captures riveting performances and original interviews with a host of legendary Calypso performers, including the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Lord Superior, Black Stalin, Mighty Bomber, Lord Blakie, Singing Sandra, Mighty Terror,  Lord Kitchener, Lord Pretender, and  Harry Belafonte. 
On Thursday April 29th  at 6 p.m., Michelle Materre, curator of the `Creatively Speaking` screening series, will present Life Lessons, fourshort films by New York-based filmmakers of color. A Departure from A Love, by Ishmael Islam, follows a young man`s walk through his beloved Brooklyn while reciting spoken word to a lover, while, The Lesson Plan by Eddy Duran follows a Brooklyn school teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as he constructs an unusual Lesson Plan for students, drawing on letters by 18th century slave owner William Lynch, (after whom the term `lynching` was coined). This film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2009. Also set to be screened are Sticks and Stones by Rehema Imani Trimiew, which exposes biases in the  NY education system and Premature, by Rashaad Ernesto Green, which tells of  Tisha, a streetwise Bronx teenager from the Bronx, who gets unexpected news.

At 8 pm on Thursday April 29th, Frances-Anne Solomon`s multi-award-winning audience favorite A Winter Tale, set in the Caribbean community of Toronto, Canada, will be screened. The film tells the emotional and gripping story of a group of Black men who come together at Miss G`s Caribbean Restaurant, to thrash out their differences and heal their broken community, following  the shooting death of a young child. The filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon will be in attendance.

Friday April 30th at 6 p.m. begins with 3 stunning shorts from the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. They include Directions by Renee Polonais, winner of the audience award at the T&T film festival 2008, which is a hilarious look at the roundabout ways some Trinidadians give street directions; Invisible, by Multimedia artist Elspeth Duncan, which focuses on a woman called Veronica and her daughters, facing the bitter effects of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago and Mami Wata, an evocative film exploration of Shango ritual, by Yao Ramesar one of the most accomplished and prolific Caribbean directors, who has made dozens of films on the people, history, and culture of Trinidad.
This will be followed at 8 p.m. by Rain, director Maria Govan`s powerful debut feature,  that follows a teenager named Rain who goes to Nassau to find her mother, and discovers her  living in a desperately poor, AIDS-ravaged neighborhood.

On Saturday May 1st, at 4.pm, the festival wraps up with The Legend of Buchi Fil, by Surinamese filmmaker German Gruber, which draws on slave folklore to tell the story of the strongest of the slaves whose will was only crushed when his beloved wife was killed and Drummit2Summit, by Christopher Laird, which  records the events of 18th April 2009, when a group of protesters  holding a public event in  Port of Spain, Trinidad, during the 5th Summit of the Americas, faced down pressure from armed riot police, using drums, song, and the power of the media.

At 6 p.m., the closing feature will be Carmen and Geoffrey by filmmakers Linda Atkins and Nick Doob, a beautiful documentary about the work of two exceptional artists, Carmen de Lavallade and Trinidadian Geoffrey Holder, and the  fifty-four year long love affair and creative partnership that sustained their accomplishments. Linda Atkins and Nick Doob will attend the screening and and Talk back afterwards.

The CTFF was founded by accomplished British/Canadian-Trinidadian filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon , whose most recent award-winning feature film A Winter Tale has won international acclaim. `I am  delighted to be able to present the best of the best of our Barbados 2010 line-up of CaribbeanTales films at NYU.  It is an honor to be hosted by Dr Kamau Brathwaite who is a Caribbean icon, having contributed so much to deepening our understanding of ourselves and our culture,` commented Solomon.

The CaribbeanTales Film Festival is a Toronto-based event that takes place annually in July.

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