Indi Groove, which carries the amusing descriptive subtitle “It’s BBC meets MTV under the coconut trees,” presents the interview “mixed race-isims in the Caribbean_MARIEL Brown.” Calling it “a must see for all the ‘Curly Heads’, ‘Reds’ and “Douglas,’” the video focuses on Trinidadian director Mariel Brown’s observations on being of mixed race and a woman in her profession, specifically in the Caribbean. She speaks about how perceptions of her identity shifts according to the standpoints of her interlocutors and how, at times, this indeterminacy may be painful.

Mariel Brown is the director of the creative and production company Savant, and has been working in television and print since 1997.  She is the managing editor of the art books “Meiling: Fashion Designer” and “Barbara Jardine: Goldsmith.”  She has produced video features for TV6 and the WITCO Sports Foundation Awards, and her features and news reports have been broadcast on CNN and CARIBSCOPE.  Mariel is the creator and producer of “Sancoche” and “Makin’ Mas”—television series “designed with Caribbean content for a Caribbean audience.”  She is director of two documentary feature films: The Insatiable Season (2007)—which was awarded the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival—and The Solitary Alchemist (2009).

Filmed in England, Scotland, and Trinidad with an all-Trinidadian crew, The Solitary Alchemist is “a moving and intimate portrait of a life in art.” The film documents the life and work of artist Barbara Jardine, affectionately known as Barbie, delving into the artist’s intimate and professional life. The documentary also explores the transformative power of art as a way to get through pain.

The Insatiable Season: Making Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago traces the evolution of one of Brian MacFarlane’s mas bands from beginning to end. The Caribbean Review of Books describes it as “a film that, simply and appropriately, finds joy in the mundane romance of putting a mas together, from the conceptualising of the band to the construction of the costumes . . . and yes, in the end, to wining down to the ground come Carnival Tuesday. . . This is a highly enjoyable film, not least for the bits of candour it is so adroitly able to capture.”

For interview, go to http://indigroove.me/2010/08/mixed-race-isims-in-the-caribbean_mariel-brown/

For more information, see http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,106245.html

For more on Savant Productions and film reviews, see http://www.savantmedia.tv/about.htm