One of the new films featured in this year’s trinidad + tobago film festival (ttff)—which runs from September 21 until October 4—is Natalie Wei’s documentary Chinee Girl (2011). Holly Bynoe writes that the film “focuses on twelve female subjects occupying various social circles. Through their stories, a contemporary portrait of the Caribbean Chinese identity emerges, questioning how one defines ethnicity and identity in a Caribbean space.”
Description: Women of Chinese descent in Trinidad occupy a space that is simultaneously visible and invisible. Despite national and regional acknowledgment of this minority group’s significant cultural and economic influence, female voices are notably absent within the academic literature and early migration history of this unique culture. The mixed-Chinese claim varying degrees of Chinese heritage and also co-exist with recent migrants in the fourth wave of Chinese migration to Trinidad. What does it mean to be simultaneously visible and invisible? What purposes are served by existing in the space in-between?
Natalie Wei is a Canadian-born artist, freelance photographer and emerging filmmaker of Chinese Trinidadian descent. Her award winning work addresses memory, history, and identity. Most recently, she has applied her wide-ranging background to film production as an Assistant Director. Chinee Girl is her directorial debut and has been generously supported by the University of the West Indies and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company. A graduate of Ryerson University (BFA Hons., Photography Studies), she is currently completing her Masters of Philosophy at the University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, in the field of Cultural Studies.
For more information on the Festival, see previous post: Film
Festival to celebrate 100 years of cinema in T&T
For original post, see http://www.womenofpowerbvi.com/?p=1469
For more information, see http://www.ttfilmfestival.com/2011/07/chinee-girl/
