CARIBBEAN
TALES LAUNCHES SEASON 2 OF CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY
SERIES LITERATURE ALIVE ON BRAVO!
Toronto,
ON September 20, 2006 - Hot on the heels of winning a
Special Acknowledgement Award in the Best Documentary
category at the Festival of Black International Cinema,
Berlin, Frances-Anne Solomon and Caribbean Tales will
unveil a second season of Literature Alive, a series of
creative, point-of-view documentaries profiling Caribbean
writers.
Literature Alive - Season 2 will premiere on BRAVO!
television on Thursday, November 2 at 8 p.m. and
air for six weeks. Among the talented Caribbean writers
profiled in the second season of this inspirational documentary
series are Honor Ford Smith, the renowned Jamaican playwright,
director and poet; Rachel Manley, author, historian and
actress, as well as author Colin Channer, the charismatic
founder of Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival. Other
writers featured are British-based icon Lynton Kwesi Johnson,
Andrea Levy (A Small Island), dub-poet Stacey Anne Chin,
and reggae anthologist and poet Kwame Dawes.
Caribbean Tales is the leading multimedia company
in Canada that is dedicated to reflecting the rich tradition
of Caribbean-heritage storytelling. Since launching
the Literature Alive brand 18 months ago, the company
has produced 13 half-hour documentaries (Literature Alive
- Season 1 for Bravo!), a one-hour documentary special
on Ramabai Espinet (for OMNI Television), five audiobooks
of novels by Caribbean-Canadian authors (for the Trillium
Foundation), five radio programmes for CBC Radio's The
Arts Tonight; an educational web site literaturealiveonline.ca
(for the Department of Canadian Heritage), a writing contest
for young people, and the first-ever Literature Alive
Film Festival, in collaboration with the IRIE Music Festival
and the National Film Board of Canada. In addition, in
January 2006, Caribbean Tales produced the groundbreaking
theatrical production, A Winter Tale, exploring the roots
of gun violence in Toronto's Caribbean Community, and
is co-producing a feature film version for CHUM/Telefilm,
scheduled for release in 2007.
Literature Alive documentaries have won recognition at
film festivals internationally, with several of the docs
being featured at Fipa 2006 in Paris; the Reel Sisters
Festival in NY; The Festival of Black International Cinema
in St Louis, Berlin, and Paris; and the Carifesta International
Arts Festival in Trinidad. Memory Places, a profile of
Canadian author Andre Alexis, produced for Season 1 of
Literature Alive, won a Special Acknowledgement Award
in the Best Documentary category at the Festival of Black
International Cinema.
Solomon, Founder and Artistic Director of Caribbean Tales
and Leda Serene Films explains her inspiration behind
the series: "Growing up, I experienced Caribbean
writing as a very vibrant and developed literature, and
now it is leading the way internationally. The Literature
Alive series aims to showcase the diverse voices of these
extraordinary world-class writers, using television and
the new media in all its forms to bring their stories
to the widest possible audience here in Canada".
ABOUT CARIBBEAN TALES
Caribbean Tales is an innovative not-for-profit multimedia
company committed to producing educational films, videos,
and new media that celebrate the rich tradition of Caribbean-heritage
storytelling-which includes the compelling and provocative
documentary series, Literature Alive, along with its companion
audio book series and educational web site, literaturealiveonline.ca
Other projects include the Caribbean Tales web site, a
vital anti-colonial history of the Caribbean; and a quarterly
e-newsletter featuring profiles of Caribbean storytellers
and cultural commentary, as well as current news and events.
For more information visit www.caribbeantales.ca
and www.literaturealiveonline.ca.
MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria Lord, VLPR Inc., (416) 484-9047,
x224, victoria@vlpr.com
Literature
Alive - Season 2
Episode Synopsis
Creation Fire 1 & 2
"I never doubted that Caribbean literature had international
appeal," says Colin Channer founder of the hugely
successful Calabash Literary Festival that explodes like
a rock concert in Treasure Beach, Jamaica every year,
"because I grew up with the example of the huge impact
of Bob Marley on world culture."
Episode 1 profiles Channer and his friend
and colleague poet Kwame Dawes, who together run the festival.
Episode 2 profiles writers Dionne Brand,
Lynton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka, Andrea Levy and Stacey
Anne Chin.
Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST - Episode
1
Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST - Episode
2
Rachel Manley - In My Father's Shoes
Rachel Manley, author, poet, historian and actress from
Toronto, is the granddaughter and the daughter of two
of Jamaica's national leaders. Her books, "Drumblair"
and "Slipstream" tell the story of the brilliant,
artistic Manleys, Jamaica's most prominent and glamorous
political family who provided Jamaica's first crop of
political leaders at both ends of the political spectrum.
In her work she vividly creates an intimate memoir of
the family that changed Jamaica's intellectual, social
and cultural landscape for all time.
Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST
Gimistory 1& 2:
Folktales & Personal Stories - Calypsonians &
Extempoists
For the past 6 years, the Island of Grand Cayman that
lies off the coast of Jamaica has been hosting a dynamic
Caribbean story-telling festival called Gimistory. Despite
the fact that the Island was devastated by the Class 5
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and against all odds, the Gimistory
Festival forges ahead to bring together Caribbean story-tellers
and performance artists. Watch this unique festival unfold
in the special two-part episode.
Episode 1 explores the roots of Caribbean
folk tales through personal storytelling.
Episode 2 showcases the importance of
Calypso and Extempo in the tradition of Caribbean storytelling.
Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST - Part1
Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST - Part 2
Honor Ford Smith - Honor-Bound
Playwright, director, actress, and poet, Honor Ford Smith
is best known for her work with the internationally recognized
Jamaican theatre collective Sistren, which empowered working-class
women to tell their personal life-stories through plays,
writing and drawing.
This documentary examines her work and how she continues
to adapt that collective theatre model to enable youth
in Toronto to speak out on contemporary issues like the
rise of gun violence in the city.
Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. EST
