Yao Ramesar, Trinidad

 :: Trinidadian Video Features ::   

Screening: Friday, October 17 at 6.00 p.m. 

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The Director

One of the new generation of young Caribbean directors, Ramesar also trained at Howard in Washington and now lectures in television and film at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. He has won numerous awards, including the Paul Robeson Award for Best Film and Best Editing (1990), and for Best Cinematography (1991) in the US; and the Best Television Series, Best Editing and Best Supporting Video awards in Trinidad in 1997. Ramesar is also a commentator and film theorist, whose ideas have been published both in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Over the last five years, Ramesar has been working on a series of short experimental films, in which he explores ‘the spiritual essence of Trinidad and Tobago’s diverse culture’. This sequence includes Celebration, a visual accompaniment to  Derek Walcott's well-known poem, ‘Saddhu of Couva’, and b.c (before columbus), and constitutes an unparalleled archive of sensitively observed and beautifully shot visual narratives of Trinidadian culture. Topics include steel pan, the Hindu River Festival, the Orisha Festival, masquerade traditions, parang, cricket and aspects of different religions. Of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage, he describes his own stunning, hypnotic aesthetic as “Caribbeing.”  Also a teacher of film at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Ramesar will be showing a programme of new short films from Trinidad at this year’s Festival.

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