If any Trinidadian knows about Africa and its potential for both making and distributing films, it's Yao Ramesar.
The filmmaker and educator was born in Ghana of a Trinidadian father and a Jamaican mother. He studied African filmmaking at Howard University's film school. He teaches a course on African films at UWI's film programme, which he also heads.
He's been shooting one film in South Africa and plans to shoot another in Ghana. And most recently he had the honour of being among the first non-Africans up for an award at the renowned FESPACO film festival in Burkina Faso for his film Haiti Bride.
Ramesar has been deliberately trying to enter the African film market because he sees it as a promising target for filmmakers, particularly those from the diaspora.
"The festival was the next phase in me being located and positioned as an African director with all the attendant market space," he said.
The festival, the largest in Africa, "was crawling with distributors," he said. The market reach, he explained, included not only Africa, a continent of around one billion people, but also Europe.
Trinidadians and Tobagonians interested in producing and promoting films can learn a lot from Africa.
The Nigerian film industry is now one of the biggest in the world. Nollywood is only rivalled by Hollywood and Bollywood. The movie industries of other African countries are growing as well.
"The Ethiopian film industry, like the economy, is starting to boom," said Ramesar. "There are 23 cinemas in Addis Ababa alone."
Ethiopian films can draw "crowds around the block" and a filmmaker can recover the cost of a film in "two, three weeks," said Ramesar. All of this has been accomplished with no state support.
"Expat Ethiopian business people are funding things to be made in Ethiopia. So it's private money," he explained. "Last year there were 87 feature films made in Ethiopia."
If a T&T filmmaker hopes to make an impact abroad, focussing on the American market is not the best option.
"When you talk about the holy grail of Hollywood and selling in the American market, it's a rabbit hole," said Ramesar. "Because we are not going to be as successful economically selling our film product to the Americans as we can in Africa, India and even China."
Africa is also where great filmmakers can be found.
When he was studying film in the 1980s, said Ramesar, "Africa was making some of the best cinema on the planet."
"Now," he added. "These guys have gotten really good. They're like the Shakespeare of cinema."
The Oscar-nominated film Timbuktu, by Mauritian Abderrahmane Sissako, was up for FESPACO's top prize, the Golden Stallion of Yennenga which is comparable to the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It lost out to Fievres by Moroccan Hicham Ayouch.
Ramesar was glad for the opportunity with FESPACO, which ran from February 24�March 7, in Ouagadougou. It gave him to spend time with some of these filmmakers.
"To be in a space for two weeks with all of these African filmmakers, it was just a tremendous experience," he said. "Sometimes we're up night and day watching movies. Talking right through and gaining information from each other."
At FESPACO, Haiti Bride, about a woman who loses her groom in the 2010 earthquake, was well received: a good sign for Caribbean filmmakers.
The showing was sold out.
"It was hushed when my film started. Someone shouted, 'Magnifique!' I was shocked myself," said Ramesar.
Besides his African films, Ramesar is working on a film, The Last Dance of the Karaoke King, about an over-the-hill chutney singer, which he hopes will appeal to the market in India.
Entering mid-career, he said he's trying to make his films, with which he's known to take artistic risks, more accessible.
"I had a nice time with the critically acclaimed stuff," he said, "but now I want to have a much stronger connection with general audiences."
But even while there's potential, Caribbean filmmakers may have some work to do reaching African audiences, many of whom are ignorant about the Caribbean, said Ramesar. He tells of having to show someone T&T on the map.
The man responded, Ramesar recalled, "My god! Can you land a plane there?"