Some of T&T's most ac­claimed film­mak­ers have been ho­n­oured for their con­tri­bu­tions to the his­to­ry of the lo­cal film in­dus­try by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Film Fes­ti­val (TTFF) and en­er­gy com­pa­ny BP Trinidad and To­ba­go (bpTT). Six­teen film pi­o­neers re­ceived spe­cial scrolls of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the sig­nif­i­cant roles they played in the his­to­ry of film in T&T, ei­ther work­ing as ac­tors in the in­ter­na­tion­al are­na or as lo­cal film-mak­ers. The film pi­o­neers func­tion was held at the Hy­att Re­gency in Port-of-Spain on Wednes­day. The pi­o­neers rep­re­sent a rich lega­cy of film­mak­ing, dat­ing back to the 1930s with Louis Tuck­er, who made T&T's first dra­mat­ic silent black-and-white fea­ture film, Dead Man's Gold, in 1932. The pe­ri­od un­der re­view spanned from the 1930s to the end of the 20th cen­tu­ry.

Bruce Padding­ton, chair­man of the TTFF, said the ini­tia­tive was a con­tin­u­a­tion of a prac­tice start­ed last year when pi­o­neers who con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the de­vel­op­ment of cin­e­ma were ho­n­oured. "This year we are ho­n­our­ing 16 film pi­o­neers, in­clud­ing two hus­band-and-wife teams. All have made im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tions to the his­to­ry of film in T&T, ei­ther work­ing as ac­tors in the in­ter­na­tion­al film in­dus­try or as lo­cal film­mak­ers help­ing to de­vel­op an in­dige­nous film in­dus­try. "BPTT has again agreed to part­ner with us in this note­wor­thy project and we thank them for their con­tin­ued sup­port," Padding­ton said.

Danielle Jones, man­ag­er–cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions, bpTT, told the gath­er­ing that projects such as the film pi­o­neer ho­n­our awards echo the val­ues and pas­sion of bpTT and recog­nised the roles the pi­o­neers played in help­ing to shape the rich his­to­ry and cul­ture of T&T. While on­ly two of the hon­orees, ac­tor/play­wright Ralph Maraj and ac­tor/writer/pro­duc­er Ka­ma­lo Dean were present to re­ceive their awards, fam­i­lies and rel­a­tives of re­cip­i­ents de­ceased or ab­sent, re­ceived on their be­half. Maraj, who went on to be­come a Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter, said he felt ho­n­oured to be a re­cip­i­ent of the pi­o­neers award. "It feels good to be recog­nised for your con­tri­bu­tions to your coun­try, to know that you have con­tributed, in some mea­sure, to the de­vel­op­ment of the lo­cal film in­dus­try," he said, on re­ceiv­ing his award. Among the guests at the func­tion were Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and the Econ­o­my, and Car­la Foder­ing­ham, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Trinidad and To­ba­go Film Com­pa­ny.