The sixth T&T Film Festival runs until 4 October. Guardian columnist, BC Pires, has been writing about film from an informed lay perspective since March 1988. He served on the first Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival jury last year and wrote the Jury's Report. BC will pick a Film of the Day for every day of the festival.
Today's choice
Wan Pipel (aka One People)
(Pim de la Parra/ 1976/ Suriname-Netherlands/ Drama / 111'/Dutch, Hindustani, Sranan Tongo with English sub-titles/PG-13).
2 pm-MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain.
Films start promptly at advertised times.
MovieTowne and Little Carib Theatre $25; all other screenings admission free. Visit www.ttfilmfestival.com for more information.
Also: Chico Y Rita, 5 pm, Better Mus' Come, 7 pm MovieTowne.
At 6 pm at the Readers' Bookshop, St James, BC Pires will also count down his top ten Caribbean films.
A very West Indian film
Today's is the final screening of Wan Pipel, a very strong narrative film made by Suriname's most respected film director, his first film made in his native country and the first feature film ever made in Suriname itself; that's a lot of firsts and this is your last chance to grab them. As a special treat, the 72-year-old director will be present to answer questions after the screening. Though it begins in Holland, where the male lead is involved with a Dutch woman (from whom he borrows the airfare to leave), the film quickly moves to its principal setting of Suriname, where he meets and falls in love with the female lead; the man is black, the woman, East Indian; and the simple fact of their relationship - and its consequences - is the fulcrum on which the whole film turns.
Beautifully shot and scored (with music from Lieve Hugo, Suriname's King of Kaseko), the film illustrates the main creative writing axiom, "Show, Don't Tell" magnificently, in places, such as in the effortless juxtaposition of the important social role played by Hindustani Surinamese with their treatment as secondary citizens. A very West Indian film indeed. Though made a generation ago, de la Parra's film remains highly relevant to Suriname and perhaps even more so to contemporary, acutely racially conscious Trinidad and Tobago.