Viewers have until July 23 to watch T&T filmmaker Mariel Brown's short documentary Smallman on the US National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) Web series AfroPoP: the Ultimate Cultural Exchange: Caribbean Shorts.Smallman was one of four Caribbean films curated for the Caribbean Shorts series. The film's Web site describes it thusly: "Smallman is Richard Mark Rawlins' personal exploration of the real and imagined worlds that his father, Kenwyn, made in the workshop beneath their house." The ten-minute short is based on Rawlins's e-book about his father."Short films from all across the Caribbean Basin are featured in this series," says a note on the AfroPoP page. "Dramatic, funny and insightful shorts and documentaries made by Caribbean filmmakers, celebrating and exploring a diverse set of identities. "These shorts explore immigration, life opportunities, modern Caribbean identity and much, much more."The series, which ran through the month of June, celebrated Caribbean Heritage Month, an annual observance in the US.Brown said in an e-mail message, "One of the reasons that I am so encouraged by AfroPoP's support of Smallman is that it will expose the film to an entirely different audience in North America."
Smallman had its worldwide premiere at the 2013 T&T Film Festival. Leslie Fields-Cruz, director of programming at NBPC, was in Trinidad for the festival. Brown quotes her on the Smallman Web page:"In 2012 I was invited to serve on the T&T Film Festival's documentary film jury. It was my first time travelling to Trinidad, so I was excited about visiting the island. But more importantly, I was excited about watching films from the Caribbean, most of which were made by Caribbean filmmakers. "I returned in 2013 to serve on a panel for a Unesco conference, Developing the Caribbean Film Industry for a Culture of Peace. I sat in a room with several other Caribbean filmmakers who talked candidly about the unique challenges of making films and distributing those films in the Caribbean and abroad."Much of what I heard was similar to the challenges independent media makers face in the US: raising finance, small budgets, finding distribution, finding an audience; but producing in the Caribbean is hampered by the lack of a strong media making infrastructure. But there is good news. Things are changing, content is being made and distributed more often, and it's finding audience both in the Caribbean, the US and abroad."
Brown said, "As filmmakers, I think we all want our work to have a life out there in the world and to be seen by people. AfroPop is a wonderful way to give Smallman wings, and I am really happy to be sharing it."Also being shown online in the series are Barbadians Lisa Harewood's and Maharaki's dramatic shorts Auntie and Vivre, respectively, and Bahamian Kareem Mortimer's dramatic short Passage.
