SAN­DRA L BLOOD

In 2019, three young mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artistes—Tene­ka Mo­hammed, Mikhail Gib­bings, and Aviel Scant­er­bury—em­barked on a mis­sion to pre­serve the sto­ries of cul­tur­al his­to­ry and cre­ative ex­cel­lence in T&T and the wider Caribbean. Pool­ing their re­sources, they be­gan a project that evolved in­to Pome­gran­ate Stu­dio, a pri­vate, in­de­pen­dent en­ti­ty of­fi­cial­ly reg­is­tered in 2021.

Pome­gran­ate Stu­dio was cre­at­ed to show­case voic­es, tal­ent, and cul­ture through film and cre­ative con­tent. The team has al­ready pro­duced doc­u­men­taries on Roy Cape, Mun­gal Patasar, and Robert Munroe. Now, they are fine-tun­ing the lat­est in­stall­ment of their “Iconog­ra­phy” doc­u­men­tary se­ries—this one ded­i­cat­ed to the late, leg­endary pan arranger Dr Jit Sama­roo.

Mo­hammed ex­plained that Iconog­ra­phy fo­cus­es on telling the sto­ries of T&T’s mu­si­cal and cul­tur­al icons—es­pe­cial­ly those whose ca­reers pre­dat­ed the wide­spread avail­abil­i­ty of video archiv­ing. Fea­tur­ing Sama­roo in the se­ries, she said, is es­pe­cial­ly fit­ting dur­ing Steel­pan Month.

On Thurs­day at 6 pm, Queen’s Hall Au­di­to­ri­um will host the pre­miere of The Life and Mu­sic of Jit Sama­roo, an 80-minute doc­u­men­tary aimed at both adults and stu­dents. The evening will al­so fea­ture a per­for­mance by Su­per­novas Steel Or­ches­tra, led by Sama­roo’s son.

“Pan is an in­ex­tri­ca­ble part of T&T’s mu­si­cal cul­ture and na­tion­al iden­ti­ty,” Mo­hammed said. “Jit Sama­roo’s sto­ry is one of the most unique and un­ex­plored. He ex­em­pli­fies what we want our au­di­ences—es­pe­cial­ly our youth—to un­der­stand: his­to­ry is not some­thing that hap­pens on­ly to cer­tain peo­ple. Mu­sic and art are at­tain­able no mat­ter where you come from or who you are. None is a greater ex­am­ple of that than Jit Sama­roo.”

While Pome­gran­ate rarely pro­duces posthu­mous doc­u­men­taries, Mo­hammed said the Sama­roo fam­i­ly’s trust, open­ness, and gen­eros­i­ty gave them the free­dom to tell the sto­ry au­then­ti­cal­ly.

“We couldn’t imag­ine a world where Jit Sama­roo’s life isn’t re­mem­bered by fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. As long as we can en­sure it, it will be,” she said.

Iconog­ra­phy: Jit Sama­roo traces his jour­ney from Sur­rey Vil­lage to the for­ma­tion of the Sama­roo Jets, and to be­com­ing one of the great­est pan arrangers of all time, leav­ing his mark on the world stage with T&T’s bp Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra.

“We ex­plore what it takes for some­one to achieve the kind of great­ness Dr Jit Sama­roo did—through the eyes of his fam­i­ly and those clos­est to him—as we fol­low his life from child­hood to leg­end,” Mo­hammed said.

Mo­hammed serves as ex­ec­u­tive pro­duc­er, co-di­rec­tor, and ed­i­tor, as well as Pome­gran­ate’s lead archivist. Gib­bings di­rects the Iconog­ra­phy se­ries and works as ed­i­tor, colourist, and sound de­sign­er. Scant­er­bury is co-pro­duc­er, in­ter­view­er, and co-com­pos­er for the film’s score.

Tick­ets:

Ear­ly bird: $150 | Gen­er­al: $200 | Stu­dents: $100

Avail­able at Queen’s Hall Box Of­fice (Mon-Sat: 10 am-6 pm, Sun: 12-6 pm, and on show day: 10 am-8 pm) or on­line at is­landet­ick­ets.com.