Clish A. Gittens as he received an award for Best Short Film for H20 during the inaugural Barbados Independent Film Festival last month while Co-directors of the Festival Jennifer Smith and Sir Trevor Carmichael look on.
AFTER the success of his award winning documentary H2O, local filmmaker Clish Gittens is back at it again.
This time he is working on a documentary on the local sea egg industry since the ban was lifted in Barbados.
The 33-year old told The Barbados Advocate that while his first film gained tremendous success locally and internationally there is still a need for greater assistance to take local and regional filmmakers even further.
“What we need for Barbadian and Caribbean filmmakers is a bit more support. If we can get monetary funds, or if we can even get sponsorship like locations, a house or hotel to use, every little bit helps.”
“There is a movement in Barbados of good filmmakers, but we are just looking for the opportunity. Caribbean Dream, is of a high quality, they were able to get funding from a lot of the private sector. So that has the aesthetic of an international film, in terms of the visual. It is on par with a lot of international films.”
He also stressed the importance of attending various film festivals around the world, noting that even though he was not able to physically attend all the screenings, the film was still well received.
This includes three Asian screenings, which included an award at the Handle Climate Change International Film festival in China. The film was also screened at the Cayman Islands International Film Festival and was nominated for best short international documentary at the Trinidad Film Festival, which according to Gittens is rated in the top ten emerging film festivals in the Caribbean. H2O was also screened in Colombia.
Gittens gave the inaugural Barbados Independent Film Festival top marks not only for its execution but for the opportunity it provided local filmmakers.
“It was a learning experience for us local filmmakers mixing with the international guys, participating in workshops, chatting and giving them feedback on their films and even though there may be a gulf in budgets, we all have the same thought process, so it was very interesting.”
“If we are going to have festivals of this international standard,we have to bring up our local content,” he concluded.
Gittens who is a writer, director and spoken word artist, says that after rubbing shoulders with the likes of Yared Zeleke of the award winning film Lamb, he knows it will take one feature to make that needed breakthrough. (JH)