SECTIONS CLOSE
  • Home
  • Directory
    • Artists
    • Black Youth & Family Services
    • Books
    • Business
    • Films
    • Politicians
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Film & TV
    • Music
    • Stage
  • The Experts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • Money
    • Motivation
    • Parenting
    • Real Estate
    • Sex & Relationships
    • Technology
    • Travel
  • Profiles
    • Artists
    • Business
    • NFP/Charities
    • Personalities
    • Food & Drink
    • Sponsored Profiles
  • The Father Project
    • Fathers Responses
  • Archive
  • Newsletter Archive
    • Subscribe to our Newsletter
  • PCA
    • 2024 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2023 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2022 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2021 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2020 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2019 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
    • 2018 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List
  • Restaurant Week
    • Prix Fixe Menus
      • Prix Fixe Menus - AB
      • Prix Fixe Menus - BC
      • Prix Fixe Menus - NS
      • Prix Fixe Menus - NB
      • Prix Fixe Menus - ON
      • Prix Fixe Menus - PEI
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • FAQs
  • Editorial
  • General
  • Press
  • Privacy
  • Sales
  • User Login

ByBlacks.com | #1 online magazine for Black Canadians

Film & TV

CaribbeanTales Film Festival Explores the Complexity Of Identity With "Legacies of Race" Night

CaribbeanTales Film Festival Explores the Complexity Of Identity With "Legacies of Race" Night
Ruane Remy By Ruane Remy
Published on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 - 13:38
On September 13th, “Legacies of Race” night at the 2017 CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) will offer a glimpse into the complex social structures of Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.

The evening opens with Short Drop, a fictional tale of a retiree who connects with other islanders when a drive through town takes him places he didn’t expect to go. The feature film, Before The Trees Was Strange, is a documentary about a family’s intergenerational struggles with racial identity.

Short Drop

Short Drop - 2017 CaribbeanTales International Film Festival

Short Drop takes moviegoers on a ride through Port of Spain, Trinidad. In this short film, written and directed by Maya Cozier, we meet a lonely widower, Bartholomew (Albert LaVeau), who is mistaken for a taxi driver by a young woman named Shanice (Jeanine LeeKim).

Shanice, heading out to meet her man, hops into the back of Bartholomew’s car. Though he tells her his car is not a cab, she refuses to take no for an answer. But when her day doesn’t go as planned, she and Bartholomew set out driving around a collection of strangers, connecting with them all along the way.

Short Drop offers a slice of island life, without romanticizing the Caribbean for the consumption of would-be tourists. The story is populated with believable characters whose interactions are compelling. Ultimately, the film reminds us to care about our neighbours and to value the people who come into our lives, however fleeting their time with us may be.

Before The Trees Was Strange

Before The Trees Was Strange - 2017 CaribbeanTales International Film Festival

Derek Burrows left the Bahamas in 1974 as a white man but arrived in the U.S. as black. Before The Trees Was Strange, written, directed, and produced by Burrows, explores the complexity of racial identity by focusing on his family and digging into their history. He reveals secrets, fear, and prejudice hiding beneath and between the loving family he grew up in.

Burrows, one of six siblings, was born in Nassau, with maternal family connections in Long Island, Bahamas. “Our mother’s love for us was unconditional. Our love for her knew no bounds, but sometimes love is blind,” he says, a quotation that haunts this entire documentary. In part to protect his mother from what he might find, it wasn’t until after her death that Burrows felt he could freely investigate why his mother saw herself and her children as white despite visible traits to suggest otherwise.

In the process of self-discovery, Burrows and his family shed light on the fluidity of race as a social construct, the categories of race in the Bahamas, and the enduring legacy of European colonization in the Caribbean. The conversations between family members are fascinating. In one scene, Burrow’s nephew and his nephew’s wife disagree on the race of their son, which serves as a reminder that race, like life, is not simply black or white.

Highlights from Before The Trees Was Strange include film footage shot over 30 years and spoken word poetry that capture the impact of slavery’s erasure of black history and the social pressure to self-identify as white. The film underlines how the one-drop rule that defines blackness in the U.S. is not universal, and that the colour of one’s skin and the features of one’s face are not a direct map to family origins.

Legacies of Race is one of 14 themes that contribute to the lineup of films at this year’s CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, running from Sept. 6-21 in Toronto.

Last modified on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - 09:11

Featured Directory Listings

  • Cuisine by Noel - Caterer & Baker
    Cuisine by Noel -...https:/...Name: Cuisine by Noel - Caterer & Baker
  • Edible Bliss 11
    Edible Bliss 11https:/...Name: Edible Bliss 11
  • GMS Professional Corporation Chartered Professional Accountants
    GMS Professional...https://gmscpa.ca/Name: GMS Professional Corporation Chartered Professional Acc...
  • As Told By Canadian Immigrants
    As Told By Canadian...https:/...Name: As Told By Canadian Immigrants
  • Hudson Law Office Professional Corporation
    Hudson Law Office...Name: Hudson Law Office Professional Corporation
  • SEE ALL LISTINGS
  • CARIBBEANTALES
  • FILM FESTIVAL
Ruane Remy By Ruane Remy

Latest from Ruane Remy

  • [REVIEW] Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations Will Leave You Singing Motown Classics For Days
  • This 1982 August Wilson Play Has Never Been More Relevant
  • [Review] 'Calpurnia' Flips A Classic To Leave Audiences Talking Long After The Curtain Falls
  • Beasts From Bricks: Inside The Mind Of A Lego Artist
  • [Review]: "An Octoroon" Is A Thought Provoking Twist On Slave Narratives

MORE IN THIS CATEGORY

Quantico Actress Shares Story Of Deportation & Advice For Black Actresses
Quantico Actress Shares Story Of Deportation & Advice For Black Actresses 24 June 2017
Ottawa Sisters Nominated For Child Acting Awards 29 October 2017
Ottawa Sisters Nominated For Child Acting Awards

RELATED STORIES

Why Reelworld Film Festival Is Flipping The Script On Its Emerging 20 Program

Why Reelworld Film Festival Is Flipping The Script On Its Emerging 20 Program

30 May 2022
Murder, Friendship, Forgiveness In "Somebody's Sun"

Murder, Friendship, Forgiveness In "Somebody's Sun"

18 September 2017
HOT DOCS: Michael Mabbott’s Music Lessons Should Be Mandatory

HOT DOCS: Michael Mabbott’s Music Lessons Should Be Mandatory

20 April 2015
ByBlacks.com | #1 online magazine for Black Canadians
Magazines Canada
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • FAQs
  • Editorial
  • General
  • Press
  • Privacy
  • Sales
  • User Login
Copyright © 2013 - 2025 ByBlacks.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
developed by Nuevvo