Alwin Bully’s movie Oseyi and the Masqueraders is back to the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) and set to premiere at the Caribbean Tales International Film Festival (CARIFESTA) in Toronto, Canada on September 4.
The short cultural film screened at TTFF in 2018 to a warm national reception and fans requested for the film to return again to TTFF this year. It will however be screening on the Opening Night Programme of CARIFESTA in Canada as part of the first movies to thrill participants.
The theme of Oseyi and the Masqueraders centers on –
- Preservation of cultural heritage
- Transmission of native traditions across multiple generations
- Family secrets
- Single parenting
- Carnival art forms
- Masking traditions
The film narration was done by Dennis Joseph in his characteristic baritone delivery, and 11-year-old Pacquette Langlais did the lead role as Oseyi, while internationally acclaimed Jamaican actress Leonie Forbes, was Oseyi’s grandmother. And of course, the film was directed by Alwin Bully himself.
Filmmaker and director Alwin Bully expressed his thanks to both TTFF and CARIFESTA organizers for accepting his film production. He thanked TTFF for choosing to screen it again for the second time running – a very rare situation in film festivals, and CARIFESTA for choosing to screen it at the opening night programme of the Toronto festival.
Bully appreciated the festivals’ organizing and selection committees for the merits accorded Oseyi and the Masqueraders. “We are grateful for this kind of encouragement and are humbled by this open generosity,” Bully said. “It is my hope that our successes at these and other festivals will do much to encourage Dominican filmmakers to go beyond music videos and commercials and start telling our stories to the world.”
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