Guyana's Timehri Film Festival is one of the most intriguing and satisfying curations of Caribbean cinema in recent years. Now in it's 7th year, TFF 23 has stayed true to its unique and eclectic taste for nuance and complexity in story and form. A kind of umami of Caribbean indie cinema. As a 13th-Century rasta vampire struggles to adjust to contemporary Caribbean life, intrepid fetters find wild and terrifying thrills on the streets of Port of Spain, an indigenous parliamentarian in Dominica continues a centuries-old fight for position and posterity of his people, while a slate of bold shorts illuminate the unique struggles and passions of queer Caribbean love.
So it’s really impossible to justly narrow down a list of our top 10 faves. You should really watch everything, especially as screenings are available online till November 6th.
Nevertheless, if you don’t know where to start, this list (in no particular rank) is our suggestion for a hearty mix of form, genre, theme and style. And hopefully, a fresh take on the nature and nuance of Caribbean cinema.
FANTASTIC FRIDAY
Director: Sharri Petti
Country: Trinidad & Tobago
Language: English
Genre: Non-Fiction
Duration: 10 mins
Year: 2023
Three high-spirited best friends venture on a wild journey to experience the ultimate Carnival fete. When their night takes an unexpected turn, they must navigate a series of unforeseen challenges that put their friendship to the test.
FANTASTIC FRIDAY, will screen as part of the trepidatious ones program.
Watch Fantastic Friday here.
CHEE$E
Dir: Damian Marcano
Country: Trinidad & Tobago
Language: English Creole
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 105 mins
Year: 2022
In a remote island village “behind God’s back,” Skimma dreams of leaving the only place he’s ever known to explore the world. When Rebecca tells him she’s carrying his child, Skimma finds himself torn between his desire to leave the island and the new responsibilities that come with fatherhood. But Skimma has a plan. Taking advantage of skills honed alongside a cheesemaker, Skimma embraces a new profession: village weed supplier. Almost immediately, everyone wants what he’s cooking.
Watch Cheese here.
WALTER RODNEY: WHAT THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW
Directors: Daniyal Harris-Vajda and Arlen Harris.
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: Non-Fiction
Duration: 72'
Year: 2023
Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know, is an original circa 72-minute documentary featuring a murder, Cold War conspiracies, Black Power, the end of Empire, and how that connects to the policing and surveillance practices of today.
It reveals that Guyanese historian Dr Walter Rodney was under British security surveillance from the age of 19, after visiting Russia and Cuba while a student at UWI in Jamaica. He was seen as subversive both as an academic and as an activist who supported anti-colonial movements and civil rights. Rodney was assassinated in 1980 by the Guyanese regime put in power and supported by the British and Americans.
By the time of his death, he was under surveillance by at least five different nations. Shockingly, a British secret propaganda unit paid for a negative review of his major work.
It was only in 2021 that the Guyanese government accepted responsibility for the assassination.
WALTER RODNEY: WHAT THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW, will screen as part of the Opening Night program, the ones who shared their souls.
Watch Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know here.
KUMINA QUEEN
Director: Nyasha Laing
Country: Jamaica
Language: English
Genre: Non-Fiction
Duration: 57 mins
Year: 2022
Imogene “Queenie” Kennedy was a priestess in post-colonial Jamaica who catapulted her African spiritual practice into renown. But after centuries of erasure, what remains of the dance between the living and the dead?
In the wake of the loss of her mother, the filmmaker travels into the heart of the Jamaican countryside to research kumina, an ancestral ritual. The ancient practice, she learns, is a driving force in Jamaica’s culture and identity, yet its leaders have historically been discarded as witches and even criminalized.
Jamaica’s post-colonial renaissance enabled Queenie to share her practice with the world. Today, artists and followers are reimagining kumina—even as the mysterious world of spirit possession reveals divergent pathways to freedom, healing, and transformation.
Watch KUMINA QUEEN here.
LOS CIMARRONES
Director: Damian Sainz-Edwards
Country: Cuba
Language: Spanish
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 12 mins
Year: 2021
The night finds Orestes in a thick tropical forest holding a machete and looking furiously for Damián, his younger brother. Orestes discovers his brother having sex with another man. What happens next will change the brothers’ lives forever.
LOS CIMARRONES, will screen as part of the queer ones program.
Watch LOS CIMARONNES here.
NEW LAND: THE KALINAGO DREAM
Director: Teddy Dwight Frederick
Country: Dominica
Language: Kreyol (w/Eng Subs)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Duration: 38 mins
Year: 2022
For 500 years we have been hearing about the myth of the extinction of the Indigenous people in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, who have lived in the protected community of the Kalinago Territory for generations. The present population is estimated to be about 3000 people.
Despite the harrowing experience of European invasion and colonialism beginning with Christopher Columbus, the Kalinago have survived these destructive genocidal attempts and are still here today celebrating their history and culture.
New Land chronicles the stories of resistance, resilience, survival, and celebration of the Kalinago Territory that are told in their voices and from their perspectives. The story unfolds around the life of Honorable Minister Cozier Frederick as the first representative of the Kalinago in the Dominica national government who is working towards the improvement of the socio -economic condition, the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of the people of the Kalinago Territory.
NEW LAND, will screen as part of the green hearts program.
Watch NEW LAND: THE KALINAGO DREAM here.
NOSFERASTA: FIRST BITE
Directors: Adam Khalil & Bayley Sweitzer
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 34 mins
Year: 2021
Christopher Columbus uses his undead powers to create his “New World”, where he sucks the blood out of his colonial project for centuries. Complicit in this is Oba, a shipwrecked African who, once bitten, becomes Columbus’s subject and collaborator. When Oba discovers Rastafarianiam—and ganja—his allegiance changes. In his post-vampiric, present-day existence, Oba struggles with the colonial bureaucracy he helped devise, including his pursuit of US citizenship and literacy.
NOSFERASTA: THE FIRST BITE, will screen as part of the magical ones program.
Watch NOSFERASTA: THE FIRST BITE here.
DORLIS
Durector: Enricka MH
Country: Martinique
Language: French (w/English Subs)
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 25 mins
Year: 2021
After her grandfather is a paralyzed by a stroke, fifteen-year-old Nora goes with her mother and little sister to stay with him. This awakens childhood memories in Nora, who begins to fear an attack by an evil spirit.
DORLIS, will screen as part of the magical ones program.
Watch DORLIS here.
EATING PAPAW ON THE SEASHORE
Director: Rae Wiltshire
Country: Guyana
Language: Guyanese Creole (w/English Subs)
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 19 mins
Year: 2022
A coming-of-age film about two queer Guyanese boys who are navigating their feelings in a homophobic society.
EATING PAPAW AT THE SEASHORE, will screen as part of the queer ones program.
Watch EATING PAW PAW AT THE SEASHORE here.
Special Mentions:
I know, I know. This is more than 10. Give Caribbean people and inch and we take a yard. But I did say it was impossible to choose only 10. So here are some special mentions that I just couldn't leave out.
PICKNEY
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 16 mins
Year: 2021
Leon is a mixed-race teenager close to his grandmother, the only person he knows from the Jamaican side of his family. When he goes to her Nine Nights and meets the rest of his family for the first time, he begins to understand that identity is more than skin deep.
PICKNEY, will screen as part of the magical ones program.
Watch PICKNEY here.
SIDES
Director: Felene M. Cayetano
Country: Belize
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 5 mins
Year: 2022
Isieni and Miriam, a young couple, pack for vacation. On the road trip they each learn more about what the other really wants. Their relationship has lasted three years, but will it survive this road trip?
SIDES, will screen as part of the queer ones program.
Watch SIDES here.
THE MARCH ONWARDS
Directors: Alex and Victoria Arjoon
Country: Guyana
Language: English
Genre: Non-Fiction
Duration: 25 mins
Year: 2023
The March Onwards is a REEL Guyana documentary that explores the stark choices confronting indigenous Warrau communities and local farmers on the precipice of development, in one of Guyana’s largest remaining mangrove forests.
Torn between traditional crab-catching activities, the preservation of a fragile and unique natural environment, and the opportunity to exploit a state-sponsored drive for large-scale agriculture, the main characters find their stories and fates increasingly intertwined.
THE MARCH ONWARDS, will screen as part of the green hearts program.
Watch THE MARCH ONWARDS here.
TROPICALÍA
Country: Dominican Republic
Language: Spanish (w/English Subs)
Genre: Fiction
Duration: 21 mins
Year: 2022
Dolores, relegated to the caretaking of her crazed and ailing mother, has her life upended when a strange dog shows up at her house. Through this new friendship, Dolores finds a way out of monotony and embraces her wild side.
TROPICALIA, will screen as part of the magical ones program.
Watch Tropicalía here
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