January 21, 2025 • 64 mins
Tristan Barrocks and Donisha Prendergast join us for a lively conversation that explores the heart and soul of Jamaican storytelling. Tristan's film "Sugar Dumplin"
starring Oliver Samuels is a heartfelt story of family, dementia, and cultural legacy. This conversation celebrates Jamaican artistry and storytelling. Learn about the vision for the project, its social impact, and how communities can support Caribbean films.
We discuss the challenges faced by independent filmmakers like Tristan and Donisha, as they bring their creative visions to life amidst the evolving landscape of the film industry. The episode highlights the significance of authentic representation in media, celebrating Jamaican storytelling's cultural impact and the anticipation surrounding "Sugar Dumplin." From community screenings to financial support, discover how you can engage with and support the vibrant tapestry of Jamaican culture, ensuring that these essential stories reach a global audience.
Don’t miss this rich discussion about reclaiming identity and heritage through film.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello everyone, welcome to this special joint
episode.
All of the joint episodes arespecial, but anyway, a joint
episode of Carry On Friends andReels and Rhythms and as always,
I have my co-host with the moststyle to the vibes, michaela
Wagwan.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Wagwan, wagwan.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right, and we are well-excited.
Well-excited because we haveTristan Barraacks and we have
Donisha Pendergast and we wantto welcome them to the show with
the most excitement.
Run the sound effects, please.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hey, make a piss up, make a piss up.
Hello, my name is TristanBarracks.
I am a director and writer,jamaican-canadian director and
writer and just one of thecreatives that are behind the
amazing film called SugarDumplings, starring Oliver
Samuels and Chantal Riley, andI'm going to toss it off to my
(00:58):
amazing co-producer and amazingartist and filmmaker, danisha.
Go ahead, jump in.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
All right.
Well, go on people.
I am Denisha Prendegast, bornin Jamaica, grew up around the
world and I'm continuing toevolve as an artist.
I'm an actress, writer,director, producer, cultural
curator, and will continue torespond.
And so now I'm exec producingon Sugar Dumpling and we're
really excited to be here totalk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wonderful, all right, so let's kick it off, right?
I'm good, good, sitting on mydesk and somebody said Kerry,
look at boom, drop it a trailer.
And it's the one Oliver Samuelsand this Sugar Dumpling.
So we're going to get to a lotof things, but, tristan, let's
start.
Before we get to Oliver, as Itell everybody, see what
(01:51):
inspired you to create thisproject, what was the motivation
, the story behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It's kind of a confluence of different things,
like I was born in Canada but Iwas raised Jamaican, and so two
Jamaican parents that are proudto be Jamaican but also
understand and went through animmigrant experience.
And so growing up I always hadan issue with seeing how my
culture, my people, wasrepresented right, you know
there was, whether it wasthrough cool runnings or any
(02:23):
other sort of iterations ofJamaican culture.
It was always very monolithicin its presentations.
And so for me, you know, someof my fondest memories was
growing up watching Oliver andwatching also Desmond, which is
more of a Trinidadian show fromthe UK.
But one of the things thatstood out to me was that it
wasn't just inspiring andenlightening to me of my culture
(02:45):
, but my parents were reallydeeply connected and deeply
rooted in kind of reliving theirchildhood through the guise of
Oliver, Samuels and otherperformers like that.
And so growing up, being aperformer myself, growing up and
being a storyteller, comingfrom a Jamaican home, it was
sort of a natural progression towant to tell a story that was
(03:08):
from my heritage and I want totell it in a way that could
bridge the gap between thosethat are part of the diaspora,
so those that were born ofJamaican parents but maybe born
in another country but stillraised Jamaican and know
Jamaican culture, and that ishow they identify, like myself.
But then also to those who areon the island, that were born in
(03:31):
Jamaica, that want to see morethan what they've seen.
You know, hollywood put out asthe representation of Jamaican
culture and Jamaicanstorytelling, and I think the
center of this whole idea andstory was really around how can
we bring humanity back to us asJamaican people?
(03:52):
Right, we're not just blunts,you know, bumba, whatever as
well.
There was this sort of deepdesire to like how do we now
show the many folds of what itmeans to be Jamaican, be human,
(04:15):
and to kind of reclaim our storyand export that to the world?
So that's where it really camefrom.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you said so many in there like you're just
hitting on all the things thatresonate with Michaela and I,
but I'm gonna let Michaela ask aquestion if she wants to.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, I was actually curious how did you connect with
Denisha and what is theconnection there to, kind of co?
It was so weird because we werewe kind of were fond and
respecting each other's craftsfrom afar, but we didn't really
know each other like like deeplyuntil recently probably in the
last year I was at a screeningand I saw Denisha and I said,
(04:58):
hey, you know, my name isTristan and you know I'm working
on a film, and she's like no, Iknow who you are and like I,
you know, I know some of thepeople that you you know, and
and then we just like had aconversation maybe a couple of
weeks after and we just hit itoff.
There was so much that we hadin common and so much things
that we were passionate aboutspecifically around like
reclaiming and redefining, youknow, the, the, the storytelling
(05:19):
aspect of things.
But also one of the things thatreally stirred um, stirred
things inside of me was justDenisha's passion for, like, the
social impact part of it.
It's not good enough.
Like, as creatives blackcreatives, we we have a
responsibility not only to justcreate entertaining um work, but
work that's going to haveimpact and lasting legacy, and
(05:40):
so one of the things that I'mlearning, you know, through just
the guise of how she's leadingthe project, specifically within
the social impact area ofthings, through Humanity Over
Vanity, is just that idea oflike we got to have more purpose
behind this right, and not tosay that we didn't.
But the purpose has to beactually worked out and
(06:02):
exhibited in practical ways, andso I'm super grateful to have
her as a part of the projectbecause she's just been bringing
so much, so much needed lifeand so much needed
intentionality to it.
So I'll throw it over to her ifshe wants to add anything to
that.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
In adding to that.
Donisha, maybe you can let's goback a little bit, because I
realized we jumped in and didn'tgive quite give the audience a
synopsis of what the project isand then from there you can tell
me.
You know the impact that youhope that this project has on
humanity, so go ahead.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Sure, sugar Dumpling is a short film that seeks to
propel a story insight into arelationship between a father
and a daughter Father who isnavigating a new space in his
life, being recently diagnosedwith dementia, and a daughter
(06:54):
who is now navigating, having to, like Tristan says, love
somebody who you don't reallylike at this moment Because of
years of lost moments,misunderstanding distance.
You know, now we're at an ageand all of us are at this age
where our parents are aging andwe're also realizing that our
parents were also young peopleat some point, trying to figure
(07:17):
it out along the way.
So we are also learning newlessons about grace on the go,
um, and I think, like for for me, just kind of bringing it back
now and talking about the impactoutside of helping to exec,
produce a film as an audiencemember and a community member, I
(07:38):
am now so much more hyper awareof dementia, alzheimer's you
know just the challenges ofaging that my mother or my
grandmother is dealing with in adifferent way and seeing that
this is an experience that manypeople are having across the
(07:58):
board but may not have tools tonavigate the generational trauma
that we're also seeking to healas we grow.
So, sugar Dumpling such anaffectionate name really creates
an opportunity for us tochallenge stereotypes and
platform stories from spacesthat we would otherwise have
(08:22):
called just a Black story, andnow redefining it as a
Jamaican-Canadian story, as aJamaican story that lives in
Canada, because, like Trishanhas said to me before, even
though he grew up in Canada, hegrew up in a Jamaican household
in Canada.
Jamaica resides whereverJamaicans are.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Please say that again , please say that again, please
say that again.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Jamaicans and Jamaican stories reside wherever
Jamaicans are.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I love this because it's something that again, is so
entrenched in Carry On Friendsstyle and vibe reels and rhythms
.
Because when we say Caribbean,broadly right, it's wherever we
occupy space and the experiencethat comes from that.
But if I should put Caribbeanautomatically, they think
geographically the region andnot necessarily the spaces.
(09:16):
Jamaican born and you knowdefining that me not really pay
attention to that.
If your mother, if your motherfather Jamaican, you are
Jamaican.
And if you can't get a Jamaicanpassport, even if you're born
here, you are Jamaican.
I don't subscribe to, yeah,this and that and that.
(09:37):
To Danisha's point.
That came out of my experiencemeeting my cousin the first time
when I moved to Brooklyn 30years ago.
And you, you know she knowsnothing else but Bully, Biva
Rice and all the things thatsomebody in Jamaica growing up
would know.
So why would I say she's lessJamaican?
Because she just born here.
She knows nothing else but aJamaican culture and I love that
(10:01):
.
You're saying that.
We're realizing that.
Yo, we're all one.
So talk to me about thatexperience for you.
I think you and Michaela sharea similar experience.
I believe Danisha and I born inJamaica.
So you, both of you can youknow, particularly you, Tristan,
talk about that experiencebeing the Yankee Fire and Bond
Pit and seeing the evolution ofthat.
(10:24):
As you were saying, acceptanceor bridging of a gap between,
you know, those born in thecountry or the region versus
those born here.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
You know, I have to acknowledge right off the bat
the extreme privilege I havethat my parents sacrificed to
give me, to leave everythingthat was common and was
comfortable for them and madesense to them, to leave a warm
climate, to leave all of theirfamily members to literally
(10:55):
swing to the fences for a dreamthat they couldn't even
articulate, so that I can sitdown here now and create,
project those dreams on screenright.
You know, the other day, my dad, who has a very heavy Jamaican
accent, he was screen right.
You know, the other day, my dad, who has a very heavy jamaican
accent.
You know, I just have to tellyou I'm just so proud, I'm so
proud of all my kids, I'm justso proud of how you guys just
come.
I couldn't even imagine I'm inspain right now.
(11:16):
We're filming this, I've beensharing this and man, I just I
just can't express and like forme, denisha's smiling because
she knows that's exactly how mydad sounds, but for me that's
the essence of what we'retalking about.
Going back to the main point,growing up it was really weird
for me because I grew up in myhome.
(11:37):
I was, you know, we spokePatois, we ate bully beef, we
did all the things.
We also ate, obviously someCanadian food, and so I I felt
comfortable there.
But then when I would gooutside of my home, I had to
assimilate to a culture thatthat was not my own Right and
that was that's a.
That's a very familiarexperience for many people that
are, that are born elsewhere butthat are raised Jamaican.
(11:59):
And it wasn't until I gotmarried really, and I have a, I
have very Jamaican in laws andso the everything is just super
Jamaican, right, I love it.
And it wasn't until I gotmarried to my wife and we went,
I think, on a couple ofdifferent trips.
We, the first trip, we wentback together and we went to
Jamaica and I remember waking upand looking outside and looking
(12:22):
at like the rolling hills andseeing the smoke coming out of
the chimneys and like feelingthis deep desire to connect with
an island that I never reallygot an opportunity to, to go
back to and visit a lot.
You know, my parents weren'twell off.
They had four kids.
We didn't get to go to Jamaica.
We went to Jamaica for funeralsor if we were two years or
younger.
Ok, we all know, we all knowthe flex right, we all know, we
(12:44):
all know the flex right.
We all know it Like, let's notright, black child, no fear,
exactly.
And so for me, I have gone,started to go through.
When I started to go back toJamaica, I had this deep desire
to give of myself in somecapacity.
I didn't know how that wasgoing to show up, but I knew
that I had a passion forstorytelling.
I had a passion for this islandthat has given me so much
(13:08):
identity that I could finallywrite like kind of right,
because for a long time I feltlike other right, I'd go to
Jamaica.
I was the foreign you know Iwas, I was a boy from fine oh,
(13:31):
look at him with his clothes andthing you can't, you can't give
me your shoes, like.
You know what I mean.
I was that guy Right.
And then when I came here, itwas like I'm that's not, you
know what I mean Like.
And so I was.
I was trapped.
I was kind of trapped in thismiddle and and in writing, you
(13:55):
know, I wrote all the patois inin the film, I wrote all the
scenes with the food, because Irealized that I am Jamaican and
this is a part of my culture andthis is part of my experience
and through that and seeing thejust the response of those that
read the script, like when Isent it to Denisha, I have a
high level of respect for herbecause I feel like you know,
there's a level of credibilitythat she has, but also she has a
deep rooted passion to to seeJamaica thrive and Jamaican
(14:18):
people thrive.
And so when I started to speakto her about the project and she
really saw the vision, I waslike, okay, maybe you have
something here right, maybe wecan make something, and I don't
know.
I kind of answered the questionroundabout, but I think
ultimately, what I'm trying tocommunicate to you is it was
almost like a baptism of sortsin terms of embracing my
(14:39):
identity as a Jamaican Canadian,not rejecting being born in
Canada and the privileges thatthat brought, but also embracing
and saying no, I am Jamaican,I'm just a different expression
of Jamaican, but I'm stillJamaican.
And I want to tell thesestories with a level of
authenticity and truth from myPOV.
So I hope that that answers thequestion a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I think it's such a full circle moment, especially
for me.
Tristan and I have the samebackground.
Both my parents are Jamaican,my husband is Jamaican and there
are so many personalconnections that I'm hearing in
this story.
My husband calls our youngestdaughter, sugar Dumplin'.
My grandmother passed away,bless her heart, passed away a
(15:23):
while ago from Alzheimer's, andI am the in-between kid that
speak Patois and people oftenask me.
I'm like no, I wasn't born inJamaica, but I did have the
privilege of going back andforth and I think even recently
I was expressing with my mom.
I always ask her like well,when, when you and daddy
(15:45):
divorced, why didn't you go back?
Cause she had a lot of myfamily still live there, um, and
she was just like well, I hadalready started building a
community here and so manypeople were coming up from
Jamaica during that time and youstill had some family here.
That's why, you know, I kind ofuh, remained here, um, but
(16:08):
there is this connection tojamaica that I always feel like.
That feels like jamaica feelslike home, unlike any other
place.
Like I, I get off the plate.
I remember one time tellingcarrie I'm like you, remember
when you used to just come off Iplay, I feel a breeze hit you
and you have to walk onto thetarmac going and, like you, just
feel so at ease, so relaxed,and even being able to turn on
(16:33):
the TV and flip through everysingle channel and see people
that look exactly like you.
That is an experience, the mostsimple experience, that we as
diaspora kids don't get toexperience because we're
relegated to one or two channels.
So, from a media perspective,and being able to see the
(16:54):
expansion of how much culturehas come to the forefront, of
films and media and spaces wherewe kind of coexist and being
able to to kind of connect thatbridge is so important.
Um, and especially, you know,raising my kids and they go back
and forth and that sort ofthing.
(17:15):
Um, I, I think that this issuch a great project.
Um, it's telling a completelydifferent story.
It's definitely family drivenand that's something that we
haven't really seen.
So you could have told thisstory without the dementia
connection.
Why was that important?
To kind of sell?
Because it's already soundslike a complicated relationship.
(17:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Why?
Why add in the dementia there?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
There's two reasons for that.
When you're writing a script,you you know you want to create
a crucible.
You want to create a situationwhere people can't escape from,
your characters have to have tobe in this place together to
figure this thing out, um, orelse the story's broken, right?
Because if, at any point intime, a person or a character
(18:03):
can make a choice to leave, thenyou really don't have a story
or you don't have a problem thatneeds the characters to go
through it and solve.
So it becomes a transformativeexperience, right.
And so I think a part of thatwas just functional storytelling
, right, Finding something thatwould cause somebody to be in a
place together and figure thingsout together.
(18:24):
Somebody to be, to be in aplace together and and figure
things out together.
But I think there there also isa finite sort of reminder of of
how, how limited our time is.
And if you knew that thatsomebody that you loved
passionately had a had a limitedamount of time, um, to be on
this earth, what would you say?
What would you do?
(18:44):
What would you do?
What choices would you make?
To mend, to change, tocommunicate to that person so
that there was a level ofmeaningful relationship
restoration.
And so there was that level oflike yo nothing's promised to
you tomorrow.
So what are you choosing to dotoday for there to be a level of
(19:05):
meaning and purpose behind?
You know the interactions thatwe have with our loved ones or
our friends, right?
So there was that functionalstorytelling part of it.
But then there's also that sortof idea of you know, do we have
to wait until somebody's sick inorder to value them?
You know what I mean or do welive our lives with a level, a
sense of urgency and value, andwe value those moments together?
(19:27):
So those are the two reasonswhy I kind of use dementia Cause
again.
Dementia is one of those things.
It's grappling right.
Alzheimer's is one of thosediseases that really takes away
one of our most cherished things, which is our memory, which is
our ability to remember ourloved ones.
That's, you know, we're on.
We're on kind of a jointpodcast, but that's worse than
Thanos snapping half of theMarvel cinematic universe, right
(19:49):
, Like, like that.
That's you losing who.
You are right.
How much more urgency would youneed in order to to mend a
relationship?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I'm gonna come to Danisha on this, but what I love
about this is we're telling astory about a disease that
affects everyone, right, butthrough the lens of being
Jamaican.
My grandmother, her sister, myaunt we shared a birthday early
onset Alzheimer's, right now,you know I was the first
(20:21):
grandchild, so you know mygrandmother would complain to me
about my mother Now my mother.
They complain about my brotherand I say you sound like grandma
, all the things that grandmaused to complain about you.
You now complaining about mybrothers, right, so I'm the
middle person, but it gives me alesson to say I have to be
mindful.
Self-aware, to the part,donisha St Grace on the go right
(20:43):
, aware to the part, danisha StGrace on the go right.
And this idea of identity?
Right, because Alzheimer's islosing the core essence of who
these people are.
They're a fraction of who youremember them to be.
So, switching from identity,not from that medical sense, but
from how we see ourselves ontelevision, how culture is
portrayed, or cultureparticularly.
(21:05):
And you talked about reclaimingand redefining, danisha.
So talk to me a little bitabout your vision for what that
looks for, starting with SugarDumpling, but, like, what is the
role Michaela and I can playwith the podcast.
What is the role that otherpeople can play collectively to
redefine and reclaim ouridentity, and how we're being
(21:26):
portrayed in media.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
First of all, you're already doing it by being
present and taking up space andtaking yourselves a little bit
more seriously.
That's been my mantra for thepast couple of years to friends,
family, even strangers, liketake yourself a little bit more
seriously.
We live one time, people don'tcare as much as you think they
(21:52):
do, you just need to care asmuch as you think you do.
And like, the universe isalways at work.
And so when the universealigned, tristan and I, I was
also in the process of creatingan exhibit, an art exhibit for
my grandmother called the Gardenthat Rita Grew my Grandma Rita.
(22:12):
It's living in New York rightnow.
It comes down in about twoweeks.
But saying that to say I was inthe process of understanding how
important it is for the Blackfamily to archive and what is
lost when we don't, and whathappens and what limits us from
archiving properly.
(22:33):
Whether it is we travel, so wemove home, so you can't carry
everything in a suitcase, orsome things have to go left,
it's not as important as wethink Throw out the old to bring
in the new, all of these things.
And if it wasn't for mygrandmother's brother, who is my
grand uncle, like he was ableto show me a drawing of my great
(22:54):
great grandmother from the1800s, a drawing and saying all
that to say like sometimes as anactivist, when I'm feeling low,
I have to put myself aroundpeople who remember me, remember
who I was before these moments,you know, because sometimes in
(23:15):
the fight you lose, you loseyourself, you lose the
confidence or you lose the vigor, you lose the perspective of
how much has been done up untilthis moment, and so bringing it
back to sugar dumpling.
I think that that's one of thereasons why I embrace the
project so much, because Iunderstand how important it is
for us to help our elders toremember who they were before
(23:38):
these moments.
You know, and this is a part ofthat work of empowering our
communities to get back to ourindigenous act of cultural
preservation, which isstorytelling storytelling.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Let me tell you, god sent you right here because
Mikhail and I were going throughprepping for our 2025 season
and storytelling is a huge thingfor me, right Like I look at
the podcast, I look at the workthat we're doing in terms of how
are we canonizing our culturein this way and having big and
serious conversation, the jokesthem need to exist and all of
(24:20):
the excitement, but where arethe other conversations?
And you touch a button when yousay, like, when you're feeling
low and you forget you know whoyou were or you accomplished it
before.
That is me and Michaela everytwo months.
Really, you know, and so that'sa form of Alzheimer's in a way.
Right you are, you've lostyourself to the process that you
(24:41):
don't remember who you are andyou need a Michaela or you know
the people in the film to remindyou of who you are, and
sometimes they may be frustratedlike la Jesus every two months,
me, afea, telarse every twomonths my friend tells her.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But it's the grace, that's part of the process.
I'll say this it always remindsme of one of my favorite lines,
cinema lines Simba, you mustremember who you are.
It's literally that, andsometimes you need that right,
you need that moment.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Tristan sidebar, you just need to come to use our
rhythms and just elaborate,should we, because are you name?
Listen?
The other day we went to adinner and they asked Michaela
to re, to re and at the part ofbelly um, she go in, she go
straight character with teddybrook shot.
Yes, yes, no, but I, I love it.
(25:46):
I have some fun questions, butlet's get to the big thing.
So we see oliver samuels.
As far as I know, I think thisis his first film role, because
we've mostly seen him in theater.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Actually no.
So if you go on his IMDb, hehas two for some reason, but
there's one that has that's fullwith all of his credits.
He actually has been in about,I would say, six or seven
credited film roles ortelevision roles, obviously, one
of which is the big one, Oliverat Large.
But he was actually in a moviein 1989 with Denzel Washington,
(26:17):
starring Denzel Washington,which is shot in Jamaica.
Yeah, yeah, fun fact.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Oh, I know which movie that, because Charlie
Ralph is in that one.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
May I have a go watch Carrie?
May I have a go watch?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, let's watch.
Add it to the list for Reelsand Rhythms.
Watch, yes, so I don't know ifit's Danisha or Tristan whoever
wants to take it.
What was it like working withthe Oliver Samuel Boxman huh, a
world-class savant?
He is a artist's artist.
He takes his work veryseriously, but he has a level of
(27:04):
warmth and care and love andobviously humor that he carries
himself with.
And so oftentimes when peopleask me how I was working with
Oliver, the best way I candescribe it is by saying it was
like when people say don't meetyour heroes because you might be
disappointed.
It was the exact opposite.
(27:25):
It was meeting a hero, somebodywho shaped not only how I saw
myself but saw the community,saw humor specifically West
Indian humor, and specificallymy own personal humor influenced
it quite a bit and I met himand worked with him and he was
just so gracious and caring.
I mean, he started out as a, asa, a colleague or as this sort
(27:49):
of legend that I was workingwith, and he ended up being like
my papa, you know, and and Inever grew up with, with a
grandfather, and so I adoptedhim as my grandfather because it
was such a an amazingexperience.
It felt like there was a levelof almost like transferring of
of a legacy or the baton to thenext generation, like everybody
(28:10):
could feel like, like we want tohonor him and in honoring him,
like everybody could feel like,like we want to honor him and in
honoring him, he feltcomfortable with like being like
you guys need to keep on doingthis and creating these and
telling these stories.
And we felt that sort of the,the mantra or not the mantra,
but the mantle of what thatweight is, you know what I mean
Of making sure that we followthrough on Sugar Dumpling but
(28:31):
then other productions, becausethis can't just stop at Sugar
Dumpling, it has to continue on.
And so it was.
It was wonderful, it wasspiritual, it was a blessing and
it and it was hella funny.
So that's that's what it waslike working with Oliver.
Danisha can talk too, becauseDanisha know Oliver a long time
yes, I've known Oliver since Iwas maybe like 17.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
I'm about to be a lot older than 17 right now.
That's over 25 years that I'veknown Oliver Samuel since I
started out acting in theatre.
Oliver has always been a giantbut who was always willing to
mentor and be open and criticaland honest and accountable.
(29:20):
As somebody who carries such alegacy, just like Tristan said,
for me when I understood all ofthe elements of the story not
just the story, the premise, butalso the opportunity of being
able to honor a living legend itwas just like all right what we
go hard with this one, becausehow often do you get a chance to
(29:43):
roll out a red carpet foroliver samuels to walk on?
You know, oliver, just like yousaid, you weren't sure if oliver
has ever done film before he.
He wasn't around when blackfilm or whatever was exploding.
Now he's older, he's, you know.
So it's up to us to be like allright, guess what?
You never missed a train.
See your moments here too.
(30:05):
Here are your accolades, youknow, and it's a joy to be able
to honor our living legends.
You know, just like Tristansaid, I too never really grew up
with my grandfather on mymother's side anyways, but I
know of the legacy and it lives,and so I have a very keen
(30:26):
insight on why it is importantfor us to honor our living
legends.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
You know, give them a chance to tell their own story
too and I think also, like youknow, it's so funny because both
of us again have different,separate experiences when it
comes to oliver, you know, um,but but they're both meaningful
and we both, I think.
At one point danisha and Ilooked at each other.
We're like, listen, there's bob, there's usain, there's Usain,
(30:53):
there's Oliver.
Like, these are our legends,like Oliver is no less of a
legend, a Jamaican ambassador ofJamaican culture and
entertainment and legacy andlove and passion, than any of
those other individuals.
And I would argue in some ways,like he has 40 years of doing
(31:15):
this, 40 years, like I mean,like we just need to make sure
that we are intentional aboutnot just saying hey, thank you
for making us laugh, but thankyou for existing and having the
imagination to create us andreflect us on screen.
You know I go back to Oliver somuch because watching Oliver and
(31:38):
my parents on a Sundayafternoon in the 90s, early 90s,
late 80s, early 90s was aunique experience.
Because when you are animmigrant in a new country,
there is, you know, one of myfriends, david, says in another
film there is an armor that youhave to carry and put on when
you leave the house that's noteasily shed.
And so Oliver gave my parentspermission to shed that armor
(32:03):
and to remember you're Jamaican,you're Jamaican, you're
Jamaican, right, and just allowthem to relax and just let their
hair down.
And that that's powerful as akid, seeing your parents go from
stress thinking about bills,all that other stuff, to just
laughing and just being proud ofbeing who they are, from, where
(32:23):
they came from.
And so, yeah, I think that weneed to make sure that we're
honoring him.
And this whole rollout, evenwith the film festivals, is all
about like, yeah, we can get it,we could easily just release
this on social media.
We could easily just releasethis on social media.
We could send this, you know,put this on.
We have streamers alreadyasking us now to put this on
streaming platforms.
But we want and we believe thatthis story and Oliver himself
(32:43):
belongs on the biggest stages,belongs in front of the most
diverse crowds, right, and soit's not about Oliver's ability,
it's about him being exposed toa broader audience.
You know what I mean, and Ithink, once he gets exposed to
that, I think his career, Ithink he's going to have a
second wind.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Absolutely.
I've had the privilege ofseeing Oliver perform in plays.
I worked with the promoter thatused to bring the Jambys plays
to New York and so seeing himperform in person with Muffy,
with Glenn Titus Campbell, thosewere just wonderful experiences
and I mean the crowd will comeinto Brooklyn, queens, bronx,
(33:28):
even when they go to ConnecticutPeople, and not only Jamaican
but Caribbean people, becausethere is something, like you
said, like they get a spacewhere, yes, it might talk my
language.
We know what is going on.
Like he sees me, we're notputting on the air of.
You know, I come from Jamaicaand you know none of those
(33:49):
things you know.
So I am beyond excited because,yes, oliver deserves this.
So, before we switch todistribution, can you touch on
it a little bit?
Which is your favorite Oliverskit?
Real quick, michaela, I'llstart with you and then Tristan
and Danisha.
I'll give you time to thinkabout it.
You already know it's Oliver.
(34:10):
No, you have to say it.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Why are you asking me this?
No, just say you have to say it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Why are you asking me this?
No, just say it.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
When I put on my cap and I put on my head and I put
on my ears muff, just likeOliver.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
See if you can match up the airport.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Go Dee, go, go go.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
No, I think we're all going to say it's the same one.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
No, for me it's not the same one.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Okay, well, I mean I the first time I learned about
pot cover dumpling.
I'm not touching on the plate,okay, and anytime you're playing
landing now are you hear thepeople start?
You know, like oliver, for me,oliver is also, he's a rebel, in
(35:05):
in a very interesting way,because joy is a part of the
rebellion and for, just liketristan said, for our people to
be able to let down them hereand to laugh, that that's,
that's a kind of reclamation ofself that is happening and
Oliver has led that charge forus internationally in terms of
the joy part, Oliver and UsainBolt as leaders in these
(35:33):
different spaces, it must berecognized that these are also
rebels who are born innon-Babylon, just in a different
kind of way taking up space,you know.
So yeah, the part cover, thepart cover episode in the plane
is by Flavorites.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Flavorites.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Go on, tristan, I mean it's, it's a mixture, of
mixture of the whole airportepisode, that whole episode,
that whole 30 minutes the twopart episode.
Yeah, that's the greatest,probably some of the greatest
West Indian Caribbean comedicwriting of all time, and
performances are extremelyamazing.
(36:14):
I wish I could have been a flyon the wall trying to act while
oliver is just acting a mess, um.
But then also, it's, it's theum, it's where he was.
He was, uh, acting like he was.
He was rasta for the, for thatname of the parents, and he was
just like the food.
The food was looking good andhe couldn't help himself.
Oh man, those two, those twoskits I I go back to and I
(36:37):
actually, before we, we startedshooting my, my kids, I realized
my kids never had seen anythingfrom oliver and so, to prepare
them, I was like, hey, let'swatch some oliver at large, like
my kids are, are 10 and and 12respectively, and we were dying
laughing and they turned to,like my son turned to me and
said now I, I understand you alittle bit better, dad, like I,
I get, I get your humor, I getwhere you're coming from,
(36:59):
because that was the our history, right, and so that's the
legacy, the power of of ofoliver, and quick, quick story
before we change gears.
So we, we live.
I live in rural outside ofToronto about an hour and ten
minutes.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Woi, woi, woi woi, woi, woi.
All the way to Choco.
All the way to Choco.
Shut your mouth.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Woi, woi Up north, where polar bears live.
I live up north.
I had Oliver close to us in thetown beside us.
Long story short.
He said, oh, I have to buy, Ihave to Tristan, can we go to
Walmart and pick up some stuff?
I said, okay, that's fine.
So we go to Walmart and theamount of people that stopped us
(37:46):
it was every Black person waslike I grew up watching you.
Is that hold on?
Is that Oliver?
Is that you?
And then Oliver be like I don,watching you, is that hold on?
Is that Oliver?
Is that you?
And then Oliver would be.
I don't know, is that me?
Okay, come, let's take apicture.
Come, come, quick, quick.
And then he wouldn't sayanything to people, but you
could see people like stop andthen walk past him, then walk by
again and be like wait, is thatyou, is that me?
(38:20):
And it was said.
I said the power and the legacy.
I was just like, okay, well, Iguess I have no idea how big
this is going to be, and soobviously the trailer dropped
and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, my favorite one and it's my favorite because
when I went back to Jamaica tovisit in 95, my grandmother
shared yeah, my favorite one.
And it's my favorite becausewhen I went back to Jamaica to
visit in 95, my grandmothershared it with me and I guess
that's why it's also my favorite.
It's irreverent, reverend.
When he was pretending to bethe minister from foreign and
when his mother was preachingand he said the nidda, fuck and
joke able in him navel.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yo, that was, I was done, I was done, I was done.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It was that wig, it was that wig for me.
And then he said God would addiniquity to your iniquity.
I was just like why, the wholesummer I was watching it.
So that is my favorite, myfavorite.
So now, switching gears, let'stalk about distribution, because
that was one of the firstthings.
Like mr michaela, is this areals and rhythms, live thing?
How we can do a screening, allwe can support, like.
(39:23):
I know that the film festivalroute is typically where our
projects get pushed for variousreasons and we just work with
the program or the system wherewe can.
But where can people get to see?
Because everybody, yo, they'remy hanker for the film, like,
what, like.
Where are we going to get tosee it?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So it's a two part answer to a question.
I think what I'll take is I'lltackle the film festival part
and then Denisha will take careof or speak to the social impact
, which will directly speak tosort of how we're going to get
it to the community.
Because we we appreciate and weacknowledge and and understand,
like people's excitement andwe're excited to to showcase it
(40:02):
and share it.
We also understand theresponsibility of we are
independent filmmakers.
What that means is we put themoney into everything.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
So what you saw we get into the money parts.
Saw all of the money come allof.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
We're getting to the money parts because we know the
money all of it.
Okay, just on your margaritahouse for pfd margarita, the
message shift.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
No, listen, um listen .
The pit did their bad.
Uh, stepping on healing toe andgetting some change, and at the
same time the boom workeverything, everything, listen.
No, um, this is so.
This is something that I Ireally want to say because I
think it's super important.
Um, when god gives you a vision, um, you, you got to step out
right and and the, the, themiracle comes at the, at the end
(40:50):
of your comfort.
Okay, um, when I say saymiracle, I don't mean that, you
know, something's just going tofly out of the sky, but what,
what happened for us was andwhen I say us, my, me and my
wife, natanya, for several yearswe, we, we applied for grant
funding through differentCanadian arts councils, tried to
get funding in differentcapacities, and everybody passed
(41:11):
on the project.
Everybody said no, no, no, no,no, we don't, you know, we can't
support it.
Unfortunately, you only came uphere, unfortunately, because of
oversubscription, blah, blah,all this stuff.
And so my wife and I looked ateach other, you know, earlier
this year, and we said we said,listen, if not now, then when
right came, after a very pivotalor critical time, which was
(41:37):
last fall, we were trying to getthe project done, um, with our
kind of starting it with our ownfinancing and then hoping to
get the financing back from a,from arts council, and, uh,
things didn't work out incasting and we couldn't cast our
, our desmond character, whichis who oliver plays, and
essentially what happened was,um, we were really kind of like
down in the dumps.
And maybe a day or two later Isaw a post from oliver on my
(41:59):
feed and I had never seen a postfrom oliver and he was just
doing his thing.
And I sent it to one of myexecutive producers, uh, shanta
o'reilly, and I said hey, whatdo you think about oliver?
And she's like well, do youknow anybody in his camp?
I was like no, and she's likeokay, bet, within two we got a
hold of Oliver, oliver's teamand Oliver's team was like yeah,
we want to be a part of it.
And then from there it was justlike each domino.
(42:20):
You know what I mean.
We got some additional funding,personal funding, which we we
put into the project.
You know Denisha, like we sawher at the, at the screening of
her grandfather's film One Loveat TIFF, and then I had a
conversation with her, maybelike several months later, and
we just like, like she was justlike okay, cool, I'm going to
help you get a sponsorship withGrace and and help you with this
(42:42):
, and my team is going to comeand it was just.
It was just things justhappened and moved.
And so I say all that because Iwant people to understand that
there's a lot of sweat equity, alot of value that's been put
into this project, people tounderstand that there's a lot of
sweat equity, a lot of valuethat's been put into this
project and we want to be goodmanagers of it in terms of being
able to get both criticalacclaim and prestige acclaim.
And that's what you get throughfilm festivals and film
(43:04):
distribution.
When you go to the festivals,what you're allowing and
essentially doing is you are nowbroadcasting to the mainstream
populace that, hey, jamaicanstories made by Jamaicans,
produced by Jamaicans, starringJamaicans talking about Jamaican
culture, are just as important,just as powerful, just as
meaningful as anything elsecoming out of any other country.
(43:25):
And if we just go directly tothe end consumer, then we miss
out on the opportunity ofmarketing and broadcasting that
and allowing people in France,in Dubai, in South Africa, in UK
, in Canada and other parts ofthe West Indies and South
America and Central America, inAmerica, to see the power of us
(43:46):
reclaiming our own stories andtelling it the way we want to
tell it Right.
One thing that you that you mayhave noticed with the trailer
and you'll you'll notice onceyou watch the film is we don't
have any subtitles, because,guess what, when I watched the
Crown, I don't have subtitlesfor British accents or for Irish
accents, so why should we haveany sort of subtitles for Patois
?
It's okay, learn it, watch itagain, be submersed and immersed
(44:09):
in a different culture, right?
We don't have to haveeverything centralized around a
Eurocentric, colonial viewpoint.
No, we're decentralizing theway that we tell stories, and so
that's why it's important aswell as to get into those places
that are so Eurocentric, thatare so focused.
They're all taking it from thewhite gaze, right, Everything is
from the white gaze, everything.
(44:31):
Oh, we got to have it this way,we got to have these sort of
plot points.
We got to have a white friend,we got to have this.
No, these are black, extremelyblack, beautiful, talented
actors and performers andproducers that are telling black
stories.
That is a universal, universalnature that can speak to anybody
in any community, and we'rejust going to do it from that
vantage point.
And so that's the importance ofof of doing the film festival
(44:53):
route as well as winning awards,getting an acknowledgement and
then also getting sponsorshipand hopefully distributing it,
getting a Netflix or a ParamountPlus to now say, hey, there's
value in this short film.
Maybe we want to develop it,maybe we want to just put it
right up on our streamingplatform and get people to
connect to our platform, getpeople to connect to our
(45:16):
platform.
So that's a little bit aboutwhy the importance of film
festivals are in terms of theprocess and why we're going that
route in relationship to alsodoing the the social impact part
.
So I'll throw it over todenisha now yeah, I think that
was very well said.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
Trist because it's it is uh complex now because, just
like you're saying, carrie,this, what they do is that they
want us to make our films, takeit to film festivals and then
put it on a streaming platform,and that's when you've gotten
success, when up your words.
But, like for me, it can't endthere, because it didn't start
(45:47):
there.
It started at the community.
Like we took the story from thecommunity, we brought it here
and then we brought it here, soit has to come back to the
community in some way.
It's like somebody trying tosell me a Bob Marley t-shirt and
expect me to buy it.
Sir, I am not.
What's the nicest way I can saythis to these people.
(46:08):
You know what I'm saying.
So for me it's the same kind ofthing like you can't just take
stories from communities and andwin awards and never bring it
back to the community and whenthe only way the community can
see it is if they have asubscription to netflix or if
they're going to pay for it incineplex, that's great, but at
the same time it it also doesn'tgive the creator, the creative,
(46:29):
an opportunity to to see whathis work has and can do.
You know, if we just createsomething and give our baby over
to the distributor to go andplace and exploit and do all of
that, it almost breaks theartist.
I mean, sometimes I think I gettoo entangled with the work,
(46:50):
but stories are like that.
Stories are the breath ofsomebody, are the memories of
somebody.
It's more than justaward-winning.
So the social impact piece ofthis is where the community will
be able to engage with thestory, and not just with the
film but the entire project, themission, the movement behind it
(47:12):
, all of the tenants of ithonoring our elders, archiving
in the Black family, in theBlack community, mental health
which is a conversation we neverhave aging parents living
internationally, you know, andtrying to maintain communities
so that we can thrive, likethere are just so many
conversations to have.
(47:33):
And other levels to this too isthat we want to use this
opportunity, because right nowwe've established a relationship
with the Alzheimer'sAssociation of Ontario and we
hope to pair that relationshipwith dementia organizations in
Jamaica, because there's anopportunity here to share best
practices and potentially shareresources and all of that kind
(47:54):
of thing.
So this film presents itself tobe a tool that can help to open
up national and internationalconversations and explore
research that has not beenprioritized prior to this, you
know.
So it's all of those pieces,and we're having a premiere in
Jamaica in February.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yes.
That's the first like like luckything, and can I just say one
thing?
One thing because I think it'ssuper important, and both Dinesh
and I feel the same way aboutthis is that, being a artist, a
Jamaican artist, a Black artistwe have the responsibility of
creating and being true to ourart, but then also a
(48:37):
responsibility to being true andauthentic to our community, and
we can't just do the commercialthing, but we recognize that
being able to have a level ofcommercial success allows us to
generate the finances to makeanother thing.
So it's the yes and ism ofeverything that we do in the
(48:57):
Black community, and what'spowerful, what can be powerful,
is when the community getsexcited.
They back the thing, theysupport the thing, they invest
in the thing, because then wecan make more of that thing
without having to you know, inthe words of Denisha be
associated with Babylon.
Right, we don't have to nowgive it to a white system that
was designed not for our storiesand not through their filter,
(49:21):
to try and now monetize it Likewe have, you know, just in the
continent.
Let's just talk about Jamaica.
We have millions of Jamaicansaround the world, right, if each
one of them just paid a dollaror $5 or whatever else to
contribute to projects like this, we would be able to create a
sustainable film industry withinourselves, very, very similar
(49:42):
to Black Hollywood in the States.
But we have to see the visionfor that.
Anyway, sorry.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Yo yo yo, I thought me aid All right, so let me go
back.
So about a year ago I hadsomeone on the podcast.
She's based in the UK, but shedid a short film project about
dementia in Dominica.
Sorry, but she's based in theUK.
So if you're looking forconnections, you know
Alzheimer's organizations, youknow all the work that she's
(50:06):
doing there.
I'll connect you.
You know, rihanna Patterson isjust doing really great work and
her entire short film and itwas inspired because of her
grandparents as well.
Right, so again, for us, thestories are inspired by.
You know, real thing, I go on.
You just touch upon the otherthing.
I was talking on another podcastwith Horry and like which part
(50:26):
through with people, them thatare support with film projects.
Right, would it beg a systemfor support through with
projects?
But I said the system who we'reasking for?
They're like are your peoplesupporting these projects?
Because if our people notsupporting these projects, why
should we support your projects?
So we as a community need to.
You know one one cocoa fullbasket.
(50:47):
All of these things we need.
Left the land talking and justdo it, I'll say this.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
I'll say this to add to your point.
You know, Kerianne is likelet's really be very granular
with what support looks like.
Yeah, is like, let's really bevery granular with what support
looks like.
Yeah, support looks like bothmonetary investment donating to
projects but then also showingup when we are doing things,
whether we are havingactivations, whether you know
(51:11):
resources of time and of skill.
Maybe you're a marketer, maybeyou're you're a social media
coordinator.
Maybe your profession hasallows you to.
You're a social mediacoordinator, maybe your
profession has allows you tohave skills that are
transferable.
For because we have a smallerproduction company right, it's
both myself, our mid-careerproductions and HOV.
There we have to rethink andrecalibrate the way that we come
(51:33):
together as a community and andsupport is not.
Hey, I have a free copy of it,I'm going to send it over to you
now and watch it.
Support is like that's greatand I don't want to.
You know, if people don't havemoney, I don't want to say don't
watch the film at all, but I'msaying we need to show up in the
ways that will allow us tobuild an ecosystem and not be
(51:55):
siloed, because the siloing iskilling us as creatives and us
as a community.
And then we get upset when wesee a black cake and we see some
mashup crackers, patois, or wesee you know, you watch my
episode on black cake, don't you?
I'm just saying.
It felt like I was drinkingCirce water or tea or something
in my mouth it was bitter, itwas disgusting.
(52:17):
I made up my face and Icouldn't finish the thing.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Anyways, that's my in my mouth.
It was bitter, it wasdisgusting.
I made up my face and Icouldn't watch.
I couldn't finish the thing.
Anyways, michaela, we tell youcaught me.
I couldn't believe the way, ohmy grief, blood of his murder,
but anyway.
So you and danisha have mycontact.
So you already know I am aboutthat and that's why we created
reels and rhythms.
We're like, if we look out inthis space, there are a lot of
other communities creatingpodcasts, just giving film
reviews, just talking aboutprojects, projects that have
(52:43):
strong Caribbean or Jamaicanstoryline, the director in there
, all of these things.
Because you know, even when thepeople on YouTube make comments
that are like, ok, fine, thewhole point is you watch it, get
to know these projects, get toknow these, these actors, get to
know all of these thingsbecause it's important.
So you know, however, we arevolunteer, michaela, but we're
(53:05):
not really volunteer, are likehowever way, you need help, just
just shoot an email and we'lldo it right.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
So you won't volunteer me, you know no, I
really love the energy.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I may watch your time .
So I have a fun question.
May I manhandle the wholeconversation?
So, all right, I feel likeDanisha might push back upon
this, but everybody are rebootthings now.
Everybody is into reboots.
Fun question so if you were toreboot a thing, add your own
flair, a little sprinkler, alittle seasoning upon it, what
(53:39):
would you reboot?
And give a little sprinklerlike a seasoning pan it, what
would you reboot?
Um, and give a little log lineabout that reboot?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
uh, tanisha, oh man, this is a great question.
Um, I, I would, I would, if Icould, I would, I would actually
.
Um, I'm big on sketch comedy,so I reboot Oliver at Large.
I don't want to go into theexact details of what that would
look like, but I think no manlike keep it, keep it, keep it.
(54:07):
But I would just I would justsay that there, there is
something there that that Ithink can be transformative, can
be a generational opportunity,and so that's that's what I say,
oliver at large.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Did he just raise a gas stand?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
I just have to smile.
You know, I just have to smilebecause it's just such a you
know, an interesting question.
I want to say little.
I would also want to rebootOliver at large, but everything
that we just explained in thisentire conversation unaligning
joy is the rebellion, and that'skind of what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Love it, love it.
All right, michaela, I'll letyou close out, I'll chat out the
whole thing.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
No, no, I love the conversation.
I'm like we're all on mutelaughing.
People are not not gonna know,but if you watch it on YouTube
you'll see all the laughter thatis happening.
But we're not trying to talkover each other.
What would you reboot, Keri?
I would reboot Dancehall Queenand actually put current
(55:17):
K-artist I think Shen Sia versussomebody like somebody else.
She would be Alavine, thoughshe wouldn't be Marcia.
She would not be Alavine.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
She can't be Marcia, she's Alavine we have to keep
the names too.
The same the same name Alavineand Marcia.
Yeah, after God's cactus, thename of the the same name
Aloeveen and Mycete.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, I forgot Cactus .
The name of the club Iunderstand, but it just needs to
be rebooted A whole era.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Alright, so me can decide.
Would I reboot Lunatic with thePaul Campbell?
I love Lunatic, but also Iwould reboot a stage player
called Boops.
It originally had um alavine,india.
Uh, what's your name again?
Speaker 3 (56:06):
uh these names are incredible.
I love these boops audrey,audrey, yes yes okay.
Speaker 4 (56:21):
Well, since you're gonna say plays, I'm gonna put
it out there.
I would reboot um cinderella,alicia and the dj prince,
because that was my.
That was my my second play Iever did, but we ran for like
almost three years straight andthat time in my life was just
amazing, you know being on stagelike that.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
So, yeah, I would do that shit I would reboot our
wall-e pottings, lime tree, lean, all these things.
Okay, all right.
Tristan is like what is that?
All right, let's go.
All right, let's wheel it backin like I don't know about the
one there, but um people haveinternet no, the jbc not have
(57:01):
the records to them, somethingno more, I think.
The records one down four timestime yeah, all of them.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
Again, archiving right yeah, yeah, I would, I
would do that, um, but again,just the artistry.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
You know the creativity that we come from.
The storytelling.
Like no one tells a story likea Jamaican.
Every time I'm about to tell astory, michaela drops the emoji.
That goes me go, so boops.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Me go, so boops.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
Cause me ready for going on a story has anybody
thought of like?
I'm surprised nobody has donelike a horror suspense film.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Oh, stop, stop, it's coming suspense film oh, stop,
stop, it's coming.
Speaker 4 (57:42):
Tristan, stop, stop, stop, stop, it's coming A.
Speaker 3 (57:45):
Nancy though.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
No, stop, stop.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
Stop, stop.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
I'm good.
I'm good.
I don't do horror, so I'm good.
No me, not a dopey movie either.
Speaker 2 (57:57):
Like a dopey dopey, but no, because I really believe
.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
I really believe, so I can't do stuff I really
believe in.
I can't be filming Lord Jesus,please.
No, I can't do that.
I can't, yes.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
When I used to go to St Mary to visit my mother
family and we have to walk pastthe cemetery.
One piece of sprint.
We sprint for one pass, exceptbecause it pitch black.
You know, you ever see theoutline of the tree, them in our
country.
I wish prayer which prayer no,but this has been incredibly,
incredibly, just a fillingconversation.
(58:35):
I can't begin to tell you howmuch this has filled me with joy
, right of being affirmed,feeling seen, you know, and so
any last words before we wrap upthis conversation.
We are incredibly proud and youknow, if anything, the reaction
is a testament to the hunger ofwanting to see more of us on
(58:56):
screen in ways that we canidentify with.
And you know people might saywell, you know what's the big
deal.
We are seen, we are affirmed inlanguage, we are affirmed in
nuance and behavior,peculiarities, all of these
things, because sometimes youdon't want to be othered, you
just want yo, me there with me,people, I just always stay.
(59:17):
So, again, thank you.
Speaker 3 (59:21):
Yeah, I think the last thing I would say to all
the people is thank you so much.
We've heard, seen, like, readall of your comments and all of
your likes and your shares.
We really appreciate it.
We ask you to continue to sharethe trailer.
Go to the website, pleasewwwsugardumplingfilmcom.
(59:42):
That's wwwsugardumplingfilmcom.
Yeah, no g on the dumpling.
Yeah, no g on the dumpling.
Um, and you'll learn more aboutthe project, learn more about
the creative team, learn, learn,uh, cbts, stuff, um.
As well as you, you'll have anopportunity to join our mailing
list.
That's where you're going toactually be the first ones to
learn about where we'rescreening.
(01:00:02):
Once we start getting into ourfestival run and opening up
different territories, once wehave our festival premieres,
we're going to start havingscreenings in those areas, right
, and so we're really excitedbecause we're looking at like,
right after we, right after wedo our really our big premiere,
official premiere in Jamaica,we're full scale rollout.
We're going to be going intocommunities having conversations
(01:00:25):
with those in the community.
You know, having a lot ofdifferent experiences.
We're looking at doing culinaryexperiences as well as mental
health and wellness, as well aseducational and educational and
DEI conversations as well.
So this is a project that youwill be seeing for years to come
.
Um, the one thing I would sayand ask you to consider those of
(01:00:46):
you that are watching andlistening is to donate.
Um, every single dollar that'sbeen donated is is, uh being put
to good use, right?
Um, like we said before, thisis all self-funded.
We put about, you know, 60 to70 grand of our own money and
our own community's money intothis, and so we want to make
sure that we're fiscallyresponsible and we can take care
(01:01:07):
of, you know, repatriatingthose funds to make sure that we
can make new projects anddevelop what we have.
So consider also donatingbecause, or if, and even if
you're not donating with, with,uh, with money, you can donate
with.
You know, maybe you have a, adiscount, or you can sponsor us
for travel, or sponsor a hotel,or sponsor, uh, a screening
(01:01:28):
space.
Those are all valuable thingsas well, and so we're we're
really open to figuring out or,or, like danisha was like, like
we're creating our own ecosystemof how we're doing the thing,
right, because we're no longerrelying on other voices and the
current system to try anddeliver our own stories.
(01:01:49):
We can't trust it.
It doesn't work, it's broken,frankly and we need to figure
out a part of or facilitieswhere we can actually screen in
(01:02:10):
your community.
Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
Tristan is saying we are looking forward to people
reaching out organizations andindividuals to book potential
screenings for 2025.
After we do our Jamaicascreening, then the sky's the
limit.
We no longer have anyrequirements or limitations
around an exclusive premiere,that kind of thing.
So we're hoping to be asgrassroots as possible while we
give the film the honor itdeserves, and that requires
(01:02:44):
community, like the act ofcommunity C-O-M-E-U-N-I-T-Y.
You know, this responsibilityis also an ability to respond,
so we are hoping that thecommunity takes up their
responsibility and actuallyresponds when we ask them to
stand up and help us to book atheater or help us to get a
(01:03:05):
partner in this city to make thescreening free for others.
We want the community tounderstand what it takes to tell
stories, what it takes tobecome filmmakers.
There are so many differententry points, and so we really
are looking at this almost likea social science experiment too,
in a way.
(01:03:25):
You know, it's not very oftenthat you get a filmmaker with a
premier piece of content likeSugar Dumpling and a legend like
Oliver Samuels to be like okay,we're open to taking it to the
community.
You know, usually people arejust like no, we want to do it
the standard way this, this,that, that, that, that.
So for me too, I see this as anopportunity for us to really do
(01:03:47):
something unique and somethingtruly Jamaican, you know, with
how we take up space in theseplaces, like we don't need a
standard, we are the standardlisten.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
She said I can't put our heels down rhythms, but all
right, more elaborate after.
So everyone listen, thank youfor joining this episode and, as
I love to say at the end ofevery episode, walk good.
Later, bye.
Michaela used to say later mypeeps, please participate, do
not just watch and don't do thehomework that they just give you
for.
Do so, thank you, and let mesay walk good.
Hello everyone, welcome to this special joint
episode.
All of the joint episodes arespecial, but anyway, a joint
episode of Carry On Friends andReels and Rhythms and as always,
I have my co-host with the moststyle to the vibes, michaela
Wagwan.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Wagwan, wagwan.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right, and we are well-excited.
Well-excited because we haveTristan Barraacks and we have
Donisha Pendergast and we wantto welcome them to the show with
the most excitement.
Run the sound effects, please.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hey, make a piss up, make a piss up.
Hello, my name is TristanBarracks.
I am a director and writer,jamaican-canadian director and
writer and just one of thecreatives that are behind the
amazing film called SugarDumplings, starring Oliver
Samuels and Chantal Riley, andI'm going to toss it off to my
(00:58):
amazing co-producer and amazingartist and filmmaker, danisha.
Go ahead, jump in.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
All right.
Well, go on people.
I am Denisha Prendegast, bornin Jamaica, grew up around the
world and I'm continuing toevolve as an artist.
I'm an actress, writer,director, producer, cultural
curator, and will continue torespond.
And so now I'm exec producingon Sugar Dumpling and we're
really excited to be here totalk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wonderful, all right, so let's kick it off, right?
I'm good, good, sitting on mydesk and somebody said Kerry,
look at boom, drop it a trailer.
And it's the one Oliver Samuelsand this Sugar Dumpling.
So we're going to get to a lotof things, but, tristan, let's
start.
Before we get to Oliver, as Itell everybody, see what
(01:51):
inspired you to create thisproject, what was the motivation
, the story behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It's kind of a confluence of different things,
like I was born in Canada but Iwas raised Jamaican, and so two
Jamaican parents that are proudto be Jamaican but also
understand and went through animmigrant experience.
And so growing up I always hadan issue with seeing how my
culture, my people, wasrepresented right, you know
there was, whether it wasthrough cool runnings or any
(02:23):
other sort of iterations ofJamaican culture.
It was always very monolithicin its presentations.
And so for me, you know, someof my fondest memories was
growing up watching Oliver andwatching also Desmond, which is
more of a Trinidadian show fromthe UK.
But one of the things thatstood out to me was that it
wasn't just inspiring andenlightening to me of my culture
(02:45):
, but my parents were reallydeeply connected and deeply
rooted in kind of reliving theirchildhood through the guise of
Oliver, Samuels and otherperformers like that.
And so growing up, being aperformer myself, growing up and
being a storyteller, comingfrom a Jamaican home, it was
sort of a natural progression towant to tell a story that was
(03:08):
from my heritage and I want totell it in a way that could
bridge the gap between thosethat are part of the diaspora,
so those that were born ofJamaican parents but maybe born
in another country but stillraised Jamaican and know
Jamaican culture, and that ishow they identify, like myself.
But then also to those who areon the island, that were born in
(03:31):
Jamaica, that want to see morethan what they've seen.
You know, hollywood put out asthe representation of Jamaican
culture and Jamaicanstorytelling, and I think the
center of this whole idea andstory was really around how can
we bring humanity back to us asJamaican people?
(03:52):
Right, we're not just blunts,you know, bumba, whatever as
well.
There was this sort of deepdesire to like how do we now
show the many folds of what itmeans to be Jamaican, be human,
(04:15):
and to kind of reclaim our storyand export that to the world?
So that's where it really camefrom.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you said so many in there like you're just
hitting on all the things thatresonate with Michaela and I,
but I'm gonna let Michaela ask aquestion if she wants to.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, I was actually curious how did you connect with
Denisha and what is theconnection there to, kind of co?
It was so weird because we werewe kind of were fond and
respecting each other's craftsfrom afar, but we didn't really
know each other like like deeplyuntil recently probably in the
last year I was at a screeningand I saw Denisha and I said,
(04:58):
hey, you know, my name isTristan and you know I'm working
on a film, and she's like no, Iknow who you are and like I,
you know, I know some of thepeople that you you know, and
and then we just like had aconversation maybe a couple of
weeks after and we just hit itoff.
There was so much that we hadin common and so much things
that we were passionate aboutspecifically around like
reclaiming and redefining, youknow, the, the, the storytelling
(05:19):
aspect of things.
But also one of the things thatreally stirred um, stirred
things inside of me was justDenisha's passion for, like, the
social impact part of it.
It's not good enough.
Like, as creatives blackcreatives, we we have a
responsibility not only to justcreate entertaining um work, but
work that's going to haveimpact and lasting legacy, and
(05:40):
so one of the things that I'mlearning, you know, through just
the guise of how she's leadingthe project, specifically within
the social impact area ofthings, through Humanity Over
Vanity, is just that idea oflike we got to have more purpose
behind this right, and not tosay that we didn't.
But the purpose has to beactually worked out and
(06:02):
exhibited in practical ways, andso I'm super grateful to have
her as a part of the projectbecause she's just been bringing
so much, so much needed lifeand so much needed
intentionality to it.
So I'll throw it over to her ifshe wants to add anything to
that.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
In adding to that.
Donisha, maybe you can let's goback a little bit, because I
realized we jumped in and didn'tgive quite give the audience a
synopsis of what the project isand then from there you can tell
me.
You know the impact that youhope that this project has on
humanity, so go ahead.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Sure, sugar Dumpling is a short film that seeks to
propel a story insight into arelationship between a father
and a daughter Father who isnavigating a new space in his
life, being recently diagnosedwith dementia, and a daughter
(06:54):
who is now navigating, having to, like Tristan says, love
somebody who you don't reallylike at this moment Because of
years of lost moments,misunderstanding distance.
You know, now we're at an ageand all of us are at this age
where our parents are aging andwe're also realizing that our
parents were also young peopleat some point, trying to figure
(07:17):
it out along the way.
So we are also learning newlessons about grace on the go,
um, and I think, like for for me, just kind of bringing it back
now and talking about the impactoutside of helping to exec,
produce a film as an audiencemember and a community member, I
(07:38):
am now so much more hyper awareof dementia, alzheimer's you
know just the challenges ofaging that my mother or my
grandmother is dealing with in adifferent way and seeing that
this is an experience that manypeople are having across the
(07:58):
board but may not have tools tonavigate the generational trauma
that we're also seeking to healas we grow.
So, sugar Dumpling such anaffectionate name really creates
an opportunity for us tochallenge stereotypes and
platform stories from spacesthat we would otherwise have
(08:22):
called just a Black story, andnow redefining it as a
Jamaican-Canadian story, as aJamaican story that lives in
Canada, because, like Trishanhas said to me before, even
though he grew up in Canada, hegrew up in a Jamaican household
in Canada.
Jamaica resides whereverJamaicans are.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Please say that again , please say that again, please
say that again.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Jamaicans and Jamaican stories reside wherever
Jamaicans are.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I love this because it's something that again, is so
entrenched in Carry On Friendsstyle and vibe reels and rhythms
.
Because when we say Caribbean,broadly right, it's wherever we
occupy space and the experiencethat comes from that.
But if I should put Caribbeanautomatically, they think
geographically the region andnot necessarily the spaces.
(09:16):
Jamaican born and you knowdefining that me not really pay
attention to that.
If your mother, if your motherfather Jamaican, you are
Jamaican.
And if you can't get a Jamaicanpassport, even if you're born
here, you are Jamaican.
I don't subscribe to, yeah,this and that and that.
(09:37):
To Danisha's point.
That came out of my experiencemeeting my cousin the first time
when I moved to Brooklyn 30years ago.
And you, you know she knowsnothing else but Bully, Biva
Rice and all the things thatsomebody in Jamaica growing up
would know.
So why would I say she's lessJamaican?
Because she just born here.
She knows nothing else but aJamaican culture and I love that
(10:01):
.
You're saying that.
We're realizing that.
Yo, we're all one.
So talk to me about thatexperience for you.
I think you and Michaela sharea similar experience.
I believe Danisha and I born inJamaica.
So you, both of you can youknow, particularly you, Tristan,
talk about that experiencebeing the Yankee Fire and Bond
Pit and seeing the evolution ofthat.
(10:24):
As you were saying, acceptanceor bridging of a gap between,
you know, those born in thecountry or the region versus
those born here.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
You know, I have to acknowledge right off the bat
the extreme privilege I havethat my parents sacrificed to
give me, to leave everythingthat was common and was
comfortable for them and madesense to them, to leave a warm
climate, to leave all of theirfamily members to literally
(10:55):
swing to the fences for a dreamthat they couldn't even
articulate, so that I can sitdown here now and create,
project those dreams on screenright.
You know, the other day, my dad, who has a very heavy Jamaican
accent, he was screen right.
You know, the other day, my dad, who has a very heavy jamaican
accent.
You know, I just have to tellyou I'm just so proud, I'm so
proud of all my kids, I'm justso proud of how you guys just
come.
I couldn't even imagine I'm inspain right now.
(11:16):
We're filming this, I've beensharing this and man, I just I
just can't express and like forme, denisha's smiling because
she knows that's exactly how mydad sounds, but for me that's
the essence of what we'retalking about.
Going back to the main point,growing up it was really weird
for me because I grew up in myhome.
(11:37):
I was, you know, we spokePatois, we ate bully beef, we
did all the things.
We also ate, obviously someCanadian food, and so I I felt
comfortable there.
But then when I would gooutside of my home, I had to
assimilate to a culture thatthat was not my own Right and
that was that's a.
That's a very familiarexperience for many people that
are, that are born elsewhere butthat are raised Jamaican.
(11:59):
And it wasn't until I gotmarried really, and I have a, I
have very Jamaican in laws andso the everything is just super
Jamaican, right, I love it.
And it wasn't until I gotmarried to my wife and we went,
I think, on a couple ofdifferent trips.
We, the first trip, we wentback together and we went to
Jamaica and I remember waking upand looking outside and looking
(12:22):
at like the rolling hills andseeing the smoke coming out of
the chimneys and like feelingthis deep desire to connect with
an island that I never reallygot an opportunity to, to go
back to and visit a lot.
You know, my parents weren'twell off.
They had four kids.
We didn't get to go to Jamaica.
We went to Jamaica for funeralsor if we were two years or
younger.
Ok, we all know, we all knowthe flex right, we all know, we
(12:44):
all know the flex right.
We all know it Like, let's notright, black child, no fear,
exactly.
And so for me, I have gone,started to go through.
When I started to go back toJamaica, I had this deep desire
to give of myself in somecapacity.
I didn't know how that wasgoing to show up, but I knew
that I had a passion forstorytelling.
I had a passion for this islandthat has given me so much
(13:08):
identity that I could finallywrite like kind of right,
because for a long time I feltlike other right, I'd go to
Jamaica.
I was the foreign you know Iwas, I was a boy from fine oh,
(13:31):
look at him with his clothes andthing you can't, you can't give
me your shoes, like.
You know what I mean.
I was that guy Right.
And then when I came here, itwas like I'm that's not, you
know what I mean Like.
And so I was.
I was trapped.
I was kind of trapped in thismiddle and and in writing, you
(13:55):
know, I wrote all the patois inin the film, I wrote all the
scenes with the food, because Irealized that I am Jamaican and
this is a part of my culture andthis is part of my experience
and through that and seeing thejust the response of those that
read the script, like when Isent it to Denisha, I have a
high level of respect for herbecause I feel like you know,
there's a level of credibilitythat she has, but also she has a
deep rooted passion to to seeJamaica thrive and Jamaican
(14:18):
people thrive.
And so when I started to speakto her about the project and she
really saw the vision, I waslike, okay, maybe you have
something here right, maybe wecan make something, and I don't
know.
I kind of answered the questionroundabout, but I think
ultimately, what I'm trying tocommunicate to you is it was
almost like a baptism of sortsin terms of embracing my
(14:39):
identity as a Jamaican Canadian,not rejecting being born in
Canada and the privileges thatthat brought, but also embracing
and saying no, I am Jamaican,I'm just a different expression
of Jamaican, but I'm stillJamaican.
And I want to tell thesestories with a level of
authenticity and truth from myPOV.
So I hope that that answers thequestion a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I think it's such a full circle moment, especially
for me.
Tristan and I have the samebackground.
Both my parents are Jamaican,my husband is Jamaican and there
are so many personalconnections that I'm hearing in
this story.
My husband calls our youngestdaughter, sugar Dumplin'.
My grandmother passed away,bless her heart, passed away a
(15:23):
while ago from Alzheimer's, andI am the in-between kid that
speak Patois and people oftenask me.
I'm like no, I wasn't born inJamaica, but I did have the
privilege of going back andforth and I think even recently
I was expressing with my mom.
I always ask her like well,when, when you and daddy
(15:45):
divorced, why didn't you go back?
Cause she had a lot of myfamily still live there, um, and
she was just like well, I hadalready started building a
community here and so manypeople were coming up from
Jamaica during that time and youstill had some family here.
That's why, you know, I kind ofuh, remained here, um, but
(16:08):
there is this connection tojamaica that I always feel like.
That feels like jamaica feelslike home, unlike any other
place.
Like I, I get off the plate.
I remember one time tellingcarrie I'm like you, remember
when you used to just come off Iplay, I feel a breeze hit you
and you have to walk onto thetarmac going and, like you, just
feel so at ease, so relaxed,and even being able to turn on
(16:33):
the TV and flip through everysingle channel and see people
that look exactly like you.
That is an experience, the mostsimple experience, that we as
diaspora kids don't get toexperience because we're
relegated to one or two channels.
So, from a media perspective,and being able to see the
(16:54):
expansion of how much culturehas come to the forefront, of
films and media and spaces wherewe kind of coexist and being
able to to kind of connect thatbridge is so important.
Um, and especially, you know,raising my kids and they go back
and forth and that sort ofthing.
(17:15):
Um, I, I think that this issuch a great project.
Um, it's telling a completelydifferent story.
It's definitely family drivenand that's something that we
haven't really seen.
So you could have told thisstory without the dementia
connection.
Why was that important?
To kind of sell?
Because it's already soundslike a complicated relationship.
(17:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Why?
Why add in the dementia there?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
There's two reasons for that.
When you're writing a script,you you know you want to create
a crucible.
You want to create a situationwhere people can't escape from,
your characters have to have tobe in this place together to
figure this thing out, um, orelse the story's broken, right?
Because if, at any point intime, a person or a character
(18:03):
can make a choice to leave, thenyou really don't have a story
or you don't have a problem thatneeds the characters to go
through it and solve.
So it becomes a transformativeexperience, right.
And so I think a part of thatwas just functional storytelling
, right, Finding something thatwould cause somebody to be in a
place together and figure thingsout together.
(18:24):
Somebody to be, to be in aplace together and and figure
things out together.
But I think there there also isa finite sort of reminder of of
how, how limited our time is.
And if you knew that thatsomebody that you loved
passionately had a had a limitedamount of time, um, to be on
this earth, what would you say?
What would you do?
(18:44):
What would you do?
What choices would you make?
To mend, to change, tocommunicate to that person so
that there was a level ofmeaningful relationship
restoration.
And so there was that level oflike yo nothing's promised to
you tomorrow.
So what are you choosing to dotoday for there to be a level of
(19:05):
meaning and purpose behind?
You know the interactions thatwe have with our loved ones or
our friends, right?
So there was that functionalstorytelling part of it.
But then there's also that sortof idea of you know, do we have
to wait until somebody's sick inorder to value them?
You know what I mean or do welive our lives with a level, a
sense of urgency and value, andwe value those moments together?
(19:27):
So those are the two reasonswhy I kind of use dementia Cause
again.
Dementia is one of those things.
It's grappling right.
Alzheimer's is one of thosediseases that really takes away
one of our most cherished things, which is our memory, which is
our ability to remember ourloved ones.
That's, you know, we're on.
We're on kind of a jointpodcast, but that's worse than
Thanos snapping half of theMarvel cinematic universe, right
(19:49):
, Like, like that.
That's you losing who.
You are right.
How much more urgency would youneed in order to to mend a
relationship?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I'm gonna come to Danisha on this, but what I love
about this is we're telling astory about a disease that
affects everyone, right, butthrough the lens of being
Jamaican.
My grandmother, her sister, myaunt we shared a birthday early
onset Alzheimer's, right now,you know I was the first
(20:21):
grandchild, so you know mygrandmother would complain to me
about my mother Now my mother.
They complain about my brotherand I say you sound like grandma
, all the things that grandmaused to complain about you.
You now complaining about mybrothers, right, so I'm the
middle person, but it gives me alesson to say I have to be
mindful.
Self-aware, to the part,donisha St Grace on the go right
(20:43):
, aware to the part, danisha StGrace on the go right.
And this idea of identity?
Right, because Alzheimer's islosing the core essence of who
these people are.
They're a fraction of who youremember them to be.
So, switching from identity,not from that medical sense, but
from how we see ourselves ontelevision, how culture is
portrayed, or cultureparticularly.
(21:05):
And you talked about reclaimingand redefining, danisha.
So talk to me a little bitabout your vision for what that
looks for, starting with SugarDumpling, but, like, what is the
role Michaela and I can playwith the podcast.
What is the role that otherpeople can play collectively to
redefine and reclaim ouridentity, and how we're being
(21:26):
portrayed in media.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
First of all, you're already doing it by being
present and taking up space andtaking yourselves a little bit
more seriously.
That's been my mantra for thepast couple of years to friends,
family, even strangers, liketake yourself a little bit more
seriously.
We live one time, people don'tcare as much as you think they
(21:52):
do, you just need to care asmuch as you think you do.
And like, the universe isalways at work.
And so when the universealigned, tristan and I, I was
also in the process of creatingan exhibit, an art exhibit for
my grandmother called the Gardenthat Rita Grew my Grandma Rita.
(22:12):
It's living in New York rightnow.
It comes down in about twoweeks.
But saying that to say I was inthe process of understanding how
important it is for the Blackfamily to archive and what is
lost when we don't, and whathappens and what limits us from
archiving properly.
(22:33):
Whether it is we travel, so wemove home, so you can't carry
everything in a suitcase, orsome things have to go left,
it's not as important as wethink Throw out the old to bring
in the new, all of these things.
And if it wasn't for mygrandmother's brother, who is my
grand uncle, like he was ableto show me a drawing of my great
(22:54):
great grandmother from the1800s, a drawing and saying all
that to say like sometimes as anactivist, when I'm feeling low,
I have to put myself aroundpeople who remember me, remember
who I was before these moments,you know, because sometimes in
(23:15):
the fight you lose, you loseyourself, you lose the
confidence or you lose the vigor, you lose the perspective of
how much has been done up untilthis moment, and so bringing it
back to sugar dumpling.
I think that that's one of thereasons why I embrace the
project so much, because Iunderstand how important it is
for us to help our elders toremember who they were before
(23:38):
these moments.
You know, and this is a part ofthat work of empowering our
communities to get back to ourindigenous act of cultural
preservation, which isstorytelling storytelling.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Let me tell you, god sent you right here because
Mikhail and I were going throughprepping for our 2025 season
and storytelling is a huge thingfor me, right Like I look at
the podcast, I look at the workthat we're doing in terms of how
are we canonizing our culturein this way and having big and
serious conversation, the jokesthem need to exist and all of
(24:20):
the excitement, but where arethe other conversations?
And you touch a button when yousay, like, when you're feeling
low and you forget you know whoyou were or you accomplished it
before.
That is me and Michaela everytwo months.
Really, you know, and so that'sa form of Alzheimer's in a way.
Right you are, you've lostyourself to the process that you
(24:41):
don't remember who you are andyou need a Michaela or you know
the people in the film to remindyou of who you are, and
sometimes they may be frustratedlike la Jesus every two months,
me, afea, telarse every twomonths my friend tells her.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But it's the grace, that's part of the process.
I'll say this it always remindsme of one of my favorite lines,
cinema lines Simba, you mustremember who you are.
It's literally that, andsometimes you need that right,
you need that moment.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Tristan sidebar, you just need to come to use our
rhythms and just elaborate,should we, because are you name?
Listen?
The other day we went to adinner and they asked Michaela
to re, to re and at the part ofbelly um, she go in, she go
straight character with teddybrook shot.
Yes, yes, no, but I, I love it.
(25:46):
I have some fun questions, butlet's get to the big thing.
So we see oliver samuels.
As far as I know, I think thisis his first film role, because
we've mostly seen him in theater.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Actually no.
So if you go on his IMDb, hehas two for some reason, but
there's one that has that's fullwith all of his credits.
He actually has been in about,I would say, six or seven
credited film roles ortelevision roles, obviously, one
of which is the big one, Oliverat Large.
But he was actually in a moviein 1989 with Denzel Washington,
(26:17):
starring Denzel Washington,which is shot in Jamaica.
Yeah, yeah, fun fact.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Oh, I know which movie that, because Charlie
Ralph is in that one.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
May I have a go watch Carrie?
May I have a go watch?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, let's watch.
Add it to the list for Reelsand Rhythms.
Watch, yes, so I don't know ifit's Danisha or Tristan whoever
wants to take it.
What was it like working withthe Oliver Samuel Boxman huh, a
world-class savant?
He is a artist's artist.
He takes his work veryseriously, but he has a level of
(27:04):
warmth and care and love andobviously humor that he carries
himself with.
And so oftentimes when peopleask me how I was working with
Oliver, the best way I candescribe it is by saying it was
like when people say don't meetyour heroes because you might be
disappointed.
It was the exact opposite.
(27:25):
It was meeting a hero, somebodywho shaped not only how I saw
myself but saw the community,saw humor specifically West
Indian humor, and specificallymy own personal humor influenced
it quite a bit and I met himand worked with him and he was
just so gracious and caring.
I mean, he started out as a, asa, a colleague or as this sort
(27:49):
of legend that I was workingwith, and he ended up being like
my papa, you know, and and Inever grew up with, with a
grandfather, and so I adoptedhim as my grandfather because it
was such a an amazingexperience.
It felt like there was a levelof almost like transferring of
of a legacy or the baton to thenext generation, like everybody
(28:10):
could feel like, like we want tohonor him and in honoring him,
like everybody could feel like,like we want to honor him and in
honoring him, he feltcomfortable with like being like
you guys need to keep on doingthis and creating these and
telling these stories.
And we felt that sort of the,the mantra or not the mantra,
but the mantle of what thatweight is, you know what I mean
Of making sure that we followthrough on Sugar Dumpling but
(28:31):
then other productions, becausethis can't just stop at Sugar
Dumpling, it has to continue on.
And so it was.
It was wonderful, it wasspiritual, it was a blessing and
it and it was hella funny.
So that's that's what it waslike working with Oliver.
Danisha can talk too, becauseDanisha know Oliver a long time
yes, I've known Oliver since Iwas maybe like 17.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
I'm about to be a lot older than 17 right now.
That's over 25 years that I'veknown Oliver Samuel since I
started out acting in theatre.
Oliver has always been a giantbut who was always willing to
mentor and be open and criticaland honest and accountable.
(29:20):
As somebody who carries such alegacy, just like Tristan said,
for me when I understood all ofthe elements of the story not
just the story, the premise, butalso the opportunity of being
able to honor a living legend itwas just like all right what we
go hard with this one, becausehow often do you get a chance to
(29:43):
roll out a red carpet foroliver samuels to walk on?
You know, oliver, just like yousaid, you weren't sure if oliver
has ever done film before he.
He wasn't around when blackfilm or whatever was exploding.
Now he's older, he's, you know.
So it's up to us to be like allright, guess what?
You never missed a train.
See your moments here too.
(30:05):
Here are your accolades, youknow, and it's a joy to be able
to honor our living legends.
You know, just like Tristansaid, I too never really grew up
with my grandfather on mymother's side anyways, but I
know of the legacy and it lives,and so I have a very keen
(30:26):
insight on why it is importantfor us to honor our living
legends.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
You know, give them a chance to tell their own story
too and I think also, like youknow, it's so funny because both
of us again have different,separate experiences when it
comes to oliver, you know, um,but but they're both meaningful
and we both, I think.
At one point danisha and Ilooked at each other.
We're like, listen, there's bob, there's usain, there's Usain,
(30:53):
there's Oliver.
Like, these are our legends,like Oliver is no less of a
legend, a Jamaican ambassador ofJamaican culture and
entertainment and legacy andlove and passion, than any of
those other individuals.
And I would argue in some ways,like he has 40 years of doing
(31:15):
this, 40 years, like I mean,like we just need to make sure
that we are intentional aboutnot just saying hey, thank you
for making us laugh, but thankyou for existing and having the
imagination to create us andreflect us on screen.
You know I go back to Oliver somuch because watching Oliver and
(31:38):
my parents on a Sundayafternoon in the 90s, early 90s,
late 80s, early 90s was aunique experience.
Because when you are animmigrant in a new country,
there is, you know, one of myfriends, david, says in another
film there is an armor that youhave to carry and put on when
you leave the house that's noteasily shed.
And so Oliver gave my parentspermission to shed that armor
(32:03):
and to remember you're Jamaican,you're Jamaican, you're
Jamaican, right, and just allowthem to relax and just let their
hair down.
And that that's powerful as akid, seeing your parents go from
stress thinking about bills,all that other stuff, to just
laughing and just being proud ofbeing who they are, from, where
(32:23):
they came from.
And so, yeah, I think that weneed to make sure that we're
honoring him.
And this whole rollout, evenwith the film festivals, is all
about like, yeah, we can get it,we could easily just release
this on social media.
We could easily just releasethis on social media.
We could send this, you know,put this on.
We have streamers alreadyasking us now to put this on
streaming platforms.
But we want and we believe thatthis story and Oliver himself
(32:43):
belongs on the biggest stages,belongs in front of the most
diverse crowds, right, and soit's not about Oliver's ability,
it's about him being exposed toa broader audience.
You know what I mean, and Ithink, once he gets exposed to
that, I think his career, Ithink he's going to have a
second wind.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Absolutely.
I've had the privilege ofseeing Oliver perform in plays.
I worked with the promoter thatused to bring the Jambys plays
to New York and so seeing himperform in person with Muffy,
with Glenn Titus Campbell, thosewere just wonderful experiences
and I mean the crowd will comeinto Brooklyn, queens, bronx,
(33:28):
even when they go to ConnecticutPeople, and not only Jamaican
but Caribbean people, becausethere is something, like you
said, like they get a spacewhere, yes, it might talk my
language.
We know what is going on.
Like he sees me, we're notputting on the air of.
You know, I come from Jamaicaand you know none of those
(33:49):
things you know.
So I am beyond excited because,yes, oliver deserves this.
So, before we switch todistribution, can you touch on
it a little bit?
Which is your favorite Oliverskit?
Real quick, michaela, I'llstart with you and then Tristan
and Danisha.
I'll give you time to thinkabout it.
You already know it's Oliver.
(34:10):
No, you have to say it.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Why are you asking me this?
No, just say you have to say it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Why are you asking me this?
No, just say it.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
When I put on my cap and I put on my head and I put
on my ears muff, just likeOliver.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
See if you can match up the airport.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Go Dee, go, go go.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
No, I think we're all going to say it's the same one.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
No, for me it's not the same one.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Okay, well, I mean I the first time I learned about
pot cover dumpling.
I'm not touching on the plate,okay, and anytime you're playing
landing now are you hear thepeople start?
You know, like oliver, for me,oliver is also, he's a rebel, in
(35:05):
in a very interesting way,because joy is a part of the
rebellion and for, just liketristan said, for our people to
be able to let down them hereand to laugh, that that's,
that's a kind of reclamation ofself that is happening and
Oliver has led that charge forus internationally in terms of
the joy part, Oliver and UsainBolt as leaders in these
(35:33):
different spaces, it must berecognized that these are also
rebels who are born innon-Babylon, just in a different
kind of way taking up space,you know.
So yeah, the part cover, thepart cover episode in the plane
is by Flavorites.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Flavorites.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Go on, tristan, I mean it's, it's a mixture, of
mixture of the whole airportepisode, that whole episode,
that whole 30 minutes the twopart episode.
Yeah, that's the greatest,probably some of the greatest
West Indian Caribbean comedicwriting of all time, and
performances are extremelyamazing.
(36:14):
I wish I could have been a flyon the wall trying to act while
oliver is just acting a mess, um.
But then also, it's, it's theum, it's where he was.
He was, uh, acting like he was.
He was rasta for the, for thatname of the parents, and he was
just like the food.
The food was looking good andhe couldn't help himself.
Oh man, those two, those twoskits I I go back to and I
(36:37):
actually, before we, we startedshooting my, my kids, I realized
my kids never had seen anythingfrom oliver and so, to prepare
them, I was like, hey, let'swatch some oliver at large, like
my kids are, are 10 and and 12respectively, and we were dying
laughing and they turned to,like my son turned to me and
said now I, I understand you alittle bit better, dad, like I,
I get, I get your humor, I getwhere you're coming from,
(36:59):
because that was the our history, right, and so that's the
legacy, the power of of ofoliver, and quick, quick story
before we change gears.
So we, we live.
I live in rural outside ofToronto about an hour and ten
minutes.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Woi, woi, woi woi, woi, woi.
All the way to Choco.
All the way to Choco.
Shut your mouth.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Woi, woi Up north, where polar bears live.
I live up north.
I had Oliver close to us in thetown beside us.
Long story short.
He said, oh, I have to buy, Ihave to Tristan, can we go to
Walmart and pick up some stuff?
I said, okay, that's fine.
So we go to Walmart and theamount of people that stopped us
(37:46):
it was every Black person waslike I grew up watching you.
Is that hold on?
Is that Oliver?
Is that you?
And then Oliver be like I don,watching you, is that hold on?
Is that Oliver?
Is that you?
And then Oliver would be.
I don't know, is that me?
Okay, come, let's take apicture.
Come, come, quick, quick.
And then he wouldn't sayanything to people, but you
could see people like stop andthen walk past him, then walk by
again and be like wait, is thatyou, is that me?
(38:20):
And it was said.
I said the power and the legacy.
I was just like, okay, well, Iguess I have no idea how big
this is going to be, and soobviously the trailer dropped
and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, my favorite one and it's my favorite because
when I went back to Jamaica tovisit in 95, my grandmother
shared yeah, my favorite one.
And it's my favorite becausewhen I went back to Jamaica to
visit in 95, my grandmothershared it with me and I guess
that's why it's also my favorite.
It's irreverent, reverend.
When he was pretending to bethe minister from foreign and
when his mother was preachingand he said the nidda, fuck and
joke able in him navel.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yo, that was, I was done, I was done, I was done.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It was that wig, it was that wig for me.
And then he said God would addiniquity to your iniquity.
I was just like why, the wholesummer I was watching it.
So that is my favorite, myfavorite.
So now, switching gears, let'stalk about distribution, because
that was one of the firstthings.
Like mr michaela, is this areals and rhythms, live thing?
How we can do a screening, allwe can support, like.
(39:23):
I know that the film festivalroute is typically where our
projects get pushed for variousreasons and we just work with
the program or the system wherewe can.
But where can people get to see?
Because everybody, yo, they'remy hanker for the film, like,
what, like.
Where are we going to get tosee it?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
So it's a two part answer to a question.
I think what I'll take is I'lltackle the film festival part
and then Denisha will take careof or speak to the social impact
, which will directly speak tosort of how we're going to get
it to the community.
Because we we appreciate and weacknowledge and and understand,
like people's excitement andwe're excited to to showcase it
(40:02):
and share it.
We also understand theresponsibility of we are
independent filmmakers.
What that means is we put themoney into everything.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
So what you saw we get into the money parts.
Saw all of the money come allof.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
We're getting to the money parts because we know the
money all of it.
Okay, just on your margaritahouse for pfd margarita, the
message shift.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
No, listen, um listen .
The pit did their bad.
Uh, stepping on healing toe andgetting some change, and at the
same time the boom workeverything, everything, listen.
No, um, this is so.
This is something that I Ireally want to say because I
think it's super important.
Um, when god gives you a vision, um, you, you got to step out
right and and the, the, themiracle comes at the, at the end
(40:50):
of your comfort.
Okay, um, when I say saymiracle, I don't mean that, you
know, something's just going tofly out of the sky, but what,
what happened for us was andwhen I say us, my, me and my
wife, natanya, for several yearswe, we, we applied for grant
funding through differentCanadian arts councils, tried to
get funding in differentcapacities, and everybody passed
(41:11):
on the project.
Everybody said no, no, no, no,no, we don't, you know, we can't
support it.
Unfortunately, you only came uphere, unfortunately, because of
oversubscription, blah, blah,all this stuff.
And so my wife and I looked ateach other, you know, earlier
this year, and we said we said,listen, if not now, then when
right came, after a very pivotalor critical time, which was
(41:37):
last fall, we were trying to getthe project done, um, with our
kind of starting it with our ownfinancing and then hoping to
get the financing back from a,from arts council, and, uh,
things didn't work out incasting and we couldn't cast our
, our desmond character, whichis who oliver plays, and
essentially what happened was,um, we were really kind of like
down in the dumps.
And maybe a day or two later Isaw a post from oliver on my
(41:59):
feed and I had never seen a postfrom oliver and he was just
doing his thing.
And I sent it to one of myexecutive producers, uh, shanta
o'reilly, and I said hey, whatdo you think about oliver?
And she's like well, do youknow anybody in his camp?
I was like no, and she's likeokay, bet, within two we got a
hold of Oliver, oliver's teamand Oliver's team was like yeah,
we want to be a part of it.
And then from there it was justlike each domino.
(42:20):
You know what I mean.
We got some additional funding,personal funding, which we we
put into the project.
You know Denisha, like we sawher at the, at the screening of
her grandfather's film One Loveat TIFF, and then I had a
conversation with her, maybelike several months later, and
we just like, like she was justlike okay, cool, I'm going to
help you get a sponsorship withGrace and and help you with this
(42:42):
, and my team is going to comeand it was just.
It was just things justhappened and moved.
And so I say all that because Iwant people to understand that
there's a lot of sweat equity, alot of value that's been put
into this project, people tounderstand that there's a lot of
sweat equity, a lot of valuethat's been put into this
project and we want to be goodmanagers of it in terms of being
able to get both criticalacclaim and prestige acclaim.
And that's what you get throughfilm festivals and film
(43:04):
distribution.
When you go to the festivals,what you're allowing and
essentially doing is you are nowbroadcasting to the mainstream
populace that, hey, jamaicanstories made by Jamaicans,
produced by Jamaicans, starringJamaicans talking about Jamaican
culture, are just as important,just as powerful, just as
meaningful as anything elsecoming out of any other country.
(43:25):
And if we just go directly tothe end consumer, then we miss
out on the opportunity ofmarketing and broadcasting that
and allowing people in France,in Dubai, in South Africa, in UK
, in Canada and other parts ofthe West Indies and South
America and Central America, inAmerica, to see the power of us
(43:46):
reclaiming our own stories andtelling it the way we want to
tell it Right.
One thing that you that you mayhave noticed with the trailer
and you'll you'll notice onceyou watch the film is we don't
have any subtitles, because,guess what, when I watched the
Crown, I don't have subtitlesfor British accents or for Irish
accents, so why should we haveany sort of subtitles for Patois
?
It's okay, learn it, watch itagain, be submersed and immersed
(44:09):
in a different culture, right?
We don't have to haveeverything centralized around a
Eurocentric, colonial viewpoint.
No, we're decentralizing theway that we tell stories, and so
that's why it's important aswell as to get into those places
that are so Eurocentric, thatare so focused.
They're all taking it from thewhite gaze, right, Everything is
from the white gaze, everything.
(44:31):
Oh, we got to have it this way,we got to have these sort of
plot points.
We got to have a white friend,we got to have this.
No, these are black, extremelyblack, beautiful, talented
actors and performers andproducers that are telling black
stories.
That is a universal, universalnature that can speak to anybody
in any community, and we'rejust going to do it from that
vantage point.
And so that's the importance ofof of doing the film festival
(44:53):
route as well as winning awards,getting an acknowledgement and
then also getting sponsorshipand hopefully distributing it,
getting a Netflix or a ParamountPlus to now say, hey, there's
value in this short film.
Maybe we want to develop it,maybe we want to just put it
right up on our streamingplatform and get people to
connect to our platform, getpeople to connect to our
(45:16):
platform.
So that's a little bit aboutwhy the importance of film
festivals are in terms of theprocess and why we're going that
route in relationship to alsodoing the the social impact part
.
So I'll throw it over todenisha now yeah, I think that
was very well said.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
Trist because it's it is uh complex now because, just
like you're saying, carrie,this, what they do is that they
want us to make our films, takeit to film festivals and then
put it on a streaming platform,and that's when you've gotten
success, when up your words.
But, like for me, it can't endthere, because it didn't start
(45:47):
there.
It started at the community.
Like we took the story from thecommunity, we brought it here
and then we brought it here, soit has to come back to the
community in some way.
It's like somebody trying tosell me a Bob Marley t-shirt and
expect me to buy it.
Sir, I am not.
What's the nicest way I can saythis to these people.
(46:08):
You know what I'm saying.
So for me it's the same kind ofthing like you can't just take
stories from communities and andwin awards and never bring it
back to the community and whenthe only way the community can
see it is if they have asubscription to netflix or if
they're going to pay for it incineplex, that's great, but at
the same time it it also doesn'tgive the creator, the creative,
(46:29):
an opportunity to to see whathis work has and can do.
You know, if we just createsomething and give our baby over
to the distributor to go andplace and exploit and do all of
that, it almost breaks theartist.
I mean, sometimes I think I gettoo entangled with the work,
(46:50):
but stories are like that.
Stories are the breath ofsomebody, are the memories of
somebody.
It's more than justaward-winning.
So the social impact piece ofthis is where the community will
be able to engage with thestory, and not just with the
film but the entire project, themission, the movement behind it
(47:12):
, all of the tenants of ithonoring our elders, archiving
in the Black family, in theBlack community, mental health
which is a conversation we neverhave aging parents living
internationally, you know, andtrying to maintain communities
so that we can thrive, likethere are just so many
conversations to have.
(47:33):
And other levels to this too isthat we want to use this
opportunity, because right nowwe've established a relationship
with the Alzheimer'sAssociation of Ontario and we
hope to pair that relationshipwith dementia organizations in
Jamaica, because there's anopportunity here to share best
practices and potentially shareresources and all of that kind
(47:54):
of thing.
So this film presents itself tobe a tool that can help to open
up national and internationalconversations and explore
research that has not beenprioritized prior to this, you
know.
So it's all of those pieces,and we're having a premiere in
Jamaica in February.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yes.
That's the first like like luckything, and can I just say one
thing?
One thing because I think it'ssuper important, and both Dinesh
and I feel the same way aboutthis is that, being a artist, a
Jamaican artist, a Black artistwe have the responsibility of
creating and being true to ourart, but then also a
(48:37):
responsibility to being true andauthentic to our community, and
we can't just do the commercialthing, but we recognize that
being able to have a level ofcommercial success allows us to
generate the finances to makeanother thing.
So it's the yes and ism ofeverything that we do in the
(48:57):
Black community, and what'spowerful, what can be powerful,
is when the community getsexcited.
They back the thing, theysupport the thing, they invest
in the thing, because then wecan make more of that thing
without having to you know, inthe words of Denisha be
associated with Babylon.
Right, we don't have to nowgive it to a white system that
was designed not for our storiesand not through their filter,
(49:21):
to try and now monetize it Likewe have, you know, just in the
continent.
Let's just talk about Jamaica.
We have millions of Jamaicansaround the world, right, if each
one of them just paid a dollaror $5 or whatever else to
contribute to projects like this, we would be able to create a
sustainable film industry withinourselves, very, very similar
(49:42):
to Black Hollywood in the States.
But we have to see the visionfor that.
Anyway, sorry.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Yo yo yo, I thought me aid All right, so let me go
back.
So about a year ago I hadsomeone on the podcast.
She's based in the UK, but shedid a short film project about
dementia in Dominica.
Sorry, but she's based in theUK.
So if you're looking forconnections, you know
Alzheimer's organizations, youknow all the work that she's
(50:06):
doing there.
I'll connect you.
You know, rihanna Patterson isjust doing really great work and
her entire short film and itwas inspired because of her
grandparents as well.
Right, so again, for us, thestories are inspired by.
You know, real thing, I go on.
You just touch upon the otherthing.
I was talking on another podcastwith Horry and like which part
(50:26):
through with people, them thatare support with film projects.
Right, would it beg a systemfor support through with
projects?
But I said the system who we'reasking for?
They're like are your peoplesupporting these projects?
Because if our people notsupporting these projects, why
should we support your projects?
So we as a community need to.
You know one one cocoa fullbasket.
(50:47):
All of these things we need.
Left the land talking and justdo it, I'll say this.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
I'll say this to add to your point.
You know, Kerianne is likelet's really be very granular
with what support looks like.
Yeah, is like, let's really bevery granular with what support
looks like.
Yeah, support looks like bothmonetary investment donating to
projects but then also showingup when we are doing things,
whether we are havingactivations, whether you know
(51:11):
resources of time and of skill.
Maybe you're a marketer, maybeyou're you're a social media
coordinator.
Maybe your profession hasallows you to.
You're a social mediacoordinator, maybe your
profession has allows you tohave skills that are
transferable.
For because we have a smallerproduction company right, it's
both myself, our mid-careerproductions and HOV.
There we have to rethink andrecalibrate the way that we come
(51:33):
together as a community and andsupport is not.
Hey, I have a free copy of it,I'm going to send it over to you
now and watch it.
Support is like that's greatand I don't want to.
You know, if people don't havemoney, I don't want to say don't
watch the film at all, but I'msaying we need to show up in the
ways that will allow us tobuild an ecosystem and not be
(51:55):
siloed, because the siloing iskilling us as creatives and us
as a community.
And then we get upset when wesee a black cake and we see some
mashup crackers, patois, or wesee you know, you watch my
episode on black cake, don't you?
I'm just saying.
It felt like I was drinkingCirce water or tea or something
in my mouth it was bitter, itwas disgusting.
(52:17):
I made up my face and Icouldn't finish the thing.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Anyways, that's my in my mouth.
It was bitter, it wasdisgusting.
I made up my face and Icouldn't watch.
I couldn't finish the thing.
Anyways, michaela, we tell youcaught me.
I couldn't believe the way, ohmy grief, blood of his murder,
but anyway.
So you and danisha have mycontact.
So you already know I am aboutthat and that's why we created
reels and rhythms.
We're like, if we look out inthis space, there are a lot of
other communities creatingpodcasts, just giving film
reviews, just talking aboutprojects, projects that have
(52:43):
strong Caribbean or Jamaicanstoryline, the director in there
, all of these things.
Because you know, even when thepeople on YouTube make comments
that are like, ok, fine, thewhole point is you watch it, get
to know these projects, get toknow these, these actors, get to
know all of these thingsbecause it's important.
So you know, however, we arevolunteer, michaela, but we're
(53:05):
not really volunteer, are likehowever way, you need help, just
just shoot an email and we'lldo it right.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
So you won't volunteer me, you know no, I
really love the energy.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I may watch your time .
So I have a fun question.
May I manhandle the wholeconversation?
So, all right, I feel likeDanisha might push back upon
this, but everybody are rebootthings now.
Everybody is into reboots.
Fun question so if you were toreboot a thing, add your own
flair, a little sprinkler, alittle seasoning upon it, what
(53:39):
would you reboot?
And give a little sprinklerlike a seasoning pan it, what
would you reboot?
Um, and give a little log lineabout that reboot?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
uh, tanisha, oh man, this is a great question.
Um, I, I would, I would, if Icould, I would, I would actually
.
Um, I'm big on sketch comedy,so I reboot Oliver at Large.
I don't want to go into theexact details of what that would
look like, but I think no manlike keep it, keep it, keep it.
(54:07):
But I would just I would justsay that there, there is
something there that that Ithink can be transformative, can
be a generational opportunity,and so that's that's what I say,
oliver at large.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Did he just raise a gas stand?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
I just have to smile.
You know, I just have to smilebecause it's just such a you
know, an interesting question.
I want to say little.
I would also want to rebootOliver at large, but everything
that we just explained in thisentire conversation unaligning
joy is the rebellion, and that'skind of what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Love it, love it.
All right, michaela, I'll letyou close out, I'll chat out the
whole thing.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
No, no, I love the conversation.
I'm like we're all on mutelaughing.
People are not not gonna know,but if you watch it on YouTube
you'll see all the laughter thatis happening.
But we're not trying to talkover each other.
What would you reboot, Keri?
I would reboot Dancehall Queenand actually put current
(55:17):
K-artist I think Shen Sia versussomebody like somebody else.
She would be Alavine, thoughshe wouldn't be Marcia.
She would not be Alavine.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
She can't be Marcia, she's Alavine we have to keep
the names too.
The same the same name Alavineand Marcia.
Yeah, after God's cactus, thename of the the same name
Aloeveen and Mycete.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, I forgot Cactus .
The name of the club Iunderstand, but it just needs to
be rebooted A whole era.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Alright, so me can decide.
Would I reboot Lunatic with thePaul Campbell?
I love Lunatic, but also Iwould reboot a stage player
called Boops.
It originally had um alavine,india.
Uh, what's your name again?
Speaker 3 (56:06):
uh these names are incredible.
I love these boops audrey,audrey, yes yes okay.
Speaker 4 (56:21):
Well, since you're gonna say plays, I'm gonna put
it out there.
I would reboot um cinderella,alicia and the dj prince,
because that was my.
That was my my second play Iever did, but we ran for like
almost three years straight andthat time in my life was just
amazing, you know being on stagelike that.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
So, yeah, I would do that shit I would reboot our
wall-e pottings, lime tree, lean, all these things.
Okay, all right.
Tristan is like what is that?
All right, let's go.
All right, let's wheel it backin like I don't know about the
one there, but um people haveinternet no, the jbc not have
(57:01):
the records to them, somethingno more, I think.
The records one down four timestime yeah, all of them.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
Again, archiving right yeah, yeah, I would, I
would do that, um, but again,just the artistry.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
You know the creativity that we come from.
The storytelling.
Like no one tells a story likea Jamaican.
Every time I'm about to tell astory, michaela drops the emoji.
That goes me go, so boops.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Me go, so boops.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
Cause me ready for going on a story has anybody
thought of like?
I'm surprised nobody has donelike a horror suspense film.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Oh, stop, stop, it's coming suspense film oh, stop,
stop, it's coming.
Speaker 4 (57:42):
Tristan, stop, stop, stop, stop, it's coming A.
Speaker 3 (57:45):
Nancy though.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
No, stop, stop.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
Stop, stop.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
I'm good.
I'm good.
I don't do horror, so I'm good.
No me, not a dopey movie either.
Speaker 2 (57:57):
Like a dopey dopey, but no, because I really believe
.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
I really believe, so I can't do stuff I really
believe in.
I can't be filming Lord Jesus,please.
No, I can't do that.
I can't, yes.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
When I used to go to St Mary to visit my mother
family and we have to walk pastthe cemetery.
One piece of sprint.
We sprint for one pass, exceptbecause it pitch black.
You know, you ever see theoutline of the tree, them in our
country.
I wish prayer which prayer no,but this has been incredibly,
incredibly, just a fillingconversation.
(58:35):
I can't begin to tell you howmuch this has filled me with joy
, right of being affirmed,feeling seen, you know, and so
any last words before we wrap upthis conversation.
We are incredibly proud and youknow, if anything, the reaction
is a testament to the hunger ofwanting to see more of us on
(58:56):
screen in ways that we canidentify with.
And you know people might saywell, you know what's the big
deal.
We are seen, we are affirmed inlanguage, we are affirmed in
nuance and behavior,peculiarities, all of these
things, because sometimes youdon't want to be othered, you
just want yo, me there with me,people, I just always stay.
(59:17):
So, again, thank you.
Speaker 3 (59:21):
Yeah, I think the last thing I would say to all
the people is thank you so much.
We've heard, seen, like, readall of your comments and all of
your likes and your shares.
We really appreciate it.
We ask you to continue to sharethe trailer.
Go to the website, pleasewwwsugardumplingfilmcom.
(59:42):
That's wwwsugardumplingfilmcom.
Yeah, no g on the dumpling.
Yeah, no g on the dumpling.
Um, and you'll learn more aboutthe project, learn more about
the creative team, learn, learn,uh, cbts, stuff, um.
As well as you, you'll have anopportunity to join our mailing
list.
That's where you're going toactually be the first ones to
learn about where we'rescreening.
(01:00:02):
Once we start getting into ourfestival run and opening up
different territories, once wehave our festival premieres,
we're going to start havingscreenings in those areas, right
, and so we're really excitedbecause we're looking at like,
right after we, right after wedo our really our big premiere,
official premiere in Jamaica,we're full scale rollout.
We're going to be going intocommunities having conversations
(01:00:25):
with those in the community.
You know, having a lot ofdifferent experiences.
We're looking at doing culinaryexperiences as well as mental
health and wellness, as well aseducational and educational and
DEI conversations as well.
So this is a project that youwill be seeing for years to come
.
Um, the one thing I would sayand ask you to consider those of
(01:00:46):
you that are watching andlistening is to donate.
Um, every single dollar that'sbeen donated is is, uh being put
to good use, right?
Um, like we said before, thisis all self-funded.
We put about, you know, 60 to70 grand of our own money and
our own community's money intothis, and so we want to make
sure that we're fiscallyresponsible and we can take care
(01:01:07):
of, you know, repatriatingthose funds to make sure that we
can make new projects anddevelop what we have.
So consider also donatingbecause, or if, and even if
you're not donating with, with,uh, with money, you can donate
with.
You know, maybe you have a, adiscount, or you can sponsor us
for travel, or sponsor a hotel,or sponsor, uh, a screening
(01:01:28):
space.
Those are all valuable thingsas well, and so we're we're
really open to figuring out or,or, like danisha was like, like
we're creating our own ecosystemof how we're doing the thing,
right, because we're no longerrelying on other voices and the
current system to try anddeliver our own stories.
(01:01:49):
We can't trust it.
It doesn't work, it's broken,frankly and we need to figure
out a part of or facilitieswhere we can actually screen in
(01:02:10):
your community.
Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
Tristan is saying we are looking forward to people
reaching out organizations andindividuals to book potential
screenings for 2025.
After we do our Jamaicascreening, then the sky's the
limit.
We no longer have anyrequirements or limitations
around an exclusive premiere,that kind of thing.
So we're hoping to be asgrassroots as possible while we
give the film the honor itdeserves, and that requires
(01:02:44):
community, like the act ofcommunity C-O-M-E-U-N-I-T-Y.
You know, this responsibilityis also an ability to respond,
so we are hoping that thecommunity takes up their
responsibility and actuallyresponds when we ask them to
stand up and help us to book atheater or help us to get a
(01:03:05):
partner in this city to make thescreening free for others.
We want the community tounderstand what it takes to tell
stories, what it takes tobecome filmmakers.
There are so many differententry points, and so we really
are looking at this almost likea social science experiment too,
in a way.
(01:03:25):
You know, it's not very oftenthat you get a filmmaker with a
premier piece of content likeSugar Dumpling and a legend like
Oliver Samuels to be like okay,we're open to taking it to the
community.
You know, usually people arejust like no, we want to do it
the standard way this, this,that, that, that, that.
So for me too, I see this as anopportunity for us to really do
(01:03:47):
something unique and somethingtruly Jamaican, you know, with
how we take up space in theseplaces, like we don't need a
standard, we are the standardlisten.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
She said I can't put our heels down rhythms, but all
right, more elaborate after.
So everyone listen, thank youfor joining this episode and, as
I love to say at the end ofevery episode, walk good.
Later, bye.
Michaela used to say later mypeeps, please participate, do
not just watch and don't do thehomework that they just give you
for.
Do so, thank you, and let mesay walk good.
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