News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Fri. February 24, 2017: Three of the Caribbean’s leading film producers will now develop pilots for their original TV series projects, via funding from Flow and CaribbeanTales Media Group.
With $40,000 funding for each project, production work will begin on Battledream Chronicle, a sci-fi/drama animated series created by Alain Bidard, which is based on his groundbreaking multi-award winning feature film; Heat, a sweltering crime/drama series filmed in Barbados from iconic filmmaker Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion, The Story of Lover’s Rock and more); and Caribbean Girl NYC, an ensemble female-driven sitcom from NY-based Guadeloupian filmmaker/producer Mariette Monpierre, whose award-winning film Elza won, among others, the prestigious NYT award.
Support for these pilots is part of CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI), a year-round development and production hub for Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora Producers to create of strong, compelling and sustainable regional content for the global market.
“We recognise the significant hurdles that Caribbean Producers face in financing and producing their content, and getting it out to audiences,” said John Reid, CEO of Cable and Wireless, operator of Flow and lead sponsor of CTI. “We are honoured to help support this programme that is enabling the production and monetisation of this exciting emerging cultural industry.”
The pilots will premier at the twelfth annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF), of which Flow is also the lead sponsor. The festival celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage, and will be held in Toronto, Canada in September.
As an added bonus, an eight-part documentary series has been filmed and is currently in post-production. The series follows the ten teams of filmmakers who competed for this prestigious award, and will be shown on Flow1 later this year.
Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO of CaribbeanTales, states, “We are delighted that, together with Flow, we are able to provide the Caribbean’s top filmmakers with funding and a platform to produce top quality, local, content with the capacity to reach audiences across the region and the world.”
CTI is now accepting applications for its 2017 programme online.
About CaribbeanTales
The CaribbeanTales Media Group is a group of companies that produces, markets, and sells Caribbean-themed film and television content for global audiences. It includes CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution (CTWD), a full-service distribution entity dedicated to the monetisation of Caribbean content; CaribbeanTales Inc a registered Charity based in Toronto, Canada; the CTFF, CaribbeanTales Flix, our production arm, CaribbeanTales-TV, a video on demand platform, and the CTI.
About C&W Communications
C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network – the most extensive in the region.
Learn more at www.cwc.com, or follow C&W on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
