Geraldine Connor - Obituary

I was priveleged to work with Gerry Connor in the early 90's in London - she composed and did the musical direction for a number of radio plays that I directed. Always up for a challenge, always ready to deliver in spades. She was a prolific and talented artist, teacher, and friend, whose spirit was irresistible, generous, and infectious. So long, Gerry - I'm sorry I didn't get to see you again. FAS.

Energetic theatre director, musician and academic best known for Carnival Messiah

by Margaret Busby | guardian.co.uk, | Monday 31 October 2011

Geraldine Connor, who has died aged 59 following a heart attack, latterly described herself as a creator of theatre, artistic director and heritage consultant. However, it requires a far longer list – including musician, composer, ethnomusicologist, performer, writer, singer, academic, broadcaster and cultural ambassador – to do justice to someone fittingly termed (by the Yorkshire Post) "a tropical storm of energy". Her most spectacular endeavour, Carnival Messiah, which she wrote, composed for and directed, married the European classical tradition of oratorio with masquerade and musical inspiration from the African diaspora in an iconoclastic way that typified all that she did.

A radical reinvention of Handel's Messiah, with a 100-plus cast, the show was first produced at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1999, and was later staged in Trinidad and Tobago. It has been experienced by about 75,000 people. In 2007, upon the bicentenary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act, Geraldine staged it in partnership with David Lascelles (now the eighth Earl of Harewood) in the grounds of Harewood House, which was built with funds acquired through slave trading. With brave ambitions, she had been developing a commercial arena production that she hoped would begin touring large-scale venues across the world in 2012, including at the opening of the Olympics.

Geraldine was born in London to high-achieving Trinidadian parents who paved the way for UK-based black artists. Her father, the singer, actor, folklorist and film-maker Edric Connor, was responsible for bringing the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra to the Festival of Britain in 1951. Her mother, Pearl Connor, was a theatrical agent and founder of the Negro Theatre Workshop. Edric died in 1968. Pearl later married Joe Mogotsi, the leader of the South African vocal group the Manhattan Brothers.

Throughout her life, Geraldine nurtured cultural and educational links between the Caribbean and Britain. She was schooled in Trinidad (Diego Martin government secondary, 1963-68) and in the UK (Camden school for girls, 1968-71). At the Royal College of Music, in London, she studied classical voice, pianoforte and conducting. She graduated in 1974 and returned to Trinidad to teach music for eight years at Queen's Royal College, one of the island's leading schools. Meanwhile she became a licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music in classical voice (mezzo soprano).

During these years she was impressively productive both as an educator and a practitioner, working with choirs, vocal soloists, instrumental and folk ensembles, and teaching extramural vocal classes at the University of the West Indies. As a performer, she toured with productions of Porgy and Bess, Showboat and Carmen Jones, and was a backing singer for Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Tom Jones.

Geraldine played bass for the Trintoc Invaders steel band in Trinidad, where she believed she was the first woman to arrange a tune for the Panorama steel-band competition. Her close association with steel-pan music continued on her return in 1984 to the UK, where she made award-winning arrangements for the steel band Ebony. In 1990 she moved to Yorkshire to take up the post of senior lecturer in multicultural music at the University of Leeds, later being appointed senior teaching fellow and lecturer on the popular music studies BA degree course at Bretton Hall. She completed her doctoral research at the Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, in 2006, with a thesis that addressed issues of Caribbean consciousness, identity and representation.

Specialising in devising epic theatre events, Geraldine boasted directorial skills guaranteed to add brio to any writer's work. Her daring interpretation turned my historical drama Yaa Asantewaa – Warrior Queen into an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza that toured the UK and Ghana in 2001-02, with stunning carnival-inspired design by Clary Salandy, some 50 dancers, actors, musicians and singers, and the title role shared by three women, depicting the story through dance, song and the spoken word.

Among the other acclaimed shows she mounted was Vodou Nation(2004), a multimedia reflection on Haiti, and a hit production of the reggae-infused musical The Harder They Come (for which she composed the Ganja Song). Bouts of ill health in recent years did not dim her visionary spirit. Geraldine never settled for half-measures; whatever she turned her hand to was infused with infectious enthusiasm and a passionate determination.

In 2005, she accepted an award from the British Association of Steel Bands in recognition of the Connor family's contribution to the promotion of steel-band music, Caribbean art, culture and heritage throughout the UK. In 2009, she was presented with Trinidad and Tobago's second highest national honour, the Chaconia medal (gold).

She is survived by her brother, Peter, and his children, Teo and Casey.

• Geraldine Roxanne Connor, theatre director, composer and performer, born 22 March 1952; died 21 October 2011.

Forward Home Has Its Suriname Premiere

Forward Home premieres today October 17th, at the TBL Cinema SURINAME.

Shot in 9 countries, Producer-Director Lisa Wickham, Director of Photography, Sheldon Felix, Executive Producer, Dr. Keith Nurse. Forward Home is a 50-minute documentary revealing the economic power of the Caribbean Diaspora, living in global cities and their significance to their homelands as travelers and entrepreneurs. This is the PROMO. Distributed by CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution.

Forward Home Has Its Caribbean Premiere

Dr Keith Nurse is Director of the Shridath Ramphal Center at UWI, and Chair of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution. His  ground-breaking documentary "Forward Home" about the economic power of the Caribbean Diaspora,  had its World Premiere in Toronto earlier month at the CaribbeanTales 2011 Film Showcase. It will have its Caribbean premiere tonight, at the Olympus Cinemas in Barbados.

Diaspora tourism significant to Caribbean tourism

By RON FANFAIR

(Reprinted from Share Newspaper. Photo by Bevan Springer)

The results of groundbreaking research on Diaspora tourism and the significant economic power it wields have been made into a documentary that had its world premier screening last week at the opening night of the sixth annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival at Harbourfront Centre.

Forward Home sheds light on the conclusions of a two-year project by economist Dr. Keith Nurse and other University of the West Indies professors who studied four Caribbean countries and overseas communities in which there are large concentrations of nationals from those countries.

The links were Guyana and Toronto, Jamaica and London, the Dominican Republic and New York and Suriname and The Netherland Antilles.

The research project title was Strategic Opportunities in Caribbean Migration.

"We now have empirical data to back up what we have always known anecdotally and that is Diaspora tourism is a significant component of Caribbean tourism," said England-born and Trinidad & Tobago-raised Nurse who is the 40-minute documentary executive producer. "In addition to looking at the impact of the Diaspora community on tourism in the region and the brain drain, we also looked at how people have been utilizing the movement of Caribbean professionals to advance the transfer of knowledge and the growth of intellectual property as a provision of services.

"In effect, the purpose of the research was to look at the relationship between global cities and Caribbean economies. What we found was that the Diaspora tourism economy is multi-faceted in that people come for educational, medical, festival and heritage events and not just leisure. The Diaspora tourism is not a monolithic construct and it also links into other key sectors like telecommunications, travel, shipping, media and a range of other key sectors which we found were critical for the development of economies in the Caribbean.

"Coming out of the research, we are trying to emphasize that there are investments that entrepreneurs are engaged in both in the Diaspora and back home to facilitate this trade and what we need to be doing is strategically looking at how we can expand this trade."

The Ottawa-based International Development Research Centre funded the research project and collaborated with the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Law, Policy and Services at the UWI Cave Hill campus in Barbados to commission the film.

The findings of the study will also appear in the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.

"We are gratified by the relationship we have had with Canada in this process and it is for that reason that we are here to launch the documentary," said Nurse who is the Shridath Ramphal Centre director and chair of Caribbean Tales Worldwide Distribution (CWTD) that aims to match content with buyers.

Nurse, who graduated with his first degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1986, said there is a plethora of Caribbean stories and a burgeoning regional audiovisual sector.

"It's however one thing to tell a story and quite another to actually produce the content," he said. "That's why this distributing mechanism is essential in that it will help to get that content monetized and into the market spaces. That is what we have been missing...We need to create more market-ready content. There is a traditional notion that if you produce good content, the market will come to it.

"We are flipping the framework and saying let's figure out what is the market first and then we could go ahead and create content that can be directed at that particular market. Most of the regional filmmakers are floundering largely because their product is not formatted in the right way for the specific market. The broadcast, academic and mobile markets all have very targeted requirements and so if you produce first without understanding what the market needs are, your product will most likely not get picked up."

CWTD produced the Toronto Film Showcase & Market Access program that runs alongside the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which ends on Saturday. The event showcases the creativity of Caribbean filmmakers at a major film festival and connects them with industry specialists, potential partners, funders and business strategists in an intensive three-day training program.

Forward Home is distributed by CaribbeanTales World Wide Distribution. Buy a copy now for your school or institution. Includes Shipping and Handling to the US/Canada.

Special honour for TIFF co-director, Cameron Bailey

By RON FANFAIR

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) co-director Cameron Bailey said the four years he spent growing up as a young lad with his grandparents in Barbados shaped his life.

In his acceptance speech last week at the opening of the sixth annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival showcase that honoured him for his dedication and contribution to the Caribbean film industry, the British-born film curator and media personality noted the lessons he learned in the Caribbean country serve him well in his artistic endeavours.

"I attended a small one-room school in St. James where we used little slates that resemble iPad tablets," he recalled. "I learned respect, old-fashioned values and diligence and I also learned how to do things in an unconventional way because you have to in the Caribbean. But the most important thing I learned was the value of Diaspora and how to live that.

"When I go to Barbados' east coast which is the most powerful part of the island for me, I look out to the sea and I feel as if there is nothing that separates me from Africa. I feel as if I could commune with that continent even though I am not physically there. I also feel like what we have in Barbados and the Caribbean is a connection to Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America because those are all a part of what makes us and we can take from them.

"We own those things. Lots have been taken from us, but I feel that now is the time we can take from all the different things that led into our tradition and heritage. When I travel around the world representing TIFF, I carry all of that with me - that sense of working hard, unconventionality, of being part of the entire world and owning the traditions and cultures of the world because they float through me in one way or another."

Bailey accepted the honour from entrepreneur and community activist Denham Jolly.

"This is overwhelming and a great honour," said Bailey who founded the Planet Africa section of TIFF which lasted nine years until 2004 and headed the Perspective Canada Series before being appointed a festival co-director in January 2008. "We have our little festival (TIFF) starting tomorrow night, but there is no place I would rather be tonight than right here."

A 1987 University of Western Ontario honours graduate, Bailey was Canada's first Black film critic. He co-hosted The Showcase Revue, co-founded the Black Film & Video Network and completed his first screenplay, The Planet of Junior Brown, which was named Best Picture at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival in New York. It was also nominated for a Best Screenplay Gemini award.
Bailey was a member of the city's blue ribbon panel assembled earlier this year to update Toronto's official culture plan. He also co-chaired Toronto's Civic Action Arts & Culture Working Group and represented TIFF last April at the inaugural Beijing International Film Festival where he met leaders in China's film industry.

"It's important that we celebrate and honour our own, especially those who represent us on the world stage," said Caribbean Tales Worldwide Distribution chief executive officer Frances-Anne Solomon.

"Cameron was the first to bring an intelligent, diversity-focused perspective to film criticism and appreciation here in Canada and further afield. He has consistently articulated the perspectives of people of colour around the world and has given us a voice in the mainstream of global society."
The Trinidad & Tobago Consulate in Toronto hosted the opening night of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival showcase during which Bailey was honoured.

High Commissioner Philip Buxo congratulated Bailey, adding that the diplomatic mission in the city is honoured to support an event that provides international exposure to the region's talented film industry and promote the Caribbean as an ideal production location.

"The Trinidad & Tobago government shares these goals as we have identified the film industry as one of the sectors to develop and diversify our economy through attracting international productions and generating local employment," Buxo said.

T & T recently launched a competitive incentive program that provides cash rebates of up to 30 per cent for expenditures accrued while filming in the twin-island republic.

TONIGHT SEPT 16th, 6pm @CARIBBEANTALES

THE SKIN: VIP Reception & Red Carpet Launch.

"The Skin is based on stories I heard as a child and in my research to write the screenplay, I discovered that the soucouyant  can be traced back to Greek Mythology.  Most likely it came to the Caribbean through Europe and not Africa as many would believe" Howard Allen, filmmaker.

The Skin screens tonight Friday 16th after a Red Carpet reception @ Harbourfront Centre

Howard and Mitzi Allen, the filmmaking duo behind  Antiguan mythological thriller THE SKIN, speaking to the media in Toronto earlier this week.

TOMORROW SEPT 17th -SCHEDULE

11 am : Enjoy a carnival workshop with Christopher Pinheiro followed by the screening of the film Calypso Dreams. "Calypso Dreams is far and away the best film ever made about Calypso." FREE

2pm :  10 years of Animae Caribe: Camille Selvon Abrahams presents 10 years of Caribbean Animation - $12

5pm : Mas Man - Portrait of Carnival Artist Peter Minshall - The Director's Cut / and the short films ASE by Nicole Brooks and  Redemption by Sean Michael Field - $12

7.30pm : In Conversation with Ian Harnarine - filmmaker of  "Doubles WIth Slight Pepper", and the feature film Fire In Babylon - They brought the world to its knees, and a nation to its feet, witness the breathtaking story of the West Indies cricket team of the '70s and '80s.