More Than A Literary Festival

Applications invited for film criticism workshop

The Bocas Lit Fest, in partnership with the British Council and the Film Programme at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, is pleased to announce and invite applications for a film criticism workshop aimed at arts writers and culture journalists.

What and why

Running from 9 to 11 March, 2017, and based at UWI’s St. Augustine campus, the workshop will bring together up to twelve arts writers for three days of intensive, hands-on training in writing about film. The aim is to help arts writers improve the quality of their reviewing and other coverage, and contribute to enhanced attention to contemporary Caribbean film in the media.

The workshop curriculum will cover key issues in film criticism, including:

• a brief history of the medium and its terminology
• expertise in film, and how to acquire it
• subjectivity vs. objectivity; opinions vs. fact
• responsibilities to the filmmaker
• responsibilities to the audience
• ethical and legal issues
• when critics get criticised
• the role of reviewing in the cultural ecosystem

The workshop will be led by Jason Solomons, independent film critic based in London. Solomons is a regular critic on BBC News, Sky News, and BBC Radio and is the former Chairman of the London Film Critics’ Circle. His book Woody Allen: Film by Film was published in 2015. His latest film and documentary reviews and interviews can be found on his website, www.jasonsolomons.com.

Who

Prospective participants should be early- or mid-career arts writers with a track record of writing on film or an interest in the artform. Preference will be given to writers who contribute regularly to established media, whether newspapers, local or regional magazines, or websites. Participants must be able to attend the full three days of the workshop.

There is a participation fee of TT$600 for each participant.

To be considered for this workshop, please send us a letter of motivation including the following:

• Name and contact information: email address and telephone number
• Outline of your existing arts writing experience, including institutional affiliation if any
• What you find most rewarding and most challenging in your work as an arts writer or culture journalist
• What you hope to achieve from participating in the workshop and how you expect to put any new skills to immediate use

Please also send a copy of your CV (no more than one page) and a list of recent relevant published work (eg. reviews, profiles and features, interviews) with links to work published online, or one or two writing samples as attachments.

The deadline for submitting application materials is 20 February, 2017, and selected participants will be notified by 28 February. Applications should be submitted via email to [email protected] with the subject line “Application: film criticism workshop”.

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About the workshop partners

The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. We are a Royal Charter charity, established as the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.

Based in Trinidad and Tobago, the Bocas Lit Fest is a not-for profit organisation working to develop the Caribbean literary sector. We produce the annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the Anglophone Caribbean’s biggest literary festival, each April in Port of Spain, with additional annual festivals in South Trinidad and Tobago. Bocas also administers several regional literary awards, and runs year-round programmes in writer and reader development, as well as promoting Caribbean writers and books at international events.

The Film Programme in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at UWI, St. Augustine, is designed to teach potential filmmakers the technical skills of production at the very highest level, and to ensure that these filmmakers understand the theoretical and aesthetic principles of film. The programme is also designed to teach high-level analytical and critical skills, so that future filmmakers may assess their own work and the work of other filmmakers.

Download the call for applications as a PDF here.

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