Discover Trinidad & Tobago 2016 — 25th Anniversary Edition

Film & cinema
Did you know?
Screen time
Film is a growing industry here, with several
incentive and rebate programmes designed
to encourage local and foreign producers to
film on location in T&T. Several film-makers
of Trinbagonian heritage are producing and
showcasing their works internationally; many
are screened at the annual Trinidad & Tobago
Film Festival (see our Festivals section).
The UWI Campus Film Classics and European
Film Festivals host special screenings of
regional and foreign indie films. Mainstream
box office hits are typically screened at
multiplexes — MovieTowne (Port of Spain
and Chaguanas); Caribbean Cinemas
8 (Trincity and San Fernando) — and
the Digicel Imax in Port of Spain. Some older
venues still show the traditional “double feature”, with two films on one ticket.
Long before Sam Mendes and
Steve McQueen (both British
directors of Trinidadian descent)
won Oscars for American Beauty
and 12 Years a Slave, Scottish
engineer John Logie Baird is said
to have produced the world’s first
television set on a cocoa estate
in Santa Cruz around 1920.
Visual arts
The seven galleries of the National Museum
house some of the country’s best artwork
(see our Touring & Sightseeing section). Art
exhibitions take place year-round, especially
at spaces like 101 Art Gallery, Fine Art, Horizons,
Medulla, Softbox Studios, and Studio
66, as well as the unique Alice Yard exhibition
and artist residency/facilitation space.
The Art Society of Trinidad & Tobago hosts
exhibitions as well as sessions ranging from
life drawing to ethics in art (artsocietytt.org).
For more, visit our website.
Literature & books
The island has produced some stellar writers
over the generations, including Nobel laureate
VS Naipaul, and several award-winning
writers who have published internationally.
Their work spans fiction, plays and poetry to
local history, culture and the environment.
Book launches, readings and lectures take
place at the National Library, UWI, the University
of Trinidad & Tobago, the National
Museum, at bookstores, and during the
Bocas Lit Fest (see our Festivals section).
Paper Based at the Hotel Normandie in St
Ann’s is a treasure trove for local publishing;
the RIK and Nigel R Khan bookstore chains
are also good bets.
25 yearS of publishing
This year, Discover’s publishers — MEP — also celebrate 25 years of publishing,
a landmark event in the local industry. MEP is best known for high quality culture,
business and tourism magazines like Discover and Caribbean Beat, as well
as a range of biography, natural history, art, and current affairs titles through
book imprint Prospect Press. The Press’s most recent titles include collections
by Dana Seetahal (Unbroken) and Martin Daly (The Daly Commentaries).
meppublishers.com
discovertnt.com
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