Allan Powell's 'Children of the Incursion' now at T&T Film Festival

Allan Powell's documentary film entitled Children of the Incursion has made its way into the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, which will be held this weekend.

Powell is currently in the United States, and, therefore, will not witness his production go on show twice today.

According to Eka Campbell of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Community Film Project, who is the director of the film and one of Powell's mentors, the occasion is a major one.

"The Incursion will have two showings in the Trinidadian film festival on the 21st (today). It's massive because the UWI Community Film Project goes into volatile communities, working with marginalised young men and women. We teach them studio video film structure," she told The Gleaner.

"Powell is not from the Caribbean School of Media and Communications, and he doesn't have big subjects. For a youth like him to get a documentary into the Trinidadian film festival is huge. He is not an [established] filmmaker. He is a youth from Denham Town who did a film project only after three months of training. That is remarkable."

Children of the Incursion, created June of last year, has been having its fair share of success, Campbell has said, even though it has not yet been offered for general viewing to the Jamaican public.

The film depicts children who survived the bloody west Kingston Incursion in 2010, giving gruesome accounts of what transpired when members of the security forces went in with deadly force in search of drug kingpin Christopher Dudus Coke.

"The film was premiered at the Gatffest Film Festival [in Jamaica]. After that, we had some private showings at the US Embassy and at the residence of one of the resident officials of the World Bank. We are getting ready to do a tour with the documentary. We will be going into communities. There is no blood and no guns. Youth get very sad when they watch it. It is almost as if they can't watch it," she said.

jason.cross@gleanerjm.com