SEEKING THE TRUE MEANING OF CARNIVAL

FEATURE

WE CARNIVAL LAUNCH OF THE BANDS 2019

SEEKING THE TRUE MEANING OF CARNIVAL

WORDS | ANTHONY OLDHAM

This year saw Notting Hill Carnival take to the internet with the project Access All Areas. This offered a new type of audio-visual experience interspersed with historical information and interviews with carnival protagonists and pioneers, all of which added important background information and context for the Carnival Arts. The full impact will hopefully gain significance over the coming years, as new generations continue to access the online content.

It has been generally accepted by both the Carnival community and carnival goers alike that the event has suffered from bad press over the years. Indeed, the mainstream media has done much to distort and corrupt the message of what Carnival truly represents, its values, and its cultural meaning. Filmmaker Tony Oldham’s two Carnival

documentaries, A People’s Art and Arts of Conflict, together form a project which seeks to document and find the true nature of Notting Hill Carnival in order to tackle the misconceptions conveyed through the media.

A People’s Art follows Ayesha, a young British woman, in her first experience of mas as she discovers the history and significance of the event. It identifies the media’s negative portrayal of Carnival whilst highlighting the spiritual freedom that it represents. Arts of Conflict is a more sombre film, slower in tone, that focuses on Notting Hill Carnival’s history and its arts. Both films originally formed part of a feature, but were eventually separated into two films with sequences that in part overlap.

Notably, A People’s Art was screened at Trinidad & Tobago’s Film Festival, run by Filmco, on 9 September. It then went on to close the Caribbean Tales International Film Festival in Toronto on 2 October after winning that festival's top accolade, their Caribbean Spirit Award. These 15 year old festivals, the two most important events in Caribbean cinema’s calendar, both almost exclusively screen Caribbean films and have for the first time in their history moved online. 150 free passes to view A People’s Art on the film’s online platform, Vimeo (see link below), have been made available to Soca News on a first come, first served basis. Just enter the code ‘SocaNews’ to access the film.

To get your free access visit vimeo.com/ondemand/apeoplesart.

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