Bamsees, Boats + Bazodee: Highlights From the Trinidad + Tobago Film Festival

September 29, 2015


Paradise Lost
Our Soul Turned Inside Out
(Trinidad & Tobago)

ttff15_short and medium 4_paradise lost

These two documentaries offer different insights into the event around which Trinidad’s calendar ticks: Carnival. “Masman” Peter Minshall is said to have revolutionized Carnival in 1976, when he designed a procession inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost that was staged in four movements like a symphony. Christopher Laird’s Paradise Lost is essentially Minshall retelling that story, as he’s shown newly unearthed footage of the procession for the first time. Bare-bones stuff, but Minshall is a highly evocative storyteller. Mary Ann Brailey and Kim Johnson’s Our Soul Turned Inside Out, on the other hand, speaks to the dark history that inspired three of the best-known Carnival characters.