Beneath Us is a cautionary tale of what can happen when migrants looking for a better life are vilified and forced to live in an “underground” economy. People need to feel what it’s like working in a factory, lost in a life of debt and poverty, making the things we touch and wear everyday. This is the disconnect I’ve been trying to bridge with my films, first by being the second generation immigrant bringing viewers to back to my mother’s home country as I did in My Cultural Divide (2006), and now bringing the factory literally into our backyard. Do we choose to treat factory workers differently because they live a world away? Or is it that we don’t care where things come from at all, as long as they are cheap and plentiful?

I want to bring this dystopian but all too real world to screen, and fill it with believable characters with relatable human dreams and faults. Sometimes a fiction film is capable of allowing an audience to experience the reality of something better than a documentary, and this is what I hope to do with Beneath Us. The factory in the short may not exist within the borders of the United States or Canada, but the result is the same – workers are exploited and then ignored by the people who gladly buy the things they make.

OAC is only supplying some of the funding so our team will be reaching out to the community to try to finance the rest of the budget. Contact us through this website, and we’ll definitely keep you up to date when we start our crowdfunding campaign.

The Jungle Book

My short film Mr. Crab is playing with The Jungle Book outdoors in Regent Park! When I was in college a Russian man on a bus once pointed at me excited and said “Mowgli! Mowgli!” When I realized what he was saying I was offended at the possible racism but then took it as a compliment. Because apparently Russians love the Jungle Book and I may have been the first Indian boy he had ever seen. I guess? Anyhow my friends then often referred to me as Mowgli ironically after this. Having my film with a young Indian Caribbean boy and an animated crab play with the new adaptation of The Jungle Book might be the best thing ever.

Free Screening August 3rd 7pm. Regent Park Boulevard, outside Daniels Spectrum.

Thanks to Caribbean Tales and The Regent Park Film Festival.

From the Facebook event page:

Did you miss The Jungle Book in theatres this year? Or love it so much that you can’t wait to see it again? Come out to the Big Park for a free screening of the 2016 hit The Jungle Book!

Watch the trailer here: http://regentparkfilmfestival.com/events/event/under-the-stars-the-jungle-book/

Make sure to come out at 7pm for the pre-show for lots of family friendly acivities! The movie will start at 9pm!

The Movie and pre-show activities are FREE!

Co-presented with CaribbeanTales International Film Festival. CTFF will be presenting the short film Mr Crab, directed by Faisal Lutchmedial, prior to the feature film. We know you’ll be moved by the story of a young boy who uses his vivid imagination to escape the realities of family life.

Music and dance workshops provided by UforChange!
Enjoy delicious food for sale at Taste of Regent Park from 5-8:30!

ArtHeart will be doing face paint – so come ready with your favourite animal!

Keeping with the Jungle Book theme The Children’s Book Bank Canada will attendance with books for kids. We will a donations bin set up so if you would like to donate bring out any lightly used children’s books that you may have.

Daniels Spectrum Summer Series is produced by Artscape in collaboration with our 2016 program partners and is made possible thanks to the generous support of two anonymous donors.

The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is showing Mr. Crab at the Caribbean Shorts program on the 31st of August, 2013. Show is at 2pm and is free with a $2 festival membership. SFU Harbour Center (HARB)

Other shorts in the program are The Chiney Shop by Jeanette Kong, Achantè by Emily McMehen, 4am by Janine Fung, and Doubles with Slight Pepper by Ian Harnarine.

Website: http://www.vlaff.org/content/caribbean-shorts

Mr. Crab (https://lutchmedial.ca/wp/mr-crab/) will be shown as a the short film before “Boy” at the Shadow Box cinema in London November 27th, 2012. https://www.wegottickets.com/event/189274 Tickets are sold out apparently, probably because a glass of wine and popcorn comes included – or perhaps because of the quality of the movies being presented. We’ll believe the latter. Haven’t seen “Boy” yet, but it’s from director Taika Waititi, who did “Eagle vs. Shark”, and some episodes of “Flight of the Concords” which are both hilarious.

Here’s the info on BOY:

The year is 1984, and on the rural East Coast of New Zealand “Thriller” is changing kids’ lives. Inspired by the Oscar nominated Two Cars, One Night, BOY is the hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic and Michael Jackson.

BOY is a dreamer who loves Michael Jackson.  He lives with his brother ROCKY, a tribe of deserted cousins and his Nan.

Boy’s other hero, his father, ALAMEIN, is the subject of Boy’s fantasies, and he imagines him as a deep sea diver, war hero and a close relation of Michael Jackson (he can even dance like him). In reality he’s “in the can for robbery”.

When Alamein returns home after 7 years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential and learn to get along without the hero he had been hoping for.

http://boythefilm.com

Article in the Trinidad Daily Express newspaper about writer director Faisal Lutchmedial, and his film, Mr. Crab. Text below:

RISING STAR writer-director Faisal Lutchmedial will be visiting for the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, presenting his Trini-themed short film Mr. Crab. The Gondry-esque short follows Rishi, a ten-year-old boy that idolizes and fears his imposing father, who tells him stories about the crystal clear waters of T&T.

Lutchmedial recently was interviewed on the Canadian television show Short Film Face Off, where he was able to present Mr. Crab to a national audience. On the show film critic Mohit Rajhans complimented Mr. Crab, “I love the authenticity of the immigrant household, the beaded drapes, and even the way they spoke made me feel like they were definitely a West Indian family… I do give (Lutchmedial) credit for taking on a story I’ve never seen in a short film before.”

Lutchmedial said about his upcoming trip for the TTFF, “My father is from T&T and most of my work is connected to my South Asian and West Indian heritage so I’m incredibly excited about showing Mr. Crab to a Trinidadian audience. I also have two feature films in development that are Trini themed, so I am hoping to meet people to collaborate with while I am there.”

Lutchmedial was just awarded the top prize of the Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters Program, which was a training program / competition designed to help emerging and mid-level film and television writers develop prime-time television series concepts. The television project Lutchmedial is developing is entitled Welcome to Trinidad. The series is a 1-hour television drama-thriller about half-brothers who fight for control over the family business, a rum distillery that neither of them realize is haunted by dark, murderous spirits. Though winning the competition doesn’t mean the series will be made, it does award Lutchmedial the opportunity to work in the writing room of two existing Canadian series for three months.

Lutchmedial’s previous directing credits include the feature My Cultural Divide, a gripping documentary about sweatshop and child labour in the developing world. His last short film, Useless Things won the Writers Guild of Canada English script prize at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema, and aired on the CBC Anthology program Canadian Reflections last year.

The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival is highlighting films from Canada this year. Director Faisal Lutchmedial will be attending, showing off Mr. Crab and doing a Q&A after one of the screenings. In fact, Mr. Crab has the honour of playing five times throughout the 2 week long event!

To check out the schedule: http://www.ttfilmfestival.com/2012/09/canada-focus/

Mr. Crab’s showtimes in Trinidad are now published on the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival website. Director Faisal Lutchmedial will be attending the last three screenings (on the 29th and then the two on the 30th), with a Q&A on the 30th! Please come and support diverse cinema and caribbean stories.

The TTFF2012 runs between the 19th of September and 2nd of October. It is the largest event of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, continues to evolve and expand in celebrating expression and empowerment through film. The Festival screens the best films from from Trinidad+Tobago and the Caribbean, the Caribbean Diaspora, and Latin American countries in the Caribbean Basin. The ttff also seeks to facilitate the growth of the Caribbean film industry by hosting workshops, panel discussions, seminars, conferences and networking opportunities.

Wed 19 Sept, 3.30pm, MovieTowne POS
Sat 22 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS
Tue 25 Sept, 7.00pm, Mayaro
Sat 29 Sept, 3.00pm, MovieTowne Tobago
Sun 30 Sept, 11.00am, MovieTowne POS
Sun 30 Sept, 6.00pm, MovieTowne POS, Q&A

http://www.ttfilmfestival.com/film-synopsis/mr-crab/

Sound recordist / sound editor of Mr. Crab Emory Murchison fuels up during the shoot.

Mr. Crab will be visiting London for the Caribbean Film Corner which runs alongside the Portobello Film Festival in London. It’s playing on the 6th of September, and tickets are FREE. As it says on the site, seats will go faster than Bolt in the 100m final.

http://www.caribbeanfilmcorner.com/#!films

Reserve your seating now, just put in the date (6th) and select # of seats: The Tabernacle, 35 Powis Square, W11 2AY. http://caribbeanfilmcorner2012-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=1

The program is very strong, with great shorts like Pothound and Fish, both great T&T films that have to be seen. You should also check out Hand Full of Dirt if you haven’t yet, made by Barbadian filmmaker Russell Watson and starring Alwin Bully.

Mr. Crab is coming to Toronto, playing in the short film series of Caribbean Tales Toronto. This festival is a great showcase of Caribbean themed films, and draws a big audience, so we are thrilled to have it be part of the program. The festival takes place alongside the Toronto International Film Festival, so there is already a lot of film buzz going on in the city, which makes it a great time to highlight caribbean cinema. The show will be on Saturday the 15th of September at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and we’ll post the timing when we know it.

Director Faisal Lutchmedial will be attending if schedule permits to be part of a panel.

On set of Mr. Crab, with Vian Persad in the sights

Hot on the heels of our CBC Television screening in Canada, Mr. Crab has been accepted to play in competition at the Budapest Short Film Festival – BuSho. It’s a great honour as only 86 shorts were programmed from almost two thousand entries.

We are also very happy to be one of only four films chosen from Canada. The 8th annual festival runs from September 4-9, and we’ll post details on the screening times when it’s available. For now you can take a look at the list of competing films from around the world here: http://busho.hu/assets/files/hirlev/busho_competition_2012.pdf