Portfolio
Garvey’s Ghost
Canada | 2024 | Drama Series | Frances-Anne Solomon | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Denham, a fresh-faced student from Jamaica, arrives in Toronto. Wide-eyed and unsure, he is directed to seek shelter at Miss Violet William’s rooming house. There, he finds community around her kitchen table and at the UNIA Community Center. He also finds a mentor in Miss Violet, an iconic powerhouse activist with a secret soft side. Denham observes her as she goes through various devastating trials and struggles to fill the shoes of her idol, Marcus Garvey. Simultaneously, he goes through his own transformation as he transitions from naive teenager to an advocate for the Canadian Black Community.
While Denham goes through his metamorphosis, Miss Violet undergoes her own personal shift when she begins a personal relationship with famed Black leader, Marcus Garvey! Well, his ghost at least. Through his insightful teachings and their often hilarious banter, she learns to navigate the struggle-ridden world of 1950’s Canada, and steps into her own power. With the help of Denham, her loyal comrade Harry, and the rest of the characters; she plots to purchase a building and create a new home for the UNIA community center. Through the power of collective action and an assortment of side hustles, they are able to achieve this goal and she sets a new self-determined path for the UNIA.
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Steph Tablizo, Dahlia Fernandes, Daisy Komunjuni
Cinematography by: Raymond Tuquero, Emily Zhang
Designed by: Annette Wanjriu
Edited by: Charles Ross
Hero: The Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross
Canada/Trinidad & Tobago | 2018 | Feature Film | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: In 1941 Ulric Cross, a young man from Trinidad, leaves his island home to seek his fortune. He survives the War as the RAF’s most decorated West Indian. Then, his life takes another course, and he becomes part of the movement of history. Cross’ long life spanned key moments of the 20th Century, including independence in Africa and the Caribbean. The film is not just about his life, but about the dynamic and transformative times in which he lived. It is the hitherto untold story of those Caribbean professionals who helped to liberate Africa from colonialism. Drawing on events of his life, the film recreates the inner journey of a Caribbean hero. Ultimately, it is about us, about who we are as Caribbean people, and citizens of the world.
Starring: Nickolai Salcedo, Peter Williams, Joseph Marcell, John Dumelo, Pippa Nixon, Eric Kofi-Abrefa, Fraser James, Jimmy Akingbola, Adjety Anang, OC Ukeje
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Akley Olton, Nickolai Salcedo
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Lisa Wickham
Cop Killers
Canada | 2016 | Feature Film | Writer, Director, Producer
Synopsis: Telefilm Canada is backing the development of Cop Killers, the latest feature from Leda Serene Films and Frances-Anne Solomon (Lord Have Mercy!). Valerie Buhagiar (Three and a Half) and Gail Maurice are set to star as Rose Cece and Mary Taylor, two homeless women who made headlines when they killed a Toronto police officer in 1998. The three are writing a fictional story about the events leading up to the murder. Leoni Forbes also writes and stars as a social worker.
Starring: Valerie Buhagiar, Gail Maurice, Leoni Forbes
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Leoni Forbes & Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Kingston Paradise
Jamaica | 2013 | Drama| Producer | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: In an off-beat nuanced film, Rocksy, a small-time hustler, journeys into chaos to steal a car while his lady friend Rosie hangs a watercolor painting in their modest room and dreams of peace. The fight to survive their broken dreams and aspirations forces them to commit a crime that changes their lives forever. Shot on the streets of Kingston where poverty, beauty and desperation collide, this Jamaican story transcends its Island locale to become a universal story of people whose poverty seems to trap them in a life where reckless acts appear the only road to an elusive better life.
Starring: Christopher Daley, Camille Small, Greggory Nelson
Directed by: Mary Wells
Written by: Mary Wells
Produced by Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards:
2014 AMAA Best Film by an African Filmmaker in Diapsora Award at the African Movie Academy Awards
2014 Festival Programmer’s Award for Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival
Break Out
Canada/Trinidad & Tobago | 2015 | Short Film | Director, Writer, Producer
Synopsis: 14-year-old Varia and her side-kick Audrey (who they call “Mice”) break out of a girl’s home in Belmont, and set off on a road trip to find their friend Pinkie in a village with a pretty name, Rampanalgas, on the North Coast. Along the way, the boisterous vulnerable pair encounter life-changing adventures and mishaps, that challenge their perceptions and resources. Break Out is a road movie that explores the stunning diversity and physical beauty, urban and rural, of Trinidad and Tobago, and the equally harsh and devastating inner terrain of its young characters’ lives.
Starring: Eugenia Lemo, Muhammad Muwakil, Rhoma Spence
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Oonya Kempadoo & Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon and Lisa Wickham
Human Traffic
USA | 2012 | Documentary | Watch On CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: This documentary records the themes and outcomes of a Conference on Human Trafficking hosted by Duke University, October 11-13 2011. An intimate weekend of discussion and presentation that aimed to tease out some of the themes as well as the fallacies and myths that afflict this troubling phenomenon. Produced by the Center for African and African American Research at Duke University.
Presenters include: Siddharth Kara, Robert Bach, Gunther Peck, Cindy Hahamovitch, Jacqueline Bhabha
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon, J. Lorand Matory, Michaeline A. Critchlow
A Winter Tale
Canada | 2007 | Drama | Director | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: A Winter Tale tells the story of a Black men’s support group that begins to meet at a Caribbean Takeaway restaurant in the aftermath of the shooting death of a local child. It was developed through a collaborative improvisational process with the cast, who were drawn from Toronto’s Caribbean and multicultural communities.
Starring: Peter Williams, Leonie Forbes, Michael Miller, Valerie Buhagiar, Lucky Ejim, Ryan Glascow, Peter Bailey, Nicole Stamp, Ryan Ishmael, Bobby Del Rio
Directed by Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by Frances-Anne Solomon, Michele Lonsdale-Smith
Produced by Frances-Anne Solomon, Susan Fueg, Michele Lonsdale Smith
Awards: 2007 Tonya Lee Williams Award for Outstanding Canadian Feature at the Reelworld Film Festival
2007 Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival
2008 Award for Best Foreign Film at the San Diego Black Film Festival
2008 Remi Award – Best Editing Worldfest Houston Int Film Festival
2008 Zuma Film Festival Nigeria: Award for Best Editor & Award for Best Cinematographer
Ousmane Sembene Award for Best Foreign Film
2008 Festival of Black International Cinema Berlin – Best Film.
Heartbeat
Canada | 2007 | Documentary Series | Director, Writer, Producer | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Heart Beat is a 13xhalf hour documentary series that profiles Canadian-Caribbean musicians and explores the hearts, minds, and worlds of some of Canada’s most dynamic musical creators.
Starring: Bernie Pitter, Jason Wilson, Drew Gonsalves
Directed by: Lana Lovell (2 episodes, 2007-2008), Alberto Suarez (2 episodes, 2007-2008), Safiya Randera (2 episodes, 2007), Mars Horodyski (2 episodes, 2008), Justin Lovell (1 episode, 2008), Rany Ly, (1 episode, 2008), Paul Nguyen (1 episode, 2008), Frances-Anne Solomon (1 episode, 2008), Andrea Stewart (1 episode, 2008), Elspeth Duncan
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Susan Fueg
Awards: Best Canadian Feature
Literature Alive
Canada | 2005 | Documentary | TV Series Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Literature Alive is a multi-faceted educational project, produced by Toronto-based multimedia company CaribbeanTales and sister company Leda Serene Films, that explores the work of Caribbean-Canadian authors. It comprises a documentary series (commissioned for Bravo! Canada, and first broadcast in October 2005); a series of audio books; a website and a radio series for the CBC.Literature Alive! Second Life is a program in the multi-user virtual environment Second Life used to disseminate instruction in the humanities in a 3D Environment.
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Regan Macaulay, Ngardy Conteh, Judy Singh, Lana Lovell, Eugene Paramoer, Tumelo Phadi, Jay Prychidny
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Regan Macaulay, Leonie Forbes, Christopher Laird
Lord Have Mercy
Canada | 2003 | Comedy | Director, Writer, Producer | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Lord Have Mercy! features up-and-coming Canadian actor Arnold Pinnock as Youth Pastor Dwight Gooding. An ambitious but socially inept young minister who plans to make big changes at Mt. Zion, a church in the heart of Toronto’s Caribbean community. But he must compete with the charismatic and easy-going Pastor Cuthbert Stevens (played by popular Trinidadian comic Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall) for the loyalty and attention of the eccentric church crew.
Starring: Arnold Pinnock , Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall, Leonie Forbes Shawn Singleton, d’bi Young, Gary Farmer, Russell Peters, Louis Negin
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Vance Chapman, Ngozi Paul, Shernold Edwards
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon, Claire Prieto
Awards: Gemini Awards – Best Comedy Program or Series, Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series
Speak Like a Child
Canada | 1998 | Drama | Producer
Synopsis: A married couple meets up with an old friend. It is revealed that the three had become close friends at a home for children. Flashbacks develops their relationship and their sharing of everything. It is revealed that the single man wants the couple to move in with him. The woman, who is pregnant, reveals she is ready to dump her husband and begin a relationship with the other man. But all are bothered by some distant past secret.
Starring: Cal MacAninch, Richard Mylan, Rachel Fielding, Daniel Newman, Fraser Ayres, Alison Mac, Carla Henry, Gavin Green, Emma Armitage, Tim Bird, Dawn Fletcher, Adam Moran, Adam Pearson, Adam Pearson, Tracy Emmerton, Katie Clibbon, Ian Reddington, Serena Gordon, Janine Birkett, Helen Lederer, Shelley O’Brieny, William Ulstein, Simon Humphrey
Directed by: John Akomfrah
Written by: Danny Padmore
Produced by: Lazell Daley, Ben Gibson, Fiona Morham, Frances-Anne Solomon
Love is the Devil
UK/USA/France/Japan | 1998 | Drama
Synopsis: A biography of painter Francis Bacon (Jacobi), it concentrates on his strained relationship with George Dyer (Craig), a small-time thief. The film draws heavily on the authorised biography of Bacon, The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon by Daniel Farson, and is dedicated to him.
Starring: Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Anne Lambton, Karl Johnson, Annabel Brooks, Adrian Scarborough, Tilda Swinton Directed by: John Maybury
Written by: John Maybury
Produced by: Takashi Asai, Ben Gibson, Patrice Haddad, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, Chiara Menage, Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards: Best New British Feature (director John Maybury) and two Best British Performance awards at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Art Fiction: Best Direction & Art Fiction: Best Cinematography at Art Film Festival, Best Actor at Evening Standard British Film Awards, Best Cinematography at Fantasporto
Sixth Happiness
UK | 1997 | Drama
Synopsis: Sixth Happiness is about Brit, a boy born with brittle bones who never grows taller than four feet, and his sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him. It is also about the Parsi or Parsees – descendants of the Persian empire who were driven out of Persia by an Islamic invasion more than a thousand years ago and settled in western India. Parsees had a close relationship with the British during the years of the Raj. Brit is named by his mother, both after his brittle bones, and in tribute to his mother’s love of Britain.
Starring: Firdaus Kanga,Souad Faress, Khodus Wadia, Nina Wadia , Ahsen Bhatti, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Nisha K. Nayar, Indira Varma, Pratima Kazmi
Directed by: Warris Hussein
Written by: Firdaus Kanga
Produced by: Tatiana Kennedy
Peggy Su!
UK | 1997 | Comedy/Romance | Director | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: This romantic comedy set in Liverpool in 1962, is about the Chinese community there and 19-year-old Peggy who lives above a family laundry business with her brother and his wife. It centers on Peggy played by Pamela Oei, her attempts to find a husband and also her coping with the changing times in the early 1960s.
Starring: Jonathan Arun, Ifec Mah, Daphne Cheung, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Glen Goei, Burt Kwouk, Pamela Oei, Charles T.H. Ong, Adrian Pang, Vincenzo Pellegrino, Stuart Richma, Sukie Smith, Daniel York, Barbara Yu Ling
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Kevin Wong
Produced by: George Faber, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, Colin Rogers, Poonam Sharma
Awards: RTS Television Award & BAFTA winner for best Costume Design by Joey Attawia.
White Men Are Cracking Up
United Kingdom | 1996 | Short Film
Synopsis: Ngozi Onwurah’s White Men Are Cracking Up uses a murder mystery to explore the legacies of British colonialism and the exoticization of Black women.
Starring: Jon Finch, Theo Omambala
Directed by: Ngozi Onwurah
Written by: Kumari Salgado
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon
What My Mother Told Me
UK | 1995 | Drama | Director | Producer | Watch On CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Exquisitely beautiful and profoundly moving, What My Mother Told Me is a dramatic journey towards self discovery. The story focuses on Jesse, a young woman from England, who goes to Trinidad to bury her father. Reluctantly she agrees to meet her mother, whom she thought had abandoned her when she was a child. Her mother tells her stories, revealing a troubled and violent marriage, and Jesse is forced to face the truth about her past.
Starring: Adjoa Andoh, Leonie Forbes, Clarence Smith, Nadine Williams
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Adjoa Andoh, Leonie Forbes, Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Eka Nowakowska, Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards: Best Film or Video Depicting the Black Experience – Berlin Black Internatonal Cinema Festival, Producer’s Award – Women of The Sun, US
Bideshi
UK | 1995 | Drama
Synopsis: Days before his death, a Bengali man has a prophetic dream about his journey towards enlightenment.
Starring: Ronny Jhutti, Archie Panjabi, Roshan Seth, Yasmin Sidhwa, Badi Uzzaman
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Tanika Gupta
Produced by: George Faber, Penny Gold, Ingrid Lewis, Simon Onwurah, Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards: Best Short Film – Bombay Film Festival
Flight
UK | 1995 | Thriller
Synopsis: Young Hindu girl, living in England, flees to London to escape the wrath of her father after her romance with a Muslim boy has come out. There she discovers what it means to be free.
Starring: Mina Anwar, Kulvinder Ghir, Ravi Kapoor
Directed by: Alex Pillai
Written by: Tanika Gupta
Produced by: Peter Jaques, Behroze Gandhy
Executive Producer: Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards:
1998 Silver FIPA Award at the Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming
1998 Best Actor Awards at the Sochi International Film Festival
Siren Spirits
UK | 1994 | Drama
Synopsis: “Siren Spirits” is a wonderful feature comprising four short dramas directed by women of color, produced by Leda Serene for the British Film Institute and BBC Television.
Starring: Margaret Ashley, Susmita Bhattacharya, Saroj Chakravarty, Howard Davis, Jon Finch, Tom Geoghegan, Joan Hooley, Ronny Jhutti, Bernard Lawrence, Rachel Lumberg, Theo Omambala, Archie Panjabi, Theresa Petts, John Rafferty, Jason Rose, Roshan Seth,Yasmin Sidhwa, Nick Simons, Daniel Thorndike, Badi Uzzaman
Directed by: Ngozi Onwurah, Frances-Anne Solomon, Dani Williamson, Pratibha Parmar
Written by: Bonnie Greer, Tanika Gupta, Yazmine Judd, Ingrid Lewis, Kumari Salgado, Frances-Anne Solomon
Memsahib Rita
UK | 1994 | Short Film
Synopsis: Using magic realism, Memsahib Rita looks at the physical and emotional violence of racism. Shanti is haunted by both the racist taunts of nationalist white youths and the memory of her white mother.
Starring: Nisha Nayar, Kaleem Janjua, Jayne Boniface
Directed by: Pratibha Parmar
Written by: Kumari Salgado
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Reunion
UK | 1993 | Documentary Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: In 1943 300 middle class “coloured” women from across the West Indies were recruited to the ATS, a branch of the British Army. This documentary documents for the first time the contribution of these women to WW2.
Starring: Adjoa Andoh, Martina Laird
Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Awards: Prized Pieces Award – National Black Programming Consortium, US
Is a Long Memoried Woman
UK | 1990 | Documentary | Writer & Producer | Watch on CaribbeanTales-TV
Synopsis: Adapted from the award-winning book of poems by Guyanese writer Grace Nicholls this extraordinary video chronicles the journey of the unnamed African woman from her homeland to slavery in the Caribbean. It interweaves an original music score and fantastic choreography to tell this evocative first person narrative, which culminates in a personal liberation.
Starring: Adjoa Andoh, Leonie Forbes Directed by: Frances-Anne Solomon
Written by: Ingrid Lewis, Grace Nicholls, Frances-Anne Solomon
Produced by: Ingrid Lewis, Frances-Anne Solomon, Gary Tuck, David Wilkinson
Awards: Gold Award – Television Performing Arts – New York International Film and TV Festival Best Feature – Sony Awards Prix Futura – Best Documentary Feature