The programme is an intense two week training with a focus on:

  • Visual storytelling,
  • Producing
  • The art of Fixing
  • The Location Whisperer
  • Production design concept, tone and texture
  • Guerrilla Cinematography- Making available equipment work for you [practical]
  • Directing with purpose   [practical]

The following are encouraged to apply:

  • Working writers, producers, directors and  production crew based in Trinidad and Tobago
  • First ADs
  • Gaffers
  • Script Supervisors
  • Camera Operators
  • Focus Pullers
  • Non-Linear Editors
  • Sound Recordists
  • Production Designers

About James Amuta

James Amuta is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and cinematographer. His critically acclaimed documentary film, Nightfall in Lagos won the “Best Documentary by an African” award at TINFF, Toronto and was also nominated for “Best Documentary” at the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards. His screenplay for the AFRIFF 2021 Closing Film, Collision Course, earned him an Africa Movie Academy Award for Prize for Achievement in Screenplay. The poet-turned-filmmaker is the author of Enigma: Beyond the Poet, a collection of 84 poems published in 2007, which included critically acclaimed poems which have featured in international poetry anthologies and publications in the USA and the United Kingdom.

Self-described as a guerrilla filmmaker, James Amuta has climbed almost 20,000 feet to reach the summit of Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, to produce, direct and photograph a documentary film to help draw attention to the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), especially woman and children displaced by the activities of Boko Haram, in Nigeria.

As a writer, he’s served as writer and publicist for hit international TV shows including Dragons Den, Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old, 100% Naja on Channel O, Koko Mansion, and The Apprentice Africa.

As a documentary filmmaker, he has written, produced, and directed infomercials and short documentaries like Project Hope and Comfort (for Cross River State Government); Enterprise Challenge 100 (for the centennial anniversary of IBM); Ofala (2019); and the European Brands Motor Show (for Porsche Center Lagos and Stallion Motors). No stranger to fictional drama, James Amuta served as producer on the critically acclaimed Netflix Original film, Oloture and the Netflix Film Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman based on the play Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka.

He also wrote and served as producer on the multiple AMAA award-winning film, Collision Course. He also wrote and directed the yet-to-be-released drama, BiCuriousity based on a screenplay that was an Official Selection at the Vail Screenplay Contest organized by the Colorado Film Institute. James Amuta is a consummate storyteller and adventurer, carving a niche for himself in the industry as bold, unapologetic voice dedicated to using film as a medium to address brave and daring subjects and social issues.