Comments from feedback@gayelletv.com:

"Dear Magella,

"Best Wishes to you.  You and Marcia are just fabulous,and Robert and Wayne too.  I will miss you Magella for you are just the most delightful lady on TV anywhere in the world.  You have helped me to accept all people, and what I mean, is how you interact with all people, a beautiful smile, kind words, and that warm handshake that you always bestow upon your guests.  I have watched you now for about two years on a computer screen in a care centre for old people where I work, first with Dennis, and I must say you two were quite the pair on world TV from T&T.

"I will admit Robert is well prepared, but so were you, except the one time when you and Dennis interviewed Miss World 1970 Miss Grenada, Jennifer Hosten, you said, tell us about the book, and Dennis chimed in, yes tell us about the book, we have not read it, anyway, that is one segment of show that I will remember and I remember seeing the look on Jenny's face.  My sister use to live in Grenada next door to the Hostens.  Anyway, Good Luck Magella, will miss you and continue to smile, don't worry about the news, for you are our Queen.  Hi New First Lady Marcia.   Love you all and Happy Emancipation to Trinidad & Tobago the shinning star of the Caribbean, Barbados the other shinning star, Guyana, St. Lucia, oh Grenada and Petit Martinique.

 Love  

 Sandra"

Thanks, Sandra.

It's a surprise Party!

Today was co-host Magella Moreau's final day on Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! Cake and ting!  The final segment of Cock-A-Doodle-Doo was dedicated to a special farewell to "The First Lady of Gayelle" Magella Moreau.

Robert Clarke joined the breakfast panel with host Robert Clarke complete with a special cake as well as a look back at Cock-A-Doodle-Doo clips of Magella in her element. Magella revealed that her  interview with Minister Mariano Brown in 2008 was one of her best interviews on the show with a Government Official. (Minister Brown almost walked off set. Ha!)

Magella also recalled her other memorable moments in D' Gayelle: The ALCOA interview, Interview with Dr. Keith Rowley, and a fond Christmas Morning call from Errol Fabien. And that's a wrap on Cock-A-Doodle-Doo.

Farewell Magella, we'll miss you!!

Gayelle wishes to say Congratulations to our Executive Director, Mr. Errol Fabien and his lovely wife Arlene!

Toronto – July 22, 2009

The much buzzed about 4th Annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival has come to a close after another successful year: four event-filled days celebrating the exploding film and television industry across the Caribbean and it's Diaspora.

As Canada’s premier standalone Caribbean film festival, CaribbeanTales presented an astounding 65 of the best Caribbean films from around the world this past weekend. CaribbeanTales, Founder and Artistic Director Frances-Anne Solomon would like to thank all participants and sponsors for making this year’s theme “Caribbean Film – A Tool for Education and Social Change” a huge success!

A highlight of the festival this year was the CaribbeanTales Industry Development Program (CTIDP), an initiative that provided educational industry activities such as training workshops, roundtable sessions, and panel discussions on film practice, animation, business development and marketing to support producers to break into the Canadian industry.

Many special guests travelled from abroad to attend the festival this year including: Director Melissa Gomez (Antigua/UK), Producer Magali Damas (New York/Haiti), filmmaker and photographer Ricardo Scipio (Vancouver, Canada) Penelope Hynam and Ian Smith! from the Barbados Film and Video Association, Annette Nias from the National Cultural Foundation in Barbados, International Programmer June Givanni (UK);  Dr Elizabeth Nunez (US/Trinidad); Emiel Maartens from the university of Amsterdam; and Dr. Gladstone Yearwood, Director of the Errol Barrow Center for Creative Imagination, UWI, in Barbados.

Also present was a stellar contingent from Trinidad and Tobago including Lisa Wickham, CEO of Imagine International; Christopher Laird, CEO of Gayelle The Channel; Camille Selvon Abrahams, Founder/Director of Anime Caribe Animation and New Media Festival; Dr. Jean Antoine of the University of the West Indies; multi-media artist Elspeth Duncan, US-based Producer Horace WIlson; and emerging filmmakers Dara Healey and Andre Johnson.

Canadian-Caribbean filmmakers also participated in numbers including ReelWorld Film Festival President and Actor Tonya Lee Williams, multi-award winning video artist and ! lecturer Richard Fung, filmmaker and academic Dr. Michelle Mohabeer, P roducer/director Nicole Brooks, Global TV Executive Karen King, National Film Board Producer Lea Marin, "Soul" creator Andy Marshall, Director Powys Dewhurst and Vancouver-based Producer Glace Lawrence.

The festival's high point took place on Saturday evening with the Tribute Awards Ceremony which honored the careers of a number of movers and shakers in the Caribbean film industry.The coveted Award of Honour went to Mme. Euzhan Palcy who was the first woman of African descent to ever direct a Hollywood Studio movie when she made A Dry White Season with Marlon Brando and Donald Sutherland in 1989. Ms Palcy who came from France to receive the Award, spoke movingly of the importance of this Festival.

"It is most important to me that we as Caribbean people be able to express love and appreciation for each other, not just in our films, but in relation to each other. For that, I treasure this award above others." Said Ms Palcy, whose first film Black Shack Alley, produced in 1983, remains a seminal Caribbean cinematic achievement.

Christopher Laird, Co-Founder and CEO of Gayelle The Channel in Trinidad received this year's Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering use of television as a tool for community and social engagement. Earlier in the festival, rapt audiences were also treated to the World Premiere of Christopher's new film Drummit2Summit, which documents a tense stand-off between Police and local activists during the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain in April 2009.

Along with Mr. Laird, tribute was paid to several extraordinary Caribbean talents including Camille Selvon Abrahams who received the 2009 Innovation Award, for her groundbreaking and visionary work in establishing the Caribbean's first Animation studio and film festival (Anime Caribe) that trains, produces and exhibits work by a new generation of Caribbean-centered Animators.

(From IZATRINI.com): Christopher Laird, the founder/CEO of Gayelle The Channel, and the co-founder of Banyan Productions, Trinidad’s first-ever independent production company has a lot to say about film.

Laird’s numerous accomplishments were recognised on July 11, at the fourth Annual Caribbean Tales Festival in Toronto, Canada.

Laird will also receive the Honorary DLitt degree from the University of the West Indies

He believes our attitudes in Trinidad and Tobago towards television and its development relate directly to the challenges we currently face in setting up an indigenous, sustainable film industry.

Below is an excellent article taken from The TRINIDAD GUARDIAN on July 12, 2009. It discusses how our television history mirrors our struggle to own our big screen.

As he explains, “Our society was founded on importing finished goods and exporting raw materials. So, we got someone else’s television before we could even develop our own. So Lord Thompson and his empire came in and set up TTT and then supplied the station with cheap television programming.” According to Laird, “These programmes were not designed to build our true cultural identity and national self-worth but capitalise on the essential insecurities of a post colonial people.”

He further reveals, “There are statements I have heard from their (US) State Department where they have said that sending cheap programmes and dumping it in the Caribbean is a way of changing people’s perceptions.



Alienated from self

“Consumer habits become directed towards advertised goods and so on. Just seeing someone’s kitchen in a soap opera means you will want to get a kitchen like that. “So that’s the economic history of television. It was never seen as a means for developing the culture, the civilisation, the people. “Most developed societies have mechanisms by which people can stand outside of themselves and see what they look like. We never had that. When we turn on the TV we become dissociated and alienated from ourselves.” Laird decided to fight on his own terms for our national identity with Gayelle The Channel and his second weapon of choice is doing what he can to help develop the local film industry. Thankfully, technology is on his side, as he explains, “The interest in film is essentially connected to the whole digital revolution and the technology which allows it to be more accessible.



“Very much like what happened in audio. The digital revolution happened and now you were not only able to record but actually manipulate, print, press and publish. “So the same thing is happening in video now. People are saying, ‘Well I can’t get my script accepted in Hollywood but I have a Mac and a camera. I can probably put something together and raise some money and make a film myself.’” Laird believes that hands-on technical expertise forms the foundation for a viable local industry as demonstrated by the success of Slumdog Millionaire, filmed in India by a British filmmaker.



Quells concerns

He shares, “If I have a film idea and I need to go to India to film, I know that when I get to India I have highly skilled technicians waiting there for me. “I probably don’t even have to go with a crew. I’ll just take my favourite director of photography. “If you are talking about a film location, what people are looking for is to save money and at the same time, get the locations ready-made. “If Trinidad and Tobago wants to attract people to make films here as the main income generator, the only way that is going to happen is if you have an industry already working in the first place. Because we are not unique! I think that we need to continue emphasising local industry development.” Laird believes the Government needs to step up, even more than it already has and he hopes TTFC’s budget will be increased, dramatically.



In his opinion, if well-executed, the return on investment can trickle all the way to the grassroots, especially at-risk youth. He quells concerns about overblown production budgets and clarifies, “We are not talking about $60 million to make one film in Hollywood. We’re talking about TT$1 million to make one film. Imagine! “About five films every year could have been coming out of Trinidad. If…even just one is good…they (the international audience) are going to say, ‘Wow, something is really coming out of this place,’ the tourism, the investment, all that will come.”

(FLOW Press Release) Port-of-Spain, Friday 3rd July, 2009: Flow today announced a million dollar
sponsorship with local television station, Gayelle, the Channel, as a community
programming sponsor. The company’s investment of over TT$1 million will assist in the Channel’s continued effort to provide a platform for local content and talent.

Flow President & Chief Operating Officer Mr. John Reid expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, citing it as yet another opportunity to develop local culture and arts in the country. He explained, “Flow is pleased to support this initiative, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to promote and develop local programming content”.

Gayelle CEO and Chairman, Mr. Christopher Laird, was also pleased with this new
alliance. He stated, “What is remarkable about this is that Flow sees the value in our
commitment to local content and the benefit that it has for the well being of our society.”
Mr. Laird further commented, “We anticipate that Flow’s service platforms will enable us
to move closer to our original aim of being able to connect live to various communities,
thus providing them with a voice.”

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Gayelle is extremely pleased to form this relationship with Flow. The obvious benefit is that Gayelle will derive from the financial sponsorship which together with our other sponsors helps ensure that Gayelle can continue to provide a platform for local content.  But even more than that, our alliance with the technology that Flow can offer promises to move us closer to our original aim of being able to connect live to various communities and thus provide them with a voice. We are also excited by the prospect that an alliance with Flow presents in terms of our joint exploitation of the opportunities offered by new media over the internet and telephony.

Already, Flow carries our signal to Grenada and is in a position to deliver us even further afield.

What is especially remarkable about this move on the part of Flow is that it even though it is a foreign company it sees value in our commitment to local content and the benefit that has for the well being of our society.

Flow joins First Citizens and NGC as gold sponsors of Gayelle the Channel and is committing additional resources to our community programming and live broadcasts.