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Geoffrey Dunn interviewed by Maya Trotz
The first piece we did was still the most dynamic. It was in the Good Times pub on Henry Street, Port of Spain. And Lord Blakie and Lord Relator were in the bar. Lord Relator had a guitar and it was an incredible moment. And Lord Blakie as you know is one of the older, most revered calypsonians. And I knew at that time from that moment on that the project would lead to the increased international recognition of calypso and the great calypsonians. I want everything good that comes out of this film to go to the calypsonians. It's not about us anymore, it's about them. It's now out of our hands. It will be in the hands of the Gods, the Trinidadian artists and the Caribbean diaspora, People like yourselves. It's now yours, all of ours. Geoffrey Dunn, 7/18/2003. Imagine sitting at the top of the Hilton in Trinidad with the Mighty Sparrow and Lord Superior recording songs and recalling calypso history. Imagine seeing Bomber sing "Joan and James" a capella infront of the water tower in Laventille. Imagine sitting with Harry Belafonte to understand his role in popularizing calypso and better yet showing the footage to many Trinidadian artists who misunderstood him over all of these years. Well, that's what University of Santa Cruz Professor Geoffrey Dunn did in Trinidad with his award winning film making team to produce Calypso Dreams, a documentary that has already won awards at the Jamerican Film Festival in 2002 and debuts in California. Read on to learn how this Italian American who was cleaning fish in Santa Cruz when he met the Wailers got hooked on Trinidad, calypso, and calypsonians. Jouvay.com: We're sitting here drinking beer and eating oysters and the tape has not been recording. Could you just tell us again how you got interested in the Caribbean and calypso music please. Geoffrey Dunn: I had talked about my earlier trips to the Caribbean and my interaction with Marley and the Wailers who came to Santa Cruz twice on their tour (as a graduate student in sociology Geoffrey worked on the wharf cleaning fish for the restaurants many of which are owned by his extensive Italian family. His hair was long and looked like locks and he'd routinely jump into the ocean at the end of the day to get rid of the fish guts on his body. One day as he got out of the ocean, one of the Wailers asked him to show him the closest river because Bob wanted to run by a river). One of Marley's last concerts was in Santa Cruz. I had been invited backstage with the band afterwards. So began my ties to the Caribbean and its culture. Cut to many years later, the mid eighties, and my dear friend Michael Horne (co-producer of Calypso Dreams) goes down to Trinidad in the mid 1980's and comes back with all of these tapes and introduced me to the music of David Rudder. At that time he had a song called, "Hammer." And I fell in love with David Rudder. Jouvay.com: He did that with a guy in San Francisco, Andy Narrell. G: Yes, we actually went and met with Andy. We tried to get the film off the ground. We just had these very successful films come off. One was called "Dollar A Day, Ten Cents A Dance" (done in 1984, this was a film about Filipino immigration to California from 1924-1935) and the other was called "Miss... Or Myth?" (nominated for a Sundance Films Grand Jury Award in 1987). We were getting all of this notoriety as documentary film makers. So, we tried to raise the money and no one had ever even heard of Trinidad, much less cared about the roots of calypso. Everyone thought calypso was Harry Belafonte. If we were not doing a film about Harry Belafonte, no one was interested. J: What kind of funding sources did you try? G: We were trying the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Council for the Humanities that had funded us before. First of all it was Caribbean music, so for American sources to fund it it was difficult. Even though we tried to play up the American connections in the Caribbean diaspora. It was on the back burner. Finally, one day I ran into Michael on Pacific Avenue and he had just returned from Trinidad and he told me Lord Kitchener had passed away. And I love Lord Kitchener because Michael had brought me his CDs and tapes. My favorite song was "Miss Tourist" which I loved. I became convinced at that time that we needed to go. I got some seed money together and we went down. J: What year was this? G: 2000. Or 2001. J: That's 14 years after the first proposal. G: Yep. It never died. So, I got my partner Mark Schwartz and another partner Eric Thiermann (co-producer) who is a cinematographer extraordinaire. And we went down. And the first piece we did was still one of the most dynamic. It was in the Good Times pub on Henry Street, Port of Spain. And Lord Blakie and Lord Relator were in the bar. Lord Relator had a guitar and it was an incredible moment. And Lord Blakie as you know is one of the older, most revered calypsonians. And I knew at that time, from that moment on, that the project would lead to the increased international recognition of calypso and the great calypsonians. So I still go back to that bar every time I go there. Lord Relator likes to hang out in that bar. I still see him there. We had Blakie singing some of his classic songs; one is called "Steel Band Clash" and one is called "Maria". That's how our film opens. And then Conque, Conqueror, also sings "Webster's Dictionary." That was our first morning in Trinidad. J: This was during carnival? G: It was prior to carnival. January of 2000, maybe 2001. J: That's interesting because to me many of the older singers are not involved much during carnival or you don't hear about them much during carnival. G: Exactly. To me, it's a bit of a tragedy that these wonderful old stalwarts are being pushed aside by the upcoming soca stars. I can give you an example. Lord Superior, Blakie, Stryker, Power, Zandolie .. we shot him within a week before he passed away, all of these wonderful old stalwarts are really not getting the credit and recognition they deserve. Some of them live in immense poverty so part of our hope is to generate funds to help some of the old calypsonians. Did you see the article about us giving money down there for them?
Jouvay.com: Yes, for medical benefits. How did that happen? Geoffrey Dunn: That was wonderful and we helped raise money for it. J: Who organized that? G: It's a group in Port of Spain and my friend Terry Joseph from the Trinidad Express was one of the people coordinating it. He does alot to promote it. We've gone now several times. Had some ups and downs, but every experience has been incredibly rewarding. We keep getting these little jewels. We've been fortunate to work with some great people. Alvin Daniell. Sandra Derrell. Cathy and Clyde Lightin' George. Great people. They provided us with a place to stay our first couple of times there and were wonderful about introducing us to people. And Clyde played some great pan for the funeral sequences in the film. I ran into a great taxi driver named Jacincto Proctor. He's become a good buddy. Terry Joseph of the Express has promoted us--after he understood us to be real. Andrew Bruce at TV6 has been great. And Carla Foderingham of TIDCO has been absolutely wonderful. On and on. It's been a wonderful experience. And we've been very fortunate. J: How did you select a theme for the movie and what is it? G: Themes for documentaries
tend to select themselves. I had read a lot about Calypso and listened
to a lot of CDs, but until you go to Port of Spain, J: How did you connect with the artists down there? G: We had several people. Alvin Daniel was the co-producer and he's well known in Trinidad and he's part of our team. So, he has been our connection down there. Some we just called on our own because they have been kind of neglected. We hooked up with Lord Superior who has now been an associate producer on the film as well. Sparrow is the artistic director of the film and he's been a great asset. J: When you say assistant producer what does that entail? G: Basically help with our connections with the artists and provide us with access to some of the calypsonians. Now I need to say that after 3 years down there there are some calypsonians who feel closer to us than other Trinidadians. So, they come to us. J: Why you think so? G: Look, go to Trinidad you gotta prove yourself. You gotta prove that you love the culture. You're not there as a culture vulture. It helps that you can "cut fish and bring them fresh fish". There's never been a great film about calypso. Why is that? Because people go there to make a film and never pass the test. They go once and you can't do that. You have to make a life long commitment. Michael Horne has been going down there for about 17 years. That gave us an edge up. Got our foot in the door. He wrote a song about Kitchener which was a hit down there. And we've been persistent. And I got lucky with some financial arrangements. And my friend George Ow, Jr., agreed to invest some money in the project. I also think we tapped into some of the root sources of the music -- accoustic sets by Blakie and Relator and Reneration Now, and we did this amazing accoustic set with Superior and Sparrow -- and Alvin Daniell. I can't really say enough about him. He's carried a good deal of our water. As he said in an interview with the Guardian, "Them boys proved they were serious." I want everything good that comes out of this film to go to the calypsonians. It's not about us anymore, it's about them. J: Do you find now that people are hearing about it, more Caribbean folks are trying to help or get involved? G: We've had lots of support. It's now out of our hands. It will be in the hands of the Gods, the Trinidadian artists and the Caribbean diaspora, People like yourselves. It's now yours, all of ours. It's not the only film to come out. I like to fancy myself as a good film maker, but it was a tough subject to cover. I don't even pretend it's the best film that can be done about it. It's a very beautiful film and the response has been positive. When we showed it in Jamaica at the Jamerican Film festival last fall we had the largest crowd they ever had at one of their festival screenings. There were Trinis, Jamaicans and alot of Americans. And it was interesting to explore the response to the film. It was well received, well loved. "I saw Calypso Dreams in JA,
and it's superb!!! The movie was delightfully done, and you can
see that alot of research was put into producing it, as it is very
informative. I learnt quite a bit about rapso, calypso and soca.
I always thought soca and calypso were the same, so you see I have
learnt something. I look forward to the showing of it here and would
love to feature Geoffrey on my TV show." It was named best Caribbean film at the festival. It was interesting, Americans who watched the film really knew nothing about it so for them it wasthe first time they ever heard of any of the artists whereas for the Trinis, they knew it better than we did. J: They sing along and .. G: It was phenomenal. There is a song on there, "Joan and James" by Bomber and people sang with it and started to cry. He does it a cappella infront of the water tower in Laventille. I can watch that piece of footage a million times and still love it. To see the response of Trinis to that one clip was mind boggling to me. I see how much they revere the culture. J: I don't think it's just Trinis. It's just that whole generation that was around during our struggle for independence. It would be interesting to see the audience's response as you take it around to the different islands, countries. G: Well, it'll play around the world.
J: Why was it a tough subject? G: Well, it was tough because we are Euorpean American filmmakers coming into an Afro-Indian Caribbean country making a film about a deeply rooted aspect of that country's culture. And it was tough to navigate through some of the cultural and political minefields that were out there. Many people have come with cameras saying they were making movies, and the movies never materialized. And I can see why. You never know what's going to happen. Our gear got held up in Customs for three days once during a critical portion of the shoot. Hell, the engine FELL OUT of our rental car. And it's more than 4,000 miles away from home. That's a long way to go for pick-up shots. And quite costly. With no budget. It's not like going to shoot your cousin's wedding. But through it all we persisted. We sort of picked each other up when we needed to and kept going. And even after the film won Best Caribbean Documentary in Jamaica we went down for a final shoot because we wanted to get Chalkdust and few others...and every bit of it was worth it. We got some real gems down there. J: Do you think this will inspire other people to make films in Trindiad and Tobago? G: I hope so. Carla Foderingham of TIDCO does great things down there in what is not always an easy situation. I am really hoping that as the film gains speed with its release that filmmakers will consider making movies down there. There are LOTS more to be made. J: Are you intending to make more? G: Right now I sort of feel like a woman who's just given birth to a child. And it's been a very long labor. The thought of another one is the furthestthing from my mind. Talk to me next year when the film is up and walking on its own. J: Is it nearly finished? G: I'd say my love life and my war life were off the record. The editing process falls under one of those two categories and it's not my love life. If only it were. We're nearly done. We have a few last rights issues to deal with and few clips to get the rights to. We want to recut a few things. We're going to issue a Caribbean, American, European, and I hope a Spanish version. J: What will be the difference? G: The Caribbean version will be longer. They want an hour and forty minutes in the Caribbean. The American version will be about eighty five minutes. We've also had feedback from many sources that we need to subtitle the American version. So we'll probably subtitle it. Do you know Dawad Philip. Oh I have to read poems from his book to you some time. My nickname for him is South boy, he's from San Fernando. His nick name for me is salt fish. J: Saltfish...all saltfish sweet. G: Sparrow's song "Saltfish" is about anti-colonialism. Saltfish is the fish that can go through water and everything. You probably thought my name was about being a saltfish lover. I am. Many terms and words down there have multiple meanings. J: The double entendre. G: I love saltfish--I'm Italian after all. It's a staple in Liguria. There, that's quadruple entendre.Sparrow gave a brilliant interview about saltfish and about British colonialism. J: Is it in the film? G: No. I don't think there's any reference to saltfish in the film. J: Stuff like that can be another movie. G: There's a million movies. We're going to cut two other pieces off of our footage. We did a session with Sparrow and Lord Superior at the top of the Hilton in Port of Spain. We're going to call it the Hilltop Rooftop Sessions. And it was of the two of them doing an acoustic set of all of their songs and talking and drinking. So, we're going to do an hour long television program on that. Then we will probably cut a piece on Harry Belafonte. His calypso interview, which is also fascinating. J: He's in the movie? G: Yep, Harry Belafonte is also in the movie and he talks about his role in the calypso craze in the 1950's and how he became marketed in a way that he did not approve of as the calypso king of the world. He never claimed to be the calypso king of the world and he loves real calypso and he reveres it. I can tell you that will have a big impact in Port of Spain. It's a very heavy moment. J: How about Farrakan? He was a calypso singer. G: Absolutely. We don't have him in this. Michael has one of his albums. J: He should play them at some of his rallies. G: He's a calypsonian. That should be no surprise because calypso is a political art form. The roots of calypso were political and they come out of a system of singing against the slave master, against British colonialism and singing against people in political power. David Rudder says that Bob Dylan would be a calypsonian. There are not many calypsonians in this country. It's the people's newspaper. J: I know you were planning to open the film in NY, but now California will have the first American screening right? G: Yes, the film will be staging its U.S. Premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival (October 2-12), with two screenings and a musical performance featuring some of Trindad and Tobago's most noted Calypsonians. The tentative date for the performance is October 7 and one of the film screenings will probably be that date as well. We were planning on opening in New York during Labor Day weekend, but things got too hectic. We wanted Dawad Philip to host the presentation in Brooklyn. I will get you his book of poetry. Let me write a piece about his poetry for the website. J: Sure. G: You know the people's Mall? Well, there's a shop owned by Brother Resistance there. J: He's known as the originator or rapso. Is he in the film? G: Yes, he plays a major role in the film. He talks about the political roots of calypso. I went to his shop a couple years of ago and discovered Dawad's poetry. Michael had told me about it, but he thought it was about something else. So Dawad became a good friend of mine and I am a huge fan and promoter of his. He's based in Brooklyn. He's a designer for carnival, for bands. J: I see Brooklyn carnival is under fire right now for being run by one family for the past thirty years with little transparency or accountability. G: It's controversial. Well Dawad has had a calypso tent in Brooklyn for many years. And he has 19 calypsonians coming to the carnival this year, so he's really busy in New York. We're excited about the screening in October. This will be our first big screening in the US. We'll get feedback. J: What you mean, after this screening you can still fix it? G: Let me tell you something. In the digital era you can change things until you go to film and we'll be showing it in a digital format. Once you go the film, no more changes. You can make changes and improve things. It's not written in stone like it used to be. J: Who does that editing for you? G: Michael and I have done some editing and our actual hands on editor has been a young man named Chris Crosby. He drives the ship, we point him in the direction. J: Maybe we can come to the studio sometime. G: I'd love to have you all come over. Jouvay.com: When will we see it? Geoffrey Dunn: Whenever
you want to see it. RELATED LINKS
Calypsonian Info. on the Internet
P.S. Sunday August 24th we had a small gathering in Oakland to view a version of the documentary. Geoffrey arrived with fresh sea bass, albacore, a fish head, charcoal, seasoning and beer. This was the US premiere we were told and though he said he did not want to look at the whole thing he sat through the entire show and provided much insight into the making of the documentary. Titles announce the focus of each section and Geoffrey explains, "I developed the intertitles so that American audiences would have something of a road map and not get lost throughout the film. Most Americans have never heard of sobriquet or Kitchener or Sans humanite or Spolier, so I thought they would do several things--connect the dots and give people a sense of pacing and provide people of a sense of what the different sections were relating to." Well, this born and bred Caribbean woman sure found them useful and would definitely watch the movie again minus the presence of jolly West Indians who like to sing the ending of each song and would probably dance if they were allowed!! On a serious note, Calypso Dreams was a music lesson, a history lesson and a cultural lesson presented in a lyrical, smooth and entertaining fashion. Given the amount of unique and captivating footage shown in the movie, one can only imagine the difficulty in editing of over sixty hours worth of gems.
Calypso Dreams premiered at the Mill VAlley Film Festival in California in October, 2003. Reviews:
Advance Praise for Calypso Dreams: An ebullient look at the hypnotic rhythms and legendary performers of calypsoŠIt will make you "shake like a shango." - C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle Marvelous! The film is astonishingly authoritative. Dreams presents a virtually definitive introduction to, and celebration of, calypso. -The Ticket Lively overview of a musical form that is the prevailing popular sound of Trinidad and TobagoŠThe film provides an amiable mix of interviews, history and performance. - Dennis Harvey, Variety Remarkably engaging. As with The Buena Vista Social Club, this charming film is a cultural rediscovery. Get ready for the soundtrack. -Pacific Sun
Fascinating! The film gives viewers an authentic taste
of calypso music. - Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal |
The
Indiewire writes,"Music events were a 
