Caribbean Women Film
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Fantasy, Foreign Film
In a culture where oral storytelling has been a faithful tool of knowledge sharing, Caribbean women are our community scribe fighting for agency and subjectivity, living a life of duality and hybridity, and reminding us that woman is boss.
Caribbean Women Film
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Fantasy, Foreign Film
1 Campaigns |
Green Light
This campaign raised $20,861 for pre-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
150 supporters | followers
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In a culture where oral storytelling has been a faithful tool of knowledge sharing, Caribbean women are our community scribe fighting for agency and subjectivity, living a life of duality and hybridity, and reminding us that woman is boss.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
CONCEPT
What makes up a Caribbean woman? Sugar cane, spice and everything irie?
Narrated by a hilariously witty old sage bush woman, this film examines the question “what makes up a Caribbean woman?” using the post-colonial condition of the in-between as the basis of our understanding. It is in this in-between space that the Caribbean woman comes alive! — Magical yet human. Religious yet sexually liberated. European yet African. Bush yet cosmopolitan.
The whimsical old sage takes us through the story of Laja Bless (La Djablesse) using her as the quintessential essence of the Caribbean woman. A woman who is half human and half “she devil”. A woman who develops from both African and European mythology + spirituality. A woman of the bush. A woman of di scene. A woman who loves and liberates other women. A woman who embraces her sexuality and utilizes it to challenge gender stereotypes.
Using cultural stimuli such as dialect, costume, dance, music, architecture, and mannerisms, this Pan-Caribbean gender studies fashion folklore performance film creates a visual world where nothing is as it seems. Everything is mythical and everything is real. It all exists in the in-between.
WHY ME & WHY THIS FILM
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I grew up as a first generation American (my mother is from Trinidad and my father is from Nigeria) in an immigrant household in NYC, which provided me with a global understanding of the Black experience from an early age. I saw how our foods, mannerisms, music, dance, and languages moved, mixed, and merged across borders and time. Through my work as a Pan-African image maker, I’ve always aimed to use the mediums of film; fashion; and photography to highlight the similarities and differences in our experiences as a way to unify the Diaspora.
My experiences of being raised by a tribe of Caribbean women, and finding sisterhood in a Caribbean Dance Team in college called Kalabash Dance Troupe, have directly impacted the way I’ve learned to understand and define my womanhood. These rich foundations have inspired me to create this short film where I am able to reflect and unpack the complexities and unique dualities in my own womanhood and in the womanhood of those from the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Woman Film Project is something that I’ve been working on and saving for for the past 2 years. After 2 years of planning, 2023 is the first time since COVID that Trinidad has been able to celebrate carnival. Carnival is an incredibly important facet of our culture and our community. With cultural pride and international exposure (thanks to international celebrites like Trinidadian superstar Nicki Minaj and British-Nigerian actor Damson Idris) at an all time high, we plan on shooting this film in Spring of 2023. 2023 While COVID restrictions have been lifted, we have asked each member of the crew to provide proof of vacination and masks will be worn on set to ensure the safety of our team.
Your pledge would be funding a project that is an integral part of my pivot into art curation, the establishment of myself as a director, and the exploration of how being a Pan-African fashion image maker defines my creative practice. I see this project as a turning point in my career as this is the first time I am producing a project of this scale. Being a creative professional working in corporate America, I've always had to balance my corporate identity with my creative identity, knowing that it is my creative identity that has gotten me this far in both sides of my career. I’ve yearned for the day where my work as a Pan African image maker will support my lifestyle and I’d be able to pursue that work full time, saying goodbye to corporate America once and for all. While this project may not provide that financial stability just yet, I am confident this project will establish my voice and my eye to the industry at large.
PLOT
The Loss
Lajabless, a beautiful, spiritual shepherd of divine femininity, descends upon a group of women who’ve recently lost the matriarch of their family. The Grandmother is making her transition to the next plane but a plague of forgetting caused by Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree, halts her journey and drains the cultural memories of her daughter, granddaughter, and their community. The women turn to faith to try and regain their strength but the hold of Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree is too strong without the help of something greater.
The Connection
The Light, a mysterious energy, reveals itself to the mother and Daughter and restores their strength. The light appears again but only to the Daughter. It draws her to the “in between” where Lajabless awaits her along with her Grandmother. The reunion is a blessing and filled with unspoken knowledge on how to vanquish the curse of Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree. The remedy is based on island treatments of old: tea, songs, and the bond of sisterhood.
The Movement
The Daughter brings back what she learns to her Mother. She shares her experience with the Bush Woman and they brew the tea for the rest of the women and their strength restores. They gather and stand together against the drums of Ouidah. Mother, Daughter, and sisters of culture move their bodies and elevate their voices to the highest levels. The Mother and Daughter gather their strength and chop down the Ouidah:Forgetting Tree, the base of power of the Ouidah. Now that spirit is vanquished, the Grandmother can make her final transition and dance in the stars with Lajabless and she gyals.
INSPIRATIONS
"Black is King," "Black Orpheus, and "Dancehall Queen" are my biggest inspirations for this film. Each of these do an incredible job utilizing afro-surrealism, folklore, performance, and costume to create a visual language that enhances the story.
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LOOK + FEEL
OVERALL TONE: Afrosurrealism, Seductive, Mythical, Raw
VISUAL TEXTURE: Collage Like, Natural Layers, Glowy, Soft, Light Reflections
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Phase 1: Film
15-minute short film examining the question, "what makes up a Caribbean woman?” shot in my mother's native land of Trinidad & Tobago. The Caribbean women who I grew up around are my biggest inspiriations for this film and have so graciously come together to help work on this film.
Phase 2: Traveling Exhbition
Caribbean Woman (w/t) is a multimedia traveling art exhibition holding space for conversation that examines the hybridities and complexities of Caribbean womanhood and the Caribbean female experience through topics such as: identity, religion, family, culture, sexuality, home, and more. This discourse will be had at a micro-level, where each city serves as a visual essay driven by local artists whose works contribute to the global dissertation.
Phase 3: Distribution
As a Black image maker and curator, I understand the value of making art accessible. The stories and experiences of Black people have often been taken from its originators and placed behind the walls of cultural institutions, making it inaccessible to the masses. In addition to submitting this film to festivals, I plan on submitting it to cultural art-house streaming platforms such as Nowness, Criterion, and Mubi. I also plan on distributing it on smaller platforms that are available both in the Caribbean and Africa to ensure that the Diaspora has visibility to this story.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
The expenses for film production add up really fast! Here's a breakdown of where we will be allocating the funds we raise:
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Contribute & Pledge
Your financial contribution will be the biggest help to this project. If you can't to contribute we'd love for you to share this with a friend and brands who support emerging artists.
Spread the Word!
We absolutely cannot do this without YOUR help to spread the word about this film! Please share this campaign via social media, employee resource groups, word-of-mouth, community groups, emails, etc! The more visibility this crowd funding campaign receives, the larger the chances we have of hitting our goal.
Sample copy below:
I'm excited to share this film that highlights the Caribbean woman story. Help @ravencherisse and her crew of Caribbean women reach their goal of $25k by contributing to their @seedandspark page: https://seedandspark.com/fund/caribbean-women-film
Let's continue to support Black women stories all February and March by contributing to the Caribbean Woman Film. This film aims to highlight the complexities of the Caribbean Woman identity. Help @ravencherisse and her crew of amazingly talented Caribbean women reach their goal by contributing to their @seedandspark page: https://seedandspark.com/fund/caribbean-women-film
THANK YOU
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Thank you so much for believing in our vision, supporting diverse stories, and creating a pathway for women in film.
Gracias. Mèsi. Danki.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Travel
Costs $3,200
This will cover travel to and from Trinidad as well as within Trinidad during production.
Set Design / Props
Costs $2,000
We'll be using the money to make our sets authentic to Caribbean culture
Costume
Costs $2,500
This will allow us to purchase pieces from local Caribbean designers and make custom pieces.
Photographer
Costs $1,500
This will cover the rate of our amazing local portrait photographer.
Share this update!
About This Team
TEAM
Here are some of our amazing crew! Full crew list below:
- Raven Irabor - Director, EP
- SIRA - Director, Music Composer
- D'Andre Wilson - Producer
- Zakiya Tuere Savary - Movement Director
- Risanne Martin - Costume Designer
- Ashley Laird - Associate Producer
- Kadia Blagrove - Lead Writer
- Alexis Pratt - Writer
- Andrea Knowles - Writer
- Olivia Jade Khoury - Writer
- Justine Thompson - Music Composer, Sound Mixer
Bios:
Raven Irabor - Raven Irabor is a Pan-African image maker and curator based between New York City and Los Angeles. Her work is informed by her passion for culture, art, fashion, film, and media. Often using elements of costume and Diasporic culture to hone in on the mood; stories; and characters in her visuals, her stylized surrealist films and other visual/curatorial projects continue to engage, inspire, and create dialogue amongst an audience of Black creatives + brands who are bringing Hollywood to the gallery and the runway to the magazine.
Her work has achieved recognition from the Los Angeles Fashion Film Festival, Neu Neu Media, Vogue UK, New Inc, Gen-Zine, Miami Web Fest, A.R.T.S.Y Magazine, and many more. Most notably, Raven served as the youngest judge for the inaugural FashFilmFete in Phoenix, Arizona.
Sira - Sira is a multi-disciplinary artist rooted in Pan-Africanism. Focused in video, music, mixed-media art and fashion - all of her artistic mediums inherently connect to her experience as a Black woman with Black American and West Indian lineage. She proudly represents it through her art, beauty, fashion and creative collaborations.
Her work has been recognized by Teen Vogue, REVOLT, GROWN MAG, MEFEATER, A.R.T.S.Y Magazine, and LA MAG. She completed an artist residency with MACRO for her collage and video work. She’s recently been selected for this years Birthright Africa cohort based on her merit as an artist and studio co-owner as it relates to entrepreneurship and the diasporic legacy of innovation rooted back to the continent.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
CONCEPT
What makes up a Caribbean woman? Sugar cane, spice and everything irie?
Narrated by a hilariously witty old sage bush woman, this film examines the question “what makes up a Caribbean woman?” using the post-colonial condition of the in-between as the basis of our understanding. It is in this in-between space that the Caribbean woman comes alive! — Magical yet human. Religious yet sexually liberated. European yet African. Bush yet cosmopolitan.
The whimsical old sage takes us through the story of Laja Bless (La Djablesse) using her as the quintessential essence of the Caribbean woman. A woman who is half human and half “she devil”. A woman who develops from both African and European mythology + spirituality. A woman of the bush. A woman of di scene. A woman who loves and liberates other women. A woman who embraces her sexuality and utilizes it to challenge gender stereotypes.
Using cultural stimuli such as dialect, costume, dance, music, architecture, and mannerisms, this Pan-Caribbean gender studies fashion folklore performance film creates a visual world where nothing is as it seems. Everything is mythical and everything is real. It all exists in the in-between.
WHY ME & WHY THIS FILM
I grew up as a first generation American (my mother is from Trinidad and my father is from Nigeria) in an immigrant household in NYC, which provided me with a global understanding of the Black experience from an early age. I saw how our foods, mannerisms, music, dance, and languages moved, mixed, and merged across borders and time. Through my work as a Pan-African image maker, I’ve always aimed to use the mediums of film; fashion; and photography to highlight the similarities and differences in our experiences as a way to unify the Diaspora.
My experiences of being raised by a tribe of Caribbean women, and finding sisterhood in a Caribbean Dance Team in college called Kalabash Dance Troupe, have directly impacted the way I’ve learned to understand and define my womanhood. These rich foundations have inspired me to create this short film where I am able to reflect and unpack the complexities and unique dualities in my own womanhood and in the womanhood of those from the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Woman Film Project is something that I’ve been working on and saving for for the past 2 years. After 2 years of planning, 2023 is the first time since COVID that Trinidad has been able to celebrate carnival. Carnival is an incredibly important facet of our culture and our community. With cultural pride and international exposure (thanks to international celebrites like Trinidadian superstar Nicki Minaj and British-Nigerian actor Damson Idris) at an all time high, we plan on shooting this film in Spring of 2023. 2023 While COVID restrictions have been lifted, we have asked each member of the crew to provide proof of vacination and masks will be worn on set to ensure the safety of our team.
Your pledge would be funding a project that is an integral part of my pivot into art curation, the establishment of myself as a director, and the exploration of how being a Pan-African fashion image maker defines my creative practice. I see this project as a turning point in my career as this is the first time I am producing a project of this scale. Being a creative professional working in corporate America, I've always had to balance my corporate identity with my creative identity, knowing that it is my creative identity that has gotten me this far in both sides of my career. I’ve yearned for the day where my work as a Pan African image maker will support my lifestyle and I’d be able to pursue that work full time, saying goodbye to corporate America once and for all. While this project may not provide that financial stability just yet, I am confident this project will establish my voice and my eye to the industry at large.
PLOT
The Loss
Lajabless, a beautiful, spiritual shepherd of divine femininity, descends upon a group of women who’ve recently lost the matriarch of their family. The Grandmother is making her transition to the next plane but a plague of forgetting caused by Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree, halts her journey and drains the cultural memories of her daughter, granddaughter, and their community. The women turn to faith to try and regain their strength but the hold of Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree is too strong without the help of something greater.
The Connection
The Light, a mysterious energy, reveals itself to the mother and Daughter and restores their strength. The light appears again but only to the Daughter. It draws her to the “in between” where Lajabless awaits her along with her Grandmother. The reunion is a blessing and filled with unspoken knowledge on how to vanquish the curse of Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree. The remedy is based on island treatments of old: tea, songs, and the bond of sisterhood.
The Movement
The Daughter brings back what she learns to her Mother. She shares her experience with the Bush Woman and they brew the tea for the rest of the women and their strength restores. They gather and stand together against the drums of Ouidah. Mother, Daughter, and sisters of culture move their bodies and elevate their voices to the highest levels. The Mother and Daughter gather their strength and chop down the Ouidah:Forgetting Tree, the base of power of the Ouidah. Now that spirit is vanquished, the Grandmother can make her final transition and dance in the stars with Lajabless and she gyals.
INSPIRATIONS
"Black is King," "Black Orpheus, and "Dancehall Queen" are my biggest inspirations for this film. Each of these do an incredible job utilizing afro-surrealism, folklore, performance, and costume to create a visual language that enhances the story.
LOOK + FEEL
OVERALL TONE: Afrosurrealism, Seductive, Mythical, Raw
VISUAL TEXTURE: Collage Like, Natural Layers, Glowy, Soft, Light Reflections
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Phase 1: Film
15-minute short film examining the question, "what makes up a Caribbean woman?” shot in my mother's native land of Trinidad & Tobago. The Caribbean women who I grew up around are my biggest inspiriations for this film and have so graciously come together to help work on this film.
Phase 2: Traveling Exhbition
Caribbean Woman (w/t) is a multimedia traveling art exhibition holding space for conversation that examines the hybridities and complexities of Caribbean womanhood and the Caribbean female experience through topics such as: identity, religion, family, culture, sexuality, home, and more. This discourse will be had at a micro-level, where each city serves as a visual essay driven by local artists whose works contribute to the global dissertation.
Phase 3: Distribution
As a Black image maker and curator, I understand the value of making art accessible. The stories and experiences of Black people have often been taken from its originators and placed behind the walls of cultural institutions, making it inaccessible to the masses. In addition to submitting this film to festivals, I plan on submitting it to cultural art-house streaming platforms such as Nowness, Criterion, and Mubi. I also plan on distributing it on smaller platforms that are available both in the Caribbean and Africa to ensure that the Diaspora has visibility to this story.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
The expenses for film production add up really fast! Here's a breakdown of where we will be allocating the funds we raise:
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Contribute & Pledge
Your financial contribution will be the biggest help to this project. If you can't to contribute we'd love for you to share this with a friend and brands who support emerging artists.
Spread the Word!
We absolutely cannot do this without YOUR help to spread the word about this film! Please share this campaign via social media, employee resource groups, word-of-mouth, community groups, emails, etc! The more visibility this crowd funding campaign receives, the larger the chances we have of hitting our goal.
Sample copy below:
I'm excited to share this film that highlights the Caribbean woman story. Help @ravencherisse and her crew of Caribbean women reach their goal of $25k by contributing to their @seedandspark page: https://seedandspark.com/fund/caribbean-women-film
Let's continue to support Black women stories all February and March by contributing to the Caribbean Woman Film. This film aims to highlight the complexities of the Caribbean Woman identity. Help @ravencherisse and her crew of amazingly talented Caribbean women reach their goal by contributing to their @seedandspark page: https://seedandspark.com/fund/caribbean-women-film
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for believing in our vision, supporting diverse stories, and creating a pathway for women in film.
Gracias. Mèsi. Danki.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Travel
Costs $3,200
This will cover travel to and from Trinidad as well as within Trinidad during production.
Set Design / Props
Costs $2,000
We'll be using the money to make our sets authentic to Caribbean culture
Costume
Costs $2,500
This will allow us to purchase pieces from local Caribbean designers and make custom pieces.
Photographer
Costs $1,500
This will cover the rate of our amazing local portrait photographer.
Share this update!
About This Team
TEAM
Here are some of our amazing crew! Full crew list below:
- Raven Irabor - Director, EP
- SIRA - Director, Music Composer
- D'Andre Wilson - Producer
- Zakiya Tuere Savary - Movement Director
- Risanne Martin - Costume Designer
- Ashley Laird - Associate Producer
- Kadia Blagrove - Lead Writer
- Alexis Pratt - Writer
- Andrea Knowles - Writer
- Olivia Jade Khoury - Writer
- Justine Thompson - Music Composer, Sound Mixer
Bios:
Raven Irabor - Raven Irabor is a Pan-African image maker and curator based between New York City and Los Angeles. Her work is informed by her passion for culture, art, fashion, film, and media. Often using elements of costume and Diasporic culture to hone in on the mood; stories; and characters in her visuals, her stylized surrealist films and other visual/curatorial projects continue to engage, inspire, and create dialogue amongst an audience of Black creatives + brands who are bringing Hollywood to the gallery and the runway to the magazine.
Her work has achieved recognition from the Los Angeles Fashion Film Festival, Neu Neu Media, Vogue UK, New Inc, Gen-Zine, Miami Web Fest, A.R.T.S.Y Magazine, and many more. Most notably, Raven served as the youngest judge for the inaugural FashFilmFete in Phoenix, Arizona.
Sira - Sira is a multi-disciplinary artist rooted in Pan-Africanism. Focused in video, music, mixed-media art and fashion - all of her artistic mediums inherently connect to her experience as a Black woman with Black American and West Indian lineage. She proudly represents it through her art, beauty, fashion and creative collaborations.
Her work has been recognized by Teen Vogue, REVOLT, GROWN MAG, MEFEATER, A.R.T.S.Y Magazine, and LA MAG. She completed an artist residency with MACRO for her collage and video work. She’s recently been selected for this years Birthright Africa cohort based on her merit as an artist and studio co-owner as it relates to entrepreneurship and the diasporic legacy of innovation rooted back to the continent.