Call now on for entries to Hairouna Film Festival 2025
AIKO ROUDETTE and her team are working to host the annual Hairouna Film Festival (HFF) on a Grenadine Island in March next year. Roudette, the festival’s Director, explained, “I want to do screenings in the Grenadines, particularly because of the hurricane, and in general, I’ve been wanting to screen down there,” she told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
HFF has opened its call for submissions from Vincentians and other Caribbean film-makers. The application period began on Monday, September 2, 2024, and will close on October 31,2024 for non-Vincentian film-makers.
Vincentians will be allowed until January 31,2025, to submit their films.
HFF hosts two nights for film screening: the Opening Night, when they premiere the work of regional film-makers, and the Vincy Film Night, when they premiere the work of Vincentians. Reminiscing on this year’s Vincy Film Night, Roudette said, “The atmosphere for the Vincentian night was really amazing…[it] has really become eye-opening for many people that attend because the stories that are being told are stories that haven’t been told in this way before, and many Vincentians are unearthing things about our history, things about our culture and individuals in society.”
Though no specific film requirements exist, a few may not be screened because of time. Roudette said Vincy Film Night ran for three hours this year, which “was on the edge.
So we have to think about how long we’re keeping the audience there, just because of people’s attention”.
Although the festival is challenged by sourcing funds, the Director explained that she understands what they are doing is new and year after year, support for it has improved as popularity increases.
“More and more funders are recognising the benefits of aligning themselves with something that’s creatively progressive, and that’s bringing something new to the country.”
SEARCHLIGHT’s first submission to the film festival, ‘SVG Murder Mysteries – The Disappearance of Shanika Small’, was screened this year and was well-received by the film fest and the audience who speculated what could have caused the disappearance of a contestant for the Miss SVG 2012 Pageant.
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