This week at the SFC: A Dream to Change the World

Thursday March 16th

A DREAM TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Internationally known Trinidadian film maker and photographer Horace
Ove will screen his John La Rose documentary "A Dream to Change the
World" at STUDIOFILMCLUB.

The documentary, which premiered in December 2003 at the Institute for
International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London, was commissioned by the
African and Asian Visual Artists' Archive.

John La Rose was born in Trinidad, in Arima in 1927.
After involvements in local trade union and artist movements and a
short stint as a teacher in Venezuela, he moved to London in the
1950's, where he co-founded the Caribbean Artist's Movement with
Jamaican author Andrew Salkey and Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite.
The UK's Institute of Race Relations Council of which he was Chairman
in the 1970's described him as stalwart of the Black struggle in
Britain.
He was also a writer and publisher and set up with his wife Sarah
White, New Beacon Books and the George Padmore Institute.
Through his life's work La Rose moved between a trinity of culture,
politics and trade unionism, and Ove captures an intimate portrait
of a very public figure and how he linked cultural expression to
social transformation.
La Rose was also the founder of the Black Radical International Book
Fair in London which brought together and encouraged black writers
from the African diaspora.
John La Rose has been instrumental in creating opportunities for
young people in Britain of all races to pursue their dreams in the
arts.

The film features La Rose discussing his life story, interspersed with
interviews with dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, Trinidad trade unionist
David Abdullah amongst others.

This will be the first of several screenings of the film in Trinidad
and Tobago and plans are being made for the film to be distributed
through RedBox Productions and New Beacon Books.
The film has recently been well received at the Pan African Film
Festival in Los Angeles.