The film Earl Lovelace: A Writer in His Place will be having its Jamaican premiere courtesy of The Department of Literatures in English, University of the West Indies, Mona. The Jamaican launch of the film which focuses on one of the region’s most celebrated writers will take place on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm, at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre.
Earl Lovelace: A Writer in His Place is the brainchild of Professor Funso Aiyejina who will introduce the film at the premier. Prof. Aiyejina is a Professor in the Department of Liberal Studies, UWI, St. Augustine. Through his work with the UWI, The Cropper Foundation and the prizes emerging from the Bocas Lit Fest, Prof Aiyejima has been significant to shaping an new generation of Caribbean writers.
The film has been described as a “docu-commentary” and Prof. Aiyejina admits it has been a labour of love, created to provide a balanced view of “one of the region’s most exciting and relevant writers.”
Lovelace’s celebrated novels include The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979), The Wine of Astonishment(1983), Salt (1997) winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Is Just a Movie (2011) winner of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
Earl Lovelace: A Writer in His Place presents the acclaimed Trinidadian writer, Earl Lovelace, as a writer who is rooted in his Caribbean space and inspired by the variety of people and cultures that have engendered the complex texture of the region. The film explores Lovelace emerges as a writer driven by a passion for life, and a love and respect for ordinary people – the native intellectuals of his enabling communities. Lovelace is presented as a man of the people, a husband and lover, a dreamer and realist and an individual who is insatiably humorous and profoundly philosophical.