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Kelli’s Rundown

Kelli Blake012 mins

Weekly Caribbean Dispatch

Opening Note

Gessica Généus took the Gold Hugo in the New Directors Competition at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, which closed October 25. She wrote, directed, co-produced and stars in Marie Madeleine, set in coastal Jacmel, where a sex worker who answers to no one crosses paths with an evangelical preacher’s son, and Vodou, desire, and church doctrine pull at both of them. The jury cited the film’s visual invention and its journey through Haiti’s storytelling tradition. HaitiLibre reports she is the first Black woman to win the award. It follows Best Film at the Villa Medici Film Festival in Rome in September, and it screened in Chicago’s Black Perspectives program in that program’s 30th year. Haiti’s cinema keeps arriving at the world’s festivals carrying its own myths.

The Pulse

  • Divali Nagar turns 40 on thinner support: The nine-night festival in Chaguanas runs October 30 to November 7 under the theme “Viveka: Discerning Truth in the Age of AI,” after bmobile, the NLCB, Caribbean Airlines, TSTT, National Flour Mills and First Citizens, an 18-year backer, stepped away, and Blue Waters raised its stake to Diamond Sponsor of an event that costs about TT$5 million to stage. cnc3.co.tt
  • The Commonwealth Short Story Prize sits out the fall: The Commonwealth Foundation pushed the 2027 prize’s opening to January 2027 to rewrite its rules after allegations that AI wrote winning 2026 stories, including Trinidadian overall winner Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove.” The Foundation upheld the result after a month-long review; Granta ended its partnership publishing the winners. guardian.ng
  • The Other Side of Now enters its final week: PAMM’s show of 14 artists imagining what a Caribbean future might look like, curated by María Elena Ortiz with newly commissioned work, closes November 1 in Miami. pamm.org
  • Mois Kréyol turns 10: The festival’s tenth edition runs through December 6 across 12 territories, from Paris and Nantes to Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane, under the theme “Marronnage et création,” with a Musée Kréyol night at the Château des ducs de Bretagne on November 10. unidivers.fr
  • Rafael Trelles brings Caliban to London: The Puerto Rican painter recasts Shakespeare’s islander as a figure of Caribbean identity, migration and the right to tell one’s own story, in a solo show opening November 26 at October Gallery. octobergallery.co.uk

Market & Opportunities

OCM Bocas Prize, first deadline. The region’s biggest literary prize pays US$ 10,000 to the overall winner and US$ 3,000 to each category winner in poetry, fiction and literary nonfiction. Books first published January 1 to October 31, 2026, by writers born in the Caribbean or holding Caribbean citizenship, written in English, must reach the Bocas Lit Fest by November 6. Self-published authors can enter. Print copies are required, and any book with AI-generated or AI-edited text is ineligible. US$50 per title. Books published in November or December go to the second deadline, January 4. bocaslitfest.com/awards/ocm/guidelines

Est-Nord-Est residency, Summer 2027. An eight-week research residency in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec, for professional visual artists from anywhere, with a CAD $2,080 honorarium, studio accommodation and workshop access. The summer session prioritizes artists of African descent, around themes of osmosis, Black experience and the living world. Eight weeks on the St. Lawrence is a real commitment, so clear the calendar first. Apply by November 8. artrabbit.com

Groupe Ouest Annual Selection 2027. The Brittany screenwriting lab behind Close and Cuties picks eight fiction projects by Francophone screenwriters and filmmakers, live action or animation, for coaching from March to December 2027, including three residential sessions on the Finistère coast. For writers in Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane, it is a direct line into French development. Full eligibility and fees were not confirmed in coverage, so read the call first. Deadline November 12. legroupeouest.com

Release Radar

Moses Boyd’s Songs for Sinners lands October 30 on Exodus, the Mercury-shortlisted London drummer’s first album in six years, built from gospel, jazz, sound system weight and Caribbean rhythm. In dancehall, Vybz Kartel’s “Ever Blessed” and the Shaneil Muir and Tommy Lee Sparta “Gypsy” remix both dropped October 23.

Creator Spotlight: Rafael Trelles (Painter)

What are you telling now? Trelles began studying painting at 11 in Puerto Rico, did postgraduate work in Mexico City and spent years in the Canary Islands working through alchemy, mysticism and naturalist drawing. His forests put human figures inside the plant and animal world. His new work turns to Caliban from The Tempest, reading him through the Caribbean’s colonial history and today’s questions of migration, racism and displacement, with nature as a place of belonging. Two of the pieces were previewed in San Juan at the Museo de las Américas before the London opening. His work sits in the collection of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, which staged his Santurce, un libro mural in 2018.

Where can we follow / support you? octobergallery.co.uk | ocula.com/artists/rafael-trelles

On the Circuit

October

  • Krioyo Film Festival | now through November 2, Willemstad, Curaçao | krioyofilms.com
  • Havana Ballet Festival | October 28 – November 6, Havana
  • Divali Nagar | October 30 – November 7, Chaguanas, Trinidad
  • Tobago Carnival | October 30 – November 1, Tobago | visittobago.gov.tt
  • Baby | now through October 31, Brixton House, London | brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/baby
  • Caribbean Contribution to the RAF | now through October 31, Reading Museum, UK | readingmuseum.org.uk

November

  • The Other Side of Now | through November 1, Pérez Art Museum Miami | pamm.org
  • Africa International Film Festival | November 1 – 7, Lagos | afriff.com
  • 60 Years of Carnival: Our Story | now through November 4, Hackney, London | lovehackney.uk
  • Divali | November 8, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname
  • Booker Prize winner announced | November 9, London. Marlon James’s The Disappearers is shortlisted | thebookerprizes.com
  • Musée Kréyol | November 10, Château des ducs de Bretagne, Nantes
  • DOC NYC | November 11 – 19, New York | docnyc.net
  • Antigua and Barbuda Art Week | November 11 – 18, St. John’s, Antigua | visitantiguabarbuda.com/artweek
  • Latin Grammy Awards | November 12, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. Kany García and Daddy Yankee perform | latingrammy.com
  • douard Duval-Carrié, From Venice with Love | through November 15, The Betsy, Miami | https://www.thebetsyhotel.com/explore/exhibitions/edouard-duval-carrie
  • National Book Awards | November 18, New York. Edwidge Danticat’s Dèy is a fiction finalist | nationalbook.org
  • CaFA Fair, first New York edition | November 20 – 22, 208 East 126th Street, Harlem | cafafair.com
  • Venice Biennale: Bahamas, Grenada and Haiti pavilions | through November 22, Venice | labiennale.org
  • Rafael Trelles | opens November 26, October Gallery, London | octobergallery.co.uk
  • SounDown Music & Arts Festival | November 28, Guyana Marriott, Georgetown | guyanago.org/events/371

December

  • Havana Film Festival | December 3 – 13, Havana
  • Mois Kréyol | through December 6, France, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane
  • Bahamas International Film Festival | December 7 – 9 Harbour Island, December 10 – 14 Nassau | bintlfilmfest.com
  • KESmas | December 18 Toronto, December 19 Brooklyn | kestheband.com

Long runs

Deadlines

Opening soon

  • Sundance Institute 2027 Producers Track | applications open November 17 | sundance.org

Last Look

Jacmel’s story goes home from Chicago with gold.

Find Kelli Blake on Substack · LinkedIn

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