May 8, 2019
Frances shares:
How she navigated the film industry as a woman of colour
Her career path from the BBC to founding the CaribbeanTales Media
Group
Her advice to women entering the film industry
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer,
producer, curator, and entrepreneur in film, TV, radio, theatre,
and new media. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she was
raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to
Great Britain where she built a successful career with the BBC as a
TV Drama Producer and Executive Producer.
She moved to Toronto in 2000, where she continued to create, write, direct, and produce her own projects. She is currently in production with the feature HERO – Inspired by the Life and Time of Ulric Cross. Her film A Winter Tale received many prestigious international awards, including at Fespaco 2009 (Africa’s Oscars held biannually in Burkina Faso West Africa) where it won in The Paul Robeson Award for Best Diaspora Film.
She was the Co-creator, Producer and Director of Lord Have Mercy! Canada’s hit Caribbean sitcom, that aired on Vision TV, Toronto/one, Showcase and APTN in 2003 and was nominated for two Gemini Awards: Best Comedy series, and Best Individual Performer (Leonie Forbes).
She is the founder and CEO of the CaribbeanTales Media Group, based in Barbados and Toronto, a group of companies that creates, produces, markets, and sells Caribbean-themed film and television content for global audiences. Other initiatives include RED HOT, promoting new work by emerging creators of color; CineFAM – that supports bold film stories by Women Creators of Color, and #INTERSECT – film narratives by Queer and Trans Filmmakers of Color.
She has lectured in Film at the University of the West Indies, and made presentations on her work at NYU and Duke University. She began her television career at Banyan Productions in Trinidad, studied Theatre at the University of Toronto with Steve Martineau and Ken Gass, and poetry with Jay MacPherson. She trained as a film director in the UK at Bristol University, and the prestigious BBC Drama Directors Program.
https://francesannesolomon.com/