FREE Nightly Film Screenings at the CHOGM People’s Space from Nov 21st – 27th

SATURDAY 21st
GANDHI

SUNDAY 22ND
WHALE RIDER - (111 MINS) NEW ZEALAND
The film is set in a small New Zealand coastal village where Maori claim descent from Paikea, the Whale Rider. In every generation, a male heir has succeeded to the chiefly title. The Chief's eldest son, Porourangi, fathers twins - a boy and a girl - but the boy and his mother die tragically in childbirth. The surviving girl is name Pai. Grief-stricken, her father leaves her to be raised by her grandparents, Koro and Flowers. Koro, the Chief, refuses to acknowledge Pai as the heir. 12 years on, Porourangi, now a feted international artist, returns home for one of his brief and infrequent visits. Koro desperately hopes that they can resolve their differences and that Porourangi will accept his destiny. But Porourangi, who has made a new life for himself in Europe, has no intention of becoming Chief. Koro is convinced that the tribe's misfortunes began at Pai's birth and calls for his people to bring their 12-year-old boys to him for training. He is certain that through a gruelling process of teaching the ancient chants, tribal lore and warrior techniques, the future leader of their tribe will be revealed to him. Excluded from the sessions, Pai covertly enlists the help of her sympathetic uncle to learn the old ways. Meanwhile, deep within the ocean, a massive herd of whales is responding, drawn towards Pai and their twin destinies. When the whales become stranded on the beach, Koro is sure this signals an apocalyptic end to his tribe. Until one person prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the people – The Whale Rider.

MONDAY 23RD
A WINTER’S TALE – (100 mins) Canada
Shots ring out one winter night and a bullet meant for a local street dealer kills a ten-year-old boy.

In the downtown Toronto community of Parkdale, grief and suspicion hang heavily in the air, while the nightly patrons at Miss G’s Caribbean TakeAway resume their ritual of beer and banter.

But one of them, Gene Wright, cannot go on. He begs his friends for help. In a most unusual development, six Black men make a pact to form a support group in hopes of salvaging their broken spirits and redeeming their besieged community

TUESDAY 24TH
MONSOON WEDDING - (114 mins) India
Lalit is a wealthy father who is trying to see that his daughter Aditi's wedding goes off without a hitch. Though familiar with Western ways, he has little patience with them and is dead set on seeing the nuptials done properly and traditionally. Disillusioned with her long time relationship with Vikram -- a man who is almost twice her age -- Aditi suddenly agrees to submit to an arranged marriage with Hemant, an engineer from Houston. Yet as the ceremony nears, she gets cold feet and returns to see her former lover -- even though it could spell disaster for everyone involved. Meanwhile, Aditi's comely 17-year-old cousin Ayesha is coming to terms with her blossoming sexuality and has her sights set on Rahul, another relative who is a college student in Australia. Then there is Rai -- also Aditi's cousin -- who has a shocking revelation to make.

WEDNESDAY 25TH
RABBIT PROOF FENCE - (94mins) Australia
The true story of three aboriginal girls who were forcibly taken from their homes in 1931 to be trained as domestic servants as part of an official Australian government policy. They made a daring escape and embarked on an epic 1,500 mile journey to get back home -- following the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the Australian continent -- with the authorities in hot pursuit.

THURSDAY 26TH
CLOSED

FRIDAY 27TH
THE HARDER THEY COME - (104 mins) Jamaica
Reggae music serves as both soundtrack and plot element in THE HARDER THEY COME, a groundbreaking classic starring music legend Jimmy Cliff. Such hits as "You Can Get It If You Really Want," "Many Rivers to Cross," and "Sitting in Limbo," punctuate the film's action, introducing reggae and its Jamaican roots to a worldwide audience. Here, Cliff plays Ivan Martin, a poor country boy who goes to the city to make money, becoming a street rebel and a pop idol overnight. In Kingston, Ivan finds nothing but corruption. The record company offers him a mere $20 to release his single, "The Harder They Come." Ivan takes to the streets, where he is ensnared by crime. After brutally knifing a man, he serves a prison sentence. Once free, he supports himself by selling marijuana, protecting himself from legal persecution by giving the cops a cut. But that doesn't keep him from getting mixed up in a police raid. Ivan quickly develops a reputation as a Kingston criminal, and when his single "The Harder They Come" is finally released, it fuels his bad-boy notoriety, culminating in a tragic conclusion.

SATURDAY 28TH
PLAYING AWAY - (100 Mins) UK/TT
Cultures collide at a cricket match in this humourous British drama that begins when an inner-city London team comprised of West Indian immigrants accepts an invitation to play a match in stuffy Sneddington, an upscale country village, as part of their "Third World Week" celebration. The story is divided into three sections. The first introduces each team as they prepare for the match. Both teams have many internal clashes between their disparate members. The middle of the story chronicles the festival itself, as the members' attempts to end racism and cultural misunderstanding only manage to increase it. Finally there is the match itself, in which the teams hash out their differences once and for all.

SUNDAY 29TH
TOTSI - (95 mins) South Africa
In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.