“Mas Man – The Complete Work,” a reconfigured final cut of “Mas Man,” the short documentary about Trinidad Carnival artist and Olympic artistic director Peter Minshall which won seven prizes as a work in progress, received its 10th award Nov. 25 at an international film festival held in Antigua and Barbuda.
“Everyone on the panel appreciated the film on many levels,” Petra Frisell, a festival official said.
The new, long-form feature was judged Best Caribbean Film 2012, and producer/director Dalton Narine, a Miami resident, immediately began marketing the three-DVD home video on the film’s website at www.masmanthemovie.com
The five-hour extravaganza features an extended (two-hours and 25 minutes) version of the festival format, and a 90-min. Minshall monologue.
The film has been screened on six continents and at 40 locations – across the U.S., Canada, Cuba, The Caribbean, Argentina, England, Wales, Ireland, Holland, China, Thailand, Africa and Australia. Most recently, it was honoured in the Best Feature Documentary category at the International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration, and Equality in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Lucerne International Film Festival, Switzerland.
“We gave it high notes,” the Lucerne jury said, “acknowledging the quality, excellence and skills.”
Festivals in Warsaw, Poland, and Mumbai, India, also were moved by Minshall’s avant-garde Carnival themes about good, evil and the environment. Organizers took Mas Man – The Complete Work out of competition and granted it special categories, such as The World Today and Real to Reel, respectively.
“I felt privileged,” Narine said, “because the film was subtitled and shown multiple times in both cities – considering a single viewing is the norm.”
Following screenings in the fall in Athens, Greece; New York and Hollywood, the film received offers for U.S. and international distribution /marketing from representatives in Switzerland, Australia and Los Angeles, prompting Narine to secure an agent.
“The plan is to get the work on social media and in college and university libraries,” Narine said. “A few institutions have already shown keen interest.
“That has been my dream – to share Minshall’s work with the world, which I regard as the rightful purview. It all started when Time magazine wrote about Minshall, an artistic director of the groundbreaking opening ceremonies for the Barcelona Olympic Games, as a man from the Caribbean. And Trinidad and Tobago didn’t take that slight just so.”
Minshall went on to become an artistic director of opening ceremonies at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, which won Emmy awards for both Minshall and the production team headed by Hollywood producer Don Mischer.
