Doubles | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ian Harnarine |
Written by | Ian Harnarine |
Produced by | Mark Sirju |
Starring | Errol Sitahal Sanjiv Boodhu |
Cinematography | Bob Gundu Ash Tailor |
Edited by | Baun Mah |
Music by | Simon Poole Nikhil Seetharam |
Production company | MAS Media |
Distributed by | Game Theory Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Doubles is a Canadian drama film, directed by Ian Harnarine and released in 2023. [1] An expansion of his Genie Award-winning 2011 short film Doubles with Slight Pepper , the film stars Sanjiv Boodhu as Dhani, a young doubles vendor in Trinidad who travels to Toronto to visit his estranged father Ragbir (Errol Sitahal), only to learn that his father is dying. [2]
Its cast also includes Rashaana Cumberbatch, David Fraser, Leela Sitahal, Vas Saranga, Oluniké Adeliyi, Stephanie Herrera, Orville Cummings, Premika Leo, Patti-Anne Ali and Kris Persad.
The film was announced as receiving funding from Telefilm Canada's Talent to Watch program in 2019. [3] Production was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. [4]
It premiered on September 17, 2023, at the 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival, [5] and was screened the following week as the opening film of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. [1]
It was subsequently screened as the opening film of the 2024 Canadian Film Festival, [5] before going into commercial release in July 2024. [6]
Marie Saadeh of Exclaim! wrote that "The strongest elements of the film are the performances by Boodhu and Sitahal, who masterfully convey a strained and stubborn yet, beneath it all, loving father-son dynamic that invites us to care deeply about each character's journey. A lively Caribbean soundtrack accompanies the film and often contrasts with the dark and harsh Canadian winter we see Dhani experience for the first time. Harnarine shows true care and intention in how the culture around Caribbean food is depicted in the film. It's a touching tribute to the immigrant experience and forgiveness, and undoubtedly will leave its audience hungry for some doubles." [2]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canadian Film Festival | 2024 | William F. White Reel Canadian Indie | Doubles | Won | [7] |
People's Pick for Best Flick | Won | ||||
Best Supporting Performance | Errol Sitahal | Won |
The Canadian Film Festival, formerly known as the Canadian Filmmakers Festival, is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario. Showcasing a program of Canadian independent films, it is held in March of each year and usually runs for five days.
The Inside Out Film and Video Festival, also known as the Inside Out LGBT or LGBTQ Film Festival, is an annual Canadian film festival, which presents a program of LGBT-related film. The festival is staged in both Toronto and Ottawa. Founded in 1991, the festival is now the largest of its kind in Canada. Deadline dubbed it "Canada’s foremost LGBTQ film festival."
Frances-Anne Solomon is an English-Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, and distributor. She has lived in Britain, Trinidad & Tobago, and Toronto, Canada.
Errol Sitahal is a Trinidadian actor who has had various roles in several Hollywood and Caribbean films. In 1995, he played a character named Ram Dass, the Indian manservant, in the film, A Little Princess. The same year he also appeared with Chris Farley and David Spade in a scene from the movie Tommy Boy, where he played the third "Yes" executive. In 2004, he played the stern Dr. Patel, father of Kumar and Kumar's older brother Saikat, in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
A Winter Tale is a 2007 Canadian drama film written, directed and produced by Frances-Anne Solomon, featuring Canadian actor Peter Williams and Caribbean stars Leonie Forbes and Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall. It premiered at the ReelWorld Film Festival where it won Solomon the Outstanding Canadian Feature Film Award, as well as Special Mention in the Outstanding Screenplay category. It subsequently screened at the Montreal World Film Festival, Atlantic Film Festival, Bite The Mango Film Festival, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival & The New York African Diaspora Film Festival.
David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a Professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.
Reelworld Film Festival, founded in 2001 by Tonya Williams, is held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival screens film and provides professional development for Canadian racially diverse and indigenous filmmakers and media artists.
John Joseph Welsman is a Canadian composer known for his work in film and television. He has written film and television scores for production companies in both Canada and the United States. Some of the films he has worked on are The Peace Tree, A Winter Tale, and Nurse.Fighter.Boy and Lantern Hill. He has been nominated for the Gemini Award ten times, winning four times for his work on the television series Road to Avonlea, and once for the short film 'The Bellringer'.
The Trinidad and Tobago film festival is a film festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. It takes place annually in Trinidad and Tobago in the latter half of September, and runs for approximately two weeks. The festival screens feature-length narrative and documentary films, as well as short and experimental films.
The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. A registered non-profit company, the festival has as its title sponsor the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC). Other sponsors and partners include First Citizens Bank, One Caribbean Media (OCM), who sponsor the associated OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, CODE, and the Commonwealth Foundation.
Ian Harnarine is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his 2011 short film Doubles with Slight Pepper, which won the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 32nd Genie Awards in 2012.
Yao Ramesar is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian film director and screenwriter.
Doubles with Slight Pepper is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Ian Harnarine and released in 2011.
Queen of the Morning Calm is a 2019 Canadian drama film written and directed by Gloria Ui Young Kim in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Tina Jung as Deborah, a single mother in Toronto who is struggling to raise her daughter Mona while the girl's father Sarge moves in and out of their lives unpredictably and unreliably.
The TIFF Tribute Awards are an annual award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to honour distinguished achievements in filmmaking. Unlike the festival's regular awards, which are presented based on audience or jury voting during the festival, the TIFF Tribute Awards are presented to people or organizations selected by the board and announced in advance of the festival. Recipients are selected from among the cast and crew of the films in that year's festival lineup.
The Vancouver International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual award, presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival to honour the film selected by a jury as the best Canadian film screened at VIFF that year.
Kim Albright is a Canadian film director based in Vancouver, British Columbia, whose debut feature film With Love and a Major Organ was released in 2023.
Junior's Giant is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Paula Brancati and released in 2022. The film stars Eric Peterson as Junior, an elderly man suffering from Lewy body dementia who begins to hallucinate a giant, causing strain in his loving relationship with his transgender granddaughter Kaye.