Film making is one of the most notoriously difficult jobs we have created in our digital age, so creating a film good enough to be shown at the Caribbean Film Festival is an achievement in itself. I met with such an achiever, Keith Musaman Morton, producer of the film; Panomundo Part 1: The Evolution of the Steelpan
09/09/2015
So who is Keith Musaman Morton? I am an independent film maker who is originally from Birmingham, but now I live in London. I studied filmmaking in 2007 and I just embarked on my first feature film, which is a joint US and UK production. It is entitled; Panomundo: The Evolution of the Steelpan.
What is Panomundo: The Evolution of The Steelpan? The film is made by two people; myself and Charysse Tia Harper. ‘Panomundo’ means ‘pan-world’ and initially when we started this production we were looking at the invention of the steelpan in Trinidad. As we looked into it, we realised that worldwide there is a ‘Pan scene’ and we tried to tell its story.
What was your plan when you made the Film? I always had this idea that as Filmmakers, we can use Black History Month as a platform to showcase Black people and the History of Black people on film. So in 2012, we went to the celebrations during Trinidad’s 50th Independence Day, put together a film and then someone said ‘it’s all good you doing a film on Carnival, but what about the steelpan?’
What other challenges did you come across when making this film? The hardest challenge really was the finance. The next hardest bit is to maintain the quality as you’re travelling around the world. So whilst it’s easier to make a film than it was twenty years ago, it also means that there is more of it and the quality might start to dissipate because there is no kind of body out there that says it has to reach a certain standard. Twenty years ago you did because the only outlets were TV and Cinema, now you have more places to watch so the standard is not questioned and people just put out whatever.
What advice do you have for other Black Filmmakers? Well I remember this very inspiring Chinese lady when I was on my filmmaking course. She said to me, ‘If you want to get into this game, do things about your culture and about your people.’
Replies
Hi Keith,
Congrats on the completion of your film. This is my first meeting with you from reading the article, and I hope to establish a collaboration with you. I have seen in the article that this film is a US/ UK co-production and I look forward to seeing it and promoting it for the Canadian Black History month February 2016.
To my beloved Pan People, I have noticed that this article was viewed on WST "Views: 117" and yet no comments were posted, but in my view, this is a great example of someone putting extraordinary effort to tell a steelpan story, and I know that there are many more stories out there waiting to be told. Could it be that we have some difficulty in voicing our positive, supportive side? I hope not. "Lift Every Voice" is the title of the Black National Anthem, so please take some time out of the busy schedules to add your supportive voice to this noble effort. BTW - I have not seen the film yet, but I am enthusiastically poised to join the chorus of voices for this film and other films to follow. The world has awoken to steelpan so let's not fall asleep at the wheel.
My humble word of encouragement for all Pan People is to help this forum elevate itself from a talk/ complaint-focused place, to a growth-centre or center, depending on where you live, and find out what others are doing for the amazing steelpan culture in different places. Of course, in some instances it would require us to "put our money $$$$$$ where our mouth is" and then we'll experience practical ways of walking the talk for PAN.
Love to All,
Michael Joseph,
Master in Environmental Studies (MES) Candidate 2016, York University, Toronto, Canada
www.ese4steelpan.tv