Spirit Mas: Spirit Island

by Shea Best • 7 mins • Short • Web, New Media, Fashion, Romance, Fantasy, Carnival, Folklore • Trinidad and Tobago • 2024

Two Secret Lovers escape their reality and get marooned on an island. They meet a nymph who presents them with a choice, go back to their previous life or retrieve artifacts from four spirits. This film is a collaboration with Spirit Mas Carnival and explores the joint venture of filmmaking and story telling in tandem with the cultural phenomenon that is Trinidad Carnival and the thematic presentation of their Carnival 2025 theme.

She Island

Raven Irabor & Sira Marissa Lewis • 16 mins • Experimental, Short Folklore, Fiction, Drama, Performance • Trinidad and Tobago • United States • English, Haitian, Papiamento, Spanish • 2025

She Island is an enchanting and experimental film that blends folklore, history, and mysticism to tell a powerful story of resilience and cultural reclamation. Set on a fictional Caribbean island where women reign supreme, the story follows a mother and daughter on a perilous journey to break a curse cast by Ouidah: The Forgetting Tree—an entity threatening to erase the memories and identities of the island’s women. Guided by the mystical LaDiabless, they navigate ancestral rituals and traditions to reclaim their heritage. Rooted in the symbolism of the historical Tree of Forgetfulness in Ouidah, Benin, the film explores themes of hybridity, sisterhood, preservation, and the indispensable role of Caribbean women as gatekeepers of culture. Culminating in a triumphant ritual and a vibrant carnival of renewal, She Island is a celebration of ancestral wisdom, resistance, and the enduring power of Caribbean identity. https://vimeo.com/1019670264?share=copy trinidad Expect delivery late May.