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MAS MAN

By Dalton NARINE

CARIBBEANTALES WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2010

An artist from a tiny Caribbean island reaches 80 per cent of the planet in a single night.

- Year of production
- 2010
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- USA, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 89 mn
- Director(s)
- Dalton NARINE
- Producer(s)
- Dalton NARINE
- Synopsis
- Peter Minshall awakens topics about modern humanity that not only display a curious slant in art but also inform audiences that are privileged to discern his work, whether in the annual Carnival in Trinidad or through appearances around the world.
  The film celebrates three decades of Minshall’s Mas (not to be confused with masquerade, for Mas hews more to the inventiveness of mobile street theater than simply dressing up). And the work feasts on an anthology of provocative themes, largely about evil and good - for example, the Seven Deadly Sins, mirrored in the incompleteness of man.
  Minshall populates such presentations with 2,500 or so players who are willing to pay to perform to the beat of soca rhythms and East Indian drums as they transport his satirical outlook on life through the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital city.
  By mingling traditional craft with novel ideas and exhibiting his themes as upper crust art during the two-day pre-Lenten festival, Minshall eventually lands a global platform for his theatrics. He is named an artistic director for the Opening Ceremonies of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Four years later, Minshall reprises his role in Atlanta, and yet again at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, for which he earned an Emmy.
  Art has its share of uncredited heroes, and 'Mas Man' assesses the heft of a Caribbean artist’s refreshing point of view about the perils of man and his environment - as well Minshall's display of craftsmanship and expertise in the Olympic stadium.