Team

Mariel Brown: producer/ director

Mariel Brown is a documentary filmmaker and director of the creative and production companies SAVANT Films and SAVANT Media and a co-founder of the filmmaker organisation, FILMCO. With over 25 years of experience in film and television, Mariel is committed to uncovering and documenting the nuance of the Caribbean’s rich history and culture. Some of her most notable work as creator, director and producer includes: “Inward Hunger: The Story of Eric Williams” – a three part documentary series on Trinidad and Tobago’s first prime minister; “West Indies At War” – a four-part documentary exploration of the West Indies’ involvement in World War 1; “Unfinished Sentences” – a personal exploration of her tumultuous relationship with her late father, writer Wayne Brown. She was a finalist at the Primera Mirada works-in-progress competition of IFF Panama, and a participant in the Ventana Sur Open Pitch (Argentina). Both her television and film work has won awards and been featured in international press such as Filmmaker Magazine, Variety, Screen Daily and Caribbean Beat. Mariel is currently working on a new series, ‘1990’, an in depth exploration of the 1990 attempted coup in Trinidad and Tobago.

Tracy Farrag: co-producer

J. Tracy Farrag is an independent producer and writer who has worked in film and video production for more than a decade. She also holds a Bachelor of Education with a specialisation in guidance and counseling. Her passion for children and her experience in the classroom led this one-time flight attendant to co-produce the first feature length, award-winning children’s film in Trinidad and Tobago, “Sally’s Way”. Most of her work in video production however is centred in the corporate, cultural and sporting arena, writing and producing short documentaries and profiles. She also holds a certificate in project management and  has worked on international projects with CBS as location manager for “The Amazing Race” in Trinidad and as a project coordinator with Coachella for their feature on Calypso Rose, a cultural icon and international award winner who performed at the Coachella festival in 2019.

More recently, Tracy has also devoted time to narrative fiction and in 2019 completed an 8- week writing mentorship under author Barbara Jenkins and had the pleasure of doing a reading of her story for the Bocas Lit Fest. In that same year she completed workshops with Commonwealth Short Story winner 2019, Kevin Jared Hosein and Dr. Muli Amaye, coordinator of the MFA Creative Writing at the UWI. In 2020 she was shortlisted in the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Short Story Competition and received notable mention.

Lesley-Anne Macfarlane: co-producer

Lesley-Anne Macfarlane is a Producer with a range of experience in the UK and the Caribbean region. In 2022 she produced her debut feature film, Little English – supported by the BFI Audience fund, it is currently on a UK theatrical run. 

She is a co-producer on the documentary series, 1990 and is currently developing her slate; a mixture of genres and formats, targeted at diaspora audiences, dealing with themes of cultural identity.  

Most recently, Lesley-Anne was invited to judge for One World Media Awards, selected for the 2022 BIFA Springboard programme and was one of the female identifying talents for the Birds’ Eye View Filmonomics programme.

She is also a co-founder of a social enterprise dedicated to creating a sustainable ecosystem for film and television producers and directors in the Caribbean called the Filmmakers Collaborative of Trinidad and Tobago, that also manages the largest english speaking film festival in the Caribbean, the trinidad+tobago Film Festival.