Local film-maker Storm Saulter is all set to bring his brand of tropical storytelling to next month’s Berlinale Talent Campus in Berlin, Germany.

The eighth Berlinale Talent Campus is a creative academy and networking platform for 350 up-andcoming film-makers from across the world.

The six-day film festival — staged between February 13 and 18 — features a series of symposiums, tutorials and workshops for actors, directors, screenwriters, et al.

“The Berlinale is in the top tier of international film festivals, being there as a film-maker means a lot to me,” Saulter tells S O.

“I’ll be going with the intention of meeting other young film-makers, who, like me, share a passion for their craft,” Saulter adds.

Saulter, his brother Nile and colleague Michelle Serieux are a collective band of young artists who refer to their creative movement as the New Caribbean Cinema Series, which aims to shoot several 10 to 12-minute films with Caribbean nuances at their core.

Last year, the young team of film-makers created Coast, the first short in the series which was shot in a day and completed in a month — pro bono to be exact.

Since our September S O conversation, Saulter shares that the group has completed another film, Chicken Pill, that explores two Jamaican teenage girls’ perception of body image and how they, through their socialisation, choose to interpret womanhood. He speaks also of his near-complete project Better Mus’ Come.

“It’s in its final cut and I’ll be using the opportunity (the Berlin film festival stage) to show it to European distributors,” Saulter shares. He’s confident that the Caribbean story is one that continues to be alluring, especially to the European viewer eager to grasp our particular brand of cool.

“Our stories are different and are as varied as each film-maker,” Saulter shares of his colleagues and the idea of the still-burgeoning ethos that is Caribbean cinema.

“Through Berlinale I’m hoping to put the work out there for young film-makers, my peers, who represent different countries across the world to see what we have here,” Saulter notes, adding that he’ll be taking the third film Missed in its rough format with him in an effort to have it edited under the expert tutelage of internationally acclaimed editors. Missed will be directed and produced by New Caribbean Cinema Series insider Serieux and is to be shot later this month.

“My goal is to learn from the best of those who represent independent movies the world over,” Saulter reiterates. “We have very good crew here in Jamaica, but there’s no doubt that there are people elsewhere who may do it better.”

The standards and best practices he will have gained on returning from Berlinale, he says, might hopefully be used to parlay local filmmaking into the lucrative business the industry was once shaping up to be. Think popular indie flicks like The Harder They Come, Dancehall Queen and the classic James Bond’s Dr No.

“There’s no money coming in (during and after production), but we’re confident that it will come… ultimately; what we as independent film-makers do could potentially encourage others to take similar paths in terms of the creative arts,” he posits.

Pausing for a bit, as if reflecting on his journey thus far and the next scene in his budding career, the young film-maker asserts: “My trip to Berlinale represents a new level, moving into the big time as it pertains to independent film-making, I’ll learn a lot there. It’s no longer the amateur’s league.” That, might we hasten to add, is no idle boast!