By Dave Douglas

After a fantastic week and a half of community screening and previews, the ninth-annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF), will come to a close on Saturday but not before fans get a chance to see the closing preview movie Two Smart, a Barbadian production starring Alison Hinds, George Gill and Saran Lashley. The film was directed by Ricky Redman and Shakirah Bourne.

Bourne is the Barbadian writer of Two Smart and owner of freelance writing and editing company GetWrite!, and a partner in the Caribbean film production company Bajans In Motion Inc., producer of Two Smart. She wrote the film Payday (ttff/13), which had its world premiere in 2013 in Barbados. She is currently working on the next Payday.

“I wanted to see if I could write a feature film that was set in one unconventional location with just three characters. This movie will keep the audience in suspense down to the final scene. Scandal fans will love Two Smart,” says Bourne.

In a recent conversation with Hinds, the Caribbean Camera was given a behind- the-scenes sneak preview of the movie which was shot on the island of Barbados in two locations, the parishes of St. John and St. Peter.

The plot thickens when Jon, and Madj offer to give Desiree, a young clerical officer, a ride in their van, but during an argument with her husband, Madj crashes the van into a gully. With cell phones dead and torrential rain falling, the three decide to wait out the storm and find help in the morning. However, the long night reveals a tangled web of lies and betrayal, where some relationships are more deadly than the raging storm.

“It’s a very intense physiological thriller that has a lot of plot twists and turns; when you think you’ve figured it out, it sends you into a completely different direction,” says Hinds. “It was 10 nights of intense shooting because the cast is very small. It’s just me playing the role of Marjorie Smart, otherwise known as Madj and two other actors, George Gill who plays my husband Jonathan Smart and Saran Lashley who plays the role of my daughter, Desiree.”

This was Hinds’ debut movie in a leading role and now that she has been bitten by the acting bug, rest assured acting is going to be an integral part of her career. You can almost feel the excitement in her voice as she describes her experience on the phone.

“The movie happens at night, it happens in one night, all the movie was night shoots. It was challenging because we were shooting on set, like maybe five, six o clock in the evening and then again you start shooting around maybe seven, eight. We all had to be on set every night. It wasn’t like you got a night off because you weren’t in a particular set of scenes; most scenes required the three of us to be in them in some combination.

“The cast being so small and the crew working every night meant everybody bonded very quickly, so we got to know one another very quickly. I really enjoyed it! I enjoyed the experience of it!”

Soca queen Alison Hinds will be in Toronto for a Q&A on closing night of the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival which ends this Saturday. All of the 2014 entries competing for the coveted CTFF Audience Prize will also be announced that same night.

  entertainment, Hinds, movie, Too Smart