A huge fire did not stop the making of this thriller

BY SELINA McCALLUM

What would you do if three men or women held you hostage, accusing you of sleeping with their spouses? The movie Rattlesnakes, directed by Julius Amedume and produced by Jimmy Jean-Louis, explores this very narrative in a thrilling, suspenseful film.

Short film, Oseyi and the Masqueraders directed by Alwin Bully, and the premiere of Rattlesnakes in Toronto, opened up the CaribbeanTales Film Festival on September 4th, 2019, selling out the Royal Cinema in Toronto.

The CaribbeanTales International Film Festival now is now in its 14th year celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage who practice their art across the Caribbean Diaspora worldwide.

CaribbeanTales (CTMG) is a group of media companies that produces, markets, and exhibits Caribbean-themed films for regional and international distribution. CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution is the first and largest full-service film distribution company in the English-speaking Caribbean, and CaribbeanTales Inc. is a registered charity in Canada.

Adedume got the idea for the movie from a 20 year old play called Rattlesnakes, and wrote the script in less than four weeks.

Jean-Louis not only produced the film, but also played the main character, Robert McQueen. McQueen has a wife, played by Robinne Lee, and a daughter. The first thing we know about this family is that they are struggling financially, but McQueen reassures his wife that he is taking care of it.

Therapist, womanizer or sex worker? The audience watched closely as McQueen drove around the city, meeting specifically white women, in different areas.

The husbands of three women end up hiring an investigator to follow him around, leading them to plan to interrogate him in a motel room. The events that follow had the audience on the edge of their seat, listening, and sometimes laughing.

After the movie was done, a brief question and answer period took place with Adedume and Jean-Louis. The producer and actor discussed the process of filming Rattlesnakes in only 12 days in December of 2017, and shared an interesting and unexpected story with the audience.

“We prepared the days pretty well. The cast and crew would sleep in the mansion we were filming at. We would work during the day and drink wine at night. There was a huge fire in LA County, and by the third day the fire was right on top of the mansion, so the city evacuated everyone and we had to go,” said Jean-Louis. “We had no time to grab any of our belongings or equipment.”

Jean Louis and the Director of Photography went to a motel, thinking of how to get everything back when police would not be patrolling the area. They decided to round everyone up and drove at 4 a.m. to get everything. By 11 a.m. that morning they were walking back down the hill to the car, passing firetrucks on the way that stopped to wonder where they came from.

Anything can happen in life that throws things off course, and it is no different in the film industry.

CTFF is still running until September 20th in Toronto. Visit their website for more movie show times and how to get involved in the Caribbean film industry.