When Caribbean Heritage Magazine asked if I would be interested in interviewing writer-director extraordinaire, Steve McQueen about his series Small Axe, as part of their Salute to Hollywood Honorees, it was a no-brainer. At that point I had seen all his feature films, and I was an avid fan of his work.
Natasha Griffiths
Natasha Griffiths
Natasha Griffiths is a screenwriter-director and educator from Manchester, Jamaica. She has a commendable background in Theatre (acting), which was the pursuit of her undergraduate studies. After her undergraduate tenure, a joint program between the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and The University of the West Indies, Ms. Griffiths pursued filmmaking. While serving as a high school Theatre Arts teacher, she undertook several film trainings, and more specifically, screenwriting programs. After eight years as a high school educator, while moonlighting as a writer and production assistant, Ms. Griffiths pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree in screenwriting. In May 2018 she concluded her MFA at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, NY. To date, Ms. Griffiths has written a number of screenplays; shorts, features, one-hour television episodes, and web-series episodes. A Fire and a Funeral, the pilot episode of her television drama series Showa was short-listed for the 2018 Sundance Episodic Lab. Additionally, her feature screenplay Lukewarm was short-listed for the 2021 Sundance Feature Film Program Development Track and earned a place in the 2019 British Council/Jamaica Film & Television association/Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) Feature Film Lab. Also, her short film, Home Sweet Home was an official selection in the 2020 Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and GATFEST International Film Festival. Ms. Griffiths has served as an adjunct screenwriting professor at Hofstra University, Brooklyn College (Fierstein Graduate School of Cinema), New York University (TISCH School of the Arts), and The University of the West Indies (CARIMAC). Currently, Ms. Griffiths is a full-time faculty member at The University of Technology, Jamaica, where she lectures in screenwriting.