About the Film

Between February and April 1970, the streets of Port of Spain were filled with angry young black men and women chanting ‘Power to the People’, fists raised in a salute learned from the Black Panthers of the U.S.A. They spilled out of Woodford Square in their thousands, fired up by marathon orators like Geddes Granger and Clive Nunez. They struck fear into the hearts of downtown business owners who quickly locked their banks and stores as they heard the approaching sound of marching feet.

This was the legendary Black Power revolution, which captivated the imaginations of their youthful followers and made the government of Dr. Eric Williams and the white establishment very nervous indeed. The revolution was ended by a State of Emergency, but this in turn was threatened by a surprise mutiny among the soldiers of the Regiment. Had it succeeded (a distinct possibility) a military coup might well have ushered in a socialist revolutionary government to Trinidad and Tobago.

Forty years later, Afros have given way to grey beards, the Che berets have been stored away, and dashikis gather dust in the back of the closet. But the impact of the Black Power revolution remains fresh and strong in the culture of Trinidad & Tobago.

To tell this important story, with its hits and misses, its tragedy and its humour, we have interviewed the revolutionaries themselves, and the journalists observing from the sidelines; the daughter and a close confidante of the Prime Minister, and senior members of the white business community; Coast Guard officers and Army mutineers: calypsonians, a banker, a lawyer, a priest, a comedian, a Carnival Queen. Their memories and anecdotes, by turns moving and hilarious, surprising and shocking, are supported by newly-unearthed archival film footage and photographs. Their stories are presented as told, without bias, and with a single agenda: to get as close to the truth as possible, as elusive as that might be.

Clips from the Film

1. The trailer for the film, ’70: Remembering a Revolution, begins with Clive Nunez, a revolutionary activist, cleaning the gravestone of Basil Davis, killed by police during a Black Power demonstration.
2. Michael Als, who in 1970 was leader of the Young Power Movement, talks about the need to engage in a conversation about what 1970 means.
3. In 1970, Khafra Kambon was known as Dave Darbeau. A leader in the university student guild, he talks about the role of Prime Minister Eric Williams during 1970.
4. Clive Nunez discusses the Carnival Queen competition as a focus of the resentment of young black revolutionaries. Up to 1970, the Carnival Queen was always a young woman of light or white skin colour.
5. Ferdie Fereira in 1970 was a close confidante of the Prime Minister, who he kept informed about what was happening on the street.
6. The Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard was instrumental in preventing the mutinous soldiers of the regiment from reaching Port of Spain. Richard Kelshall, Rear-Admiral of the Coast Guard, talks about how this happened.
7. Raffique Shah, former lieutenant of the Trinidad & Tobago Regiment, was a leader of the army mutiny.
8. Erica Williams Connell, daughter of the Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams, talks about her father’s state of mind during the 1970 crisis.

Producer: Stephen Cadiz
Directors: Alex de Verteuil and Elizabeth Topp
Editor: Luke Paddington