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WRITER, actor, director, producer – no, not the US’ Donald Glover but Trinidad and Tobago’s Maria Lewis.
The 35-year-old told WMN about her journey inside and outside of the theatre and how she defied the odds by producing a local feature-length film – titled Our Year – during a global pandemic.
She was born in San Fernando but was raised in Point Fortin – the hometown of her mother and grandparents. She now lives in Gran Couva. She is one of three children, having a sister named Chryssie and a brother named Phillip.
She attended St Peter’s Private Primary School in Pointe-a-Pierre then St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando.
She recalled her interest in making films being kick-started by a form three English class.
“I remember when I was 14, I wrote this short story for English class and I thought it was a very, very creative story and I was so excited to read it out to the class. But then the teacher came and she picked one girl to read out her essay and I felt mine was so creative. Then the teacher went on to teach other things like prepositions or something,” she said laughingly.
But then she thought, “Maybe this story is meant to be a film.”
She said the story was based on her take of the creation of life but did not reveal too much as she is still yet to make it into a film. But interestingly, she said, it was used as her thesis when she did her master’s degree in feature-film screenwriting and the University of London.
She had previously done a bachelor’s degree in film and theatre studies at the University of Kent in England.
“I always loved acting, I always loved drama and theatre. And especially in convent, I’d always challenge myself. My question to myself was always what the most creative story to come up with was. I always wondered what creative spin nobody else can think of that I can.
“One of my earliest memories as a child was this model pageant thing for mothers and daughters. And I remember having to dress up as (Christine) “Cricket” (Blair) from the Young and the Restless and mom put makeup on me and put me on her lap. I always liked that kind of thing.”
She added, “Even though my personality isn’t exactly a theatre person (because) I love my privacy but put me on my stage, I will perform.”
Even in her master’s class, she said all her classmates would continually “push themselves to come up with something really different."
She loves the genre of fantasy the most, with one of her favourite books and films being the Lord of the Rings. “(JRR) Tolkien is right up my alley,” she said beaming.
“In that master’s programme, my teacher had to find practitioners in the film industry to talk to us about out films. Everyone had really captivating, nitty-gritty real-life life stories. But when it came to me, it was a challenge for her to find someone for me.
“I think film is one of the few things that we have on earth that we could go outside way the imagination and sit for an hour and a bit to be transported to another world."
One common challenge with those in love with theatre is the choice between remaining at a 9-5 job and deciding to fully commit to the stage as a career. Lewis, too, faced this.
[caption id="attachment_884683" align="alignnone" width="683"] Filmmaker Maria Lewis was a one-man crew to film her movie One Love. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
Locally, she did a lot of work with Crazy Catholic Productions and also acted in John Smith’s production The King and I in 2013. She also had jobs ranging from television news production, accounting, marketing to copywriting and advertising and corporate communications.
But in 2019, she said, “It was moving further and further away from the creativity.
“My 9-5 was always at the side in my mind even though it used to be my mainstay.”
Not knowing a global pandemic would soon emerge, she quit her day job and told her family she was “going to get fully back into acting.”
She planned to further her education by doing film courses in the US but then: “I was within the first stages of (getting a) student visa then we got the outbreak in March 2020. Then all visa appointments postponed indefinitely.”
And though she still did not regret leaving her main job, she felt stuck for a bit and wondered what would come next.
“It’s like telling (TT Olympian) Machel Cedenio all running cancelled forever.”
But Zoom soon took over the world as one of the main video chatting software used for meetings, limes, among other things. And Lewis decided that a pandemic could bring a stop to many things but it can’t stop creativity.
She began penning the script for what would become a feature-length film called Our Year.
She gathered – virtually, of course – a group of friends and family as the actors and actresses and had them send in videos of them giving their best performances of the script.
She also had to dabble with video editing which she said can be very frustrating but she is glad she was able to “get something together that was semi-decent.”
She plays a mother of one named Hope, a name which is very telling of the character. She takes an online entrepreneur course and has five other classmates. They get to know each other, their struggles and try to help each other navigate life. It includes challenges like family issues, finance, depression and even some budding romance – all of which is happening during a global pandemic.
“It is a pandemic film in every sense of the word because it’s about some people going through the pandemic remotely…They each have goals but like all of us in the world, things were cut short and you either freeze up and let things row you over or you adapt. And I wanted to show characters who are strong enough to be able to adapt during challenging times.”
She admitted there were times where she felt overwhelmed having to do so many different things. She was the lone member of her crew, which meant she was the camera operator, the person in charge of lighting, audio – everything. She said it is always important, regardless of how passionate you may be about something, to take a break.
She also encountered some pretty funny challenges while filming at home.
“When I hit record, drama. You might hear dogs barking in the background or the people cutting grass, children playing outside, the clank clank of pots in the kitchen…”
Frustration and challenges aside, it was all worth it when she officially premiered the hour and 23-minute long film on March 8 and began receiving feedback from strangers, friends and family.
In fact, the film caused her hairdresser’s food to burn because she was so invested in it and it brought one of her cousins to tears.
“She (my cousin) said it had been such a long time where she watched a show that was just in the Trinidadian accent.”
A viewer from the UK told her he could not “identify” with TT culture, which was a barrier for him.
But Lewis said she was actually glad to hear such a comment.
“We get a lot of foreign media. We are bombarded by foreign media and foreign culture, so for people who are open-minded around the world, we say, ‘Here’s our culture.’
“I really wanted to inspire people, mostly filmmakers out there. And not established filmmakers but those who are like me and even less privileged than me because I still have accommodation at my parents’ home.
“It is such an expensive art form. It’s not an easy thing to do because it’s such an expensive medium.”
She said she plans to begin privately teaching children drama from May and will begin writing another film soon to hopefully be produced in 2022.
 
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