GARIFUNA IN PERIL directed by Filmmakers Alí Allié and Ruben Reyes from Honduras will be one of the highlights of the 8th Annual CaribbeanTales Toronto Film Showcase, September 4 – 14, 2013.

This film follows a Garifuna language teacher, Ricardo, who struggles to preserve his endangered Afro-Amerindian culture by building a language school back in his home village in Honduras, Central America. A business venture with his brother designed to raise money for the school’s construction becomes complicated by the expansion plans of a nearby tourist resort into indigenous territory. Historical parallels are invoked as Ricardo’s son rehearses a stage play about the Garifuna people’s last stand against British colonialism over 200 years ago in their motherland, the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean.

GARIFUNA IN PERIL features strong debut performances by Garifuna actors from Honduras, Belize and the USA, and is the first dramatic feature film with a majority of its dialogue in Garifuna (a language proclaimed by UNESCO in 2001 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity). The film examines family strife and the tensions between tradition and assimilation. These challenges, along with defending the integrity of ancestral lands from exploitative interests, are the focal point of the film’s message, highlighting realities not only for the Garifuna, but all indigenous peoples worldwide.

The Garifuna are a mix of West African and Carib-Arawak Indian people who originated on the island of St. Vincent in the 17th Century, and are considered indigenous to the Americas. They were exiled from the island in 1797 by the British and now live in the coastal regions of Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the United States.

 http://youtu.be/NQs5m9haasM