Trafficked set head to court

Producers Garth St Clair and wife Natasha Nunez have decided to issue a pre-action protocol letter to the director of Quirky Films, Sean Hodgkinson who is being accused of withholding the final uncut version of the film.

At a news conference held yesterday at the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Services Industries, Woodbrook, St Clair said he and Nunez, hosts of the radio show Eye on Dependency, have been accused of attempting to steal original works.

“We embarked on this journey with enthusiasm raising $945,000 from various sponsors to whom we made commitments to share the film for use in the field as an educational weapon against those who seek to entrap or coerce vulnerable persons to traffic drugs,” St Clair said.

“After commissioning the film, we are yet to receive the promised final uncut version as the rights of ownership have been questioned.

Instead, the company commissioned to produce and shoot this film, Quirky Films, is accusing us of attempting to steal original works. Also, we are yet to receive an accounting of how the sponsorship money was spent on the film’s production.” He said the original cost to produce the film was $600,000.

St Clair said funding for the film came from the government and State agencies and he was required to get permission from the Ministry of Health and the National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Programme (NADAPP) before they could have proceeded.

“Our personal and professional reputations are being called into question over the production of the and the time has come to publicly treat with these issues for the benefit of our stakeholders. We have been trying to settle and appealed to the director. We did not want to taint the film by ventilating this in the public. We begged and pleaded off camera to settle this. If we had come together and pool our funds from events such as barbecue and cake sales and from family and friends, this press conference would not have been taking place this morning. This would have been a private battle.” St Clair said the intended purpose of the film has not been met.

“Eye on Dependency wishes to publicly state that it is prepared to substantiate all its claims with respect to the genesis and development of the idea for Trafficked.

We intend to make every effort to ensure the film is made available for its intended purpose and to announce that despite the circumstances, Eye on Dependency is continuing its public education work with the production of another film, Trafficked 2 - The Mule, as well as the Eye on Dependency television series.”