Experiencing Interruptions?

Unfinished Sentences

A writer father and a filmmaker daughter walk the fine line between adoration and disappointment, success and failure, race, family and art. Until he dies and in her grief, she discovers his poetry and prose transcend death, allowing her to hear his voice again and find a way back to her own self.

  • Mariel Brown
    Writer
    Smallman: The World My Father Made
  • Fernanda Rossi
    Writer
    Love They Nature, The Pink Room
  • Mariel Brown
    Producer
    The Solitary Alchemist, The Insatiable Season, Inward Hunger: The Story of Eric Williams
  • Saffrey Brown
    Producer
  • Renaldo Frederick
    Key Cast
    "Wayne"
    Pan: A Musical Odyssey, Girlfriends' Getaway
  • Sophie Wight
    Key Cast
    "Megan"
    The Reef
  • Che Jardine
    Key Cast
    "Mariel"
  • Alessandra Jardine
    Key Cast
    "Saffrey"
  • Mariel Brown
    Director
    The Solitary Alchemist, Smallman: The World My Father Made, Inward Hunger: The Story of Eric Williams
  • Francesco Emmanuel
    Composer
    Inward Hunger
  • Laura Fong Prosper
    Editor
    On the Road with Maruch
  • David Forshee
    Supervising Sound Editor
    Imperium, Patti Cakes
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    105,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Trinidad and Tobago
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Super 8mm and HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Bocas Lit Fest
    Port of Spain
    Trinidad and Tobago
    April 26, 2018
    Trinidad & Tobago Premiere
  • IFF Panama
    Panama City
    Panama
    April 9, 2018
    Caribbean Premiere
  • Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival
    Port of Spain
    Trinidad and Tobago
    September 19, 2018
    Jury Prize for Best Trinidad+Tobago Feature Film
  • CaribbeanTales International Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    September 13, 2018
    Canadian Premiere
    Jury Prize for Best Feature Film
  • FICSUR International Film Festival
    Ushuaia
    Argentina
    March 20, 2019
    Best Editing in the International Documentary Competition
Distribution Information
  • Habanero Film Sales
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Mariel Brown

Mariel Brown is the award-winning director of the creative and production companies SAVANT and SAVANT Films. Since 2007, her films have won: CBU (Caribbean Broadcasting Union) award for Best Television Documentary ‘West Indies at War’; jury prize for Best Documentary Short ‘Smallman’ (Caribbean Tales International Film Festival); Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary ‘The Insatiable Season’, Best Locally Produced Film (‘Solitary Alchemist’) and Best Local Film Jury Prize (‘Inward Hunger’) at the well-regarded Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. Her films have been screened at several international festivals including Clermont-Ferrand (market), the Pan African Film Festival, the Black Harvest Film Festival and Havana International Film Festival. Her films have been selected for curated screenings at the prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto and Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. Two of her feature films have been acquired for distribution by CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution and are available through their partnership with Third World Newsreel, and ‘Smallman’ was picked up for online distribution by Afropop.tv and Studio Anansi, as well as cable TV broadcast by Shorts TV in the UK.

Mariel has just completed post-production on another feature documentary, Unfinished Sentences, a personal exploration of her tumultuous relationship with her late father, writer Wayne Brown. Unfinished Sentences was a finalist in IFF Panama's work-in-progress competition, Primera Mirada.

Her work has been written about in top-flight international publications including Variety, Screen Daily and Filmmaker Magazine.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I suspect the complexity of my relationship with my father is not unique in terms of father/ daughter relationships. But I was shocked by my own mental collapse in the years following his death, and the terror I felt at losing him. Initially I started to make Unfinished Sentences (then just a series of interviews with people who were close to him) as a place to put my unassuageable grief. The more work I did, the more I read his writing, the more I found him. It has been an enormous happiness to me and I know there are larger truths that I am exploring – about the nature of love and loss and art – than simply a story that is personal to me. I want Unfinished Sentences to be full of love and heart whilst avoiding sentimentality. Although it employs traditional documentary devices, with the film’s visual language and narrative arc, I intend for it feel very much like a well told narrative film with a story which will sweep audiences along and give them pause to think of their own families.