Private Project

SteelPan Now! Notes on Where Pan Gone

SteelPan Now! Notes on Where Pan Gone is a one-hour documentary that peers into the current world of the steelpan (steel drum), its players, its innovators, and the music that reverberates from this versatile instrument to find answers to the question that many on the island of its birth often ask, “Whey Pan Gone?”. The documentary follows several steelpan musicians, composers, arrangers, pan makers of various backgrounds across several cities in the United States who’ve spent decades involved in the steelpan movement.

  • Ryan Saunders
    Director
  • Aaron R. Astillero
    Producer
  • Ryan Saunders
    Producer
  • Cliff Alexis
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Liam Teague
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Yuko Asada
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Salmon Cupid
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Victor Provost
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Kendall Williams
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Martin Douglas
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Kyle Dunlevey
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Jonathan Scales
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Duvone Stewart
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Ellie Mannette
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Aaron R. Astillero
    Writer
  • Ryan Saunders
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour
  • Completion Date:
    May 15, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Trinidad and Tobago, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    High Definition
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16.9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ryan Saunders

BIOGRAPHY: Ryan Saunders

Ryan Saunders was born on the twin-island state of Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean and has over the past several years produced short films and videos that explore his and others' experiences as Caribbean immigrants in North America. One such project Look Ma Dese Streets Not Paved with Gold screened at several festivals and galleries in the Baltimore/Washington region, and formed part of Through the Lens Series, screened on WYBE Public Television in Philadelphia in 1996.

In 2001 Mr. Saunders co-produced Gift, a 16mm short film by producer/director Malkia Lydia. In 2002 Mr. Saunders again teamed up with Ms. Lydia to produce Mother Dot’s Philadelphia, which aired on Philadelphia’s Public Television WYBE Ch 35. The musical score for Mother Dot’s Philadelphia won a local Emmy for Philadelphia composer Rodney Whittenberg.

In 2003 Mr. Saunders released his feature-length documentary Bacchanal Time: The People’s Carnival, which explores and documents the initial history and spread of the Trinidad Carnival to North America. Bacchanal Time won Best Caribbean Themed Film at the 5th Annual Jamerican Film Festival in 2003.

In 2004 Mr. Saunders and Ms. Lydia teamed up again to produce the follow-up to Mother Dot’s Philadelphia entitled Mother Dot’s Philadelphia: The Music Continues which formed part of the
Philadelphia Stories 4 series on WYBE Channel 35 and aired on Philadelphia’s Public Television WYBE Ch 35.

Mr. Saunders has collaborated with other artists in the Philadelphia area including St. Lucian dancer/choreographer Tania Isaacs on her dance project, home is where i am as a video editor, and with eclectic St. Kitts singer/songwriter Dr. Mush of Mush Vibes in his music video Island Groove. Other work included commissioned projects 5 Ladies of Dance for the Painted Bride Art Center, and The President’s House which formed part of the backstory leading to the creation of the President’s House exhibit at the Constitution Hall in Philadelphia.

Mr. Saunders's latest project is a documentary co-production with writer/producer Aaron Astillero. Titled Steel Pan Now! Notes on where Pan Gone! the documentary seeks to highlight the versatility and progress of the steelpan, a unique 20th-century invention developed by the disadvantaged and denigrated youths in 1940s Trinidad.

Mr. Saunders received his BA in Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and his MFA in Film and Media Arts at Temple University. For the past ten years, Mr. Saunders has held the Technical Director position at Philadelphia Public Access Corporation.

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Director Statement

For many Caribbean inhabitants, island life is hard, and the limited opportunities can dampen personal ambition. On the other hand, those same hardships and limited opportunities drive many to be inventive and creative in ways never imagined or expected. Many of these factors have also contributed to helping influence what films I can make as well as the way they are made.

Growing up on the island of Trinidad I lived in a neighborhood that spawned three steel band orchestras within several street blocks from my home. As a young boy, at carnival time as with perhaps all city dwellers I went to bed with the sounds of the steel drums playing. I never played the instrument because of the negative stigma associated with it at the time. The creation of the steelpan back then was as mysterious and magical as the sounds emitted from the instrument itself. Yet at the same time the validity, usefulness, and potential of the “beautiful instrument” as it is often called and from which such mesmerizing music emanates was often questioned. Many would ask “Whey Pan Gone?”

Over twenty years after leaving the island I encountered the steelpan in a way that I had never experienced before on a trip to Virginia Beach for an annual steelpan music festival. It was a back-of-the hair raising and pleasantly shocking experience that to me answered the question “Whey Pan Gone?” We produced the documentary to explore where the steelpan has indeed gone; the people and spaces where it has been embraced away from the island, overcoming the negativity and denigration that shackled it and anyone associated with it in the past.

More than a musical experience or historical document we find men, women and youth from various cultures and backgrounds sharing and displaying the determination, skill, and virtuoso of the pannist wherever the instrument is found. Through these variegated, multilayered, and multifaceted scenarios, the versality and uniqueness of the steelpan shines through responding with sharp notes and full of rhythm in answer to the question that has often caused angst among its practitioners, “Whey pan gone?”