Mas Man and Mas Man Redux, Two for your Trinidad Carnival Collection

When Mas Man the movie premiered in London last November I leaped at the opportunity to  not just to see the move/documentary but to meet Dalton Narine,  because even as a child I always associated the Dalton Narine name to one of my greatest sources of information of anything Minshall.

So I went to the London premier of Mas Man and thought ‘YES! Narine just did it again!’

Now to tell the truth the festival cut of Mas Man is great, for me it was an analysis of Minshalls contribution to Mas made by those who had the opportunity to work with him learn from him, and define his massive contribution to the culture to Trinidad and Tobago ‘s Carnival, through the art form Mas.

I loved it! The only problem I had with it is that growing up watching Minshalls Mas with my own eyes I felt I needed to see more, my childhood memories reignited by Mas Man festival cut demanded more than 87 minutes that Mas man gave me.

The next time I spoke to Dalton Narine he told me about the director’s cut, that it was shorter than the festival cut but more coverage, MORE MAS.

And so about a week later I sat watching Mas Man and then Mas Man Redux, back to back, and trust me, Mas Man is great, but Redux is a whole different creature. While this director’s cut does feature some of the festival footage, there is a whole lot more Mas, probably all of Minshalls presentations are packed into this DVD, and the story is not just told by those who have worked with him and played in his band, a lot of the story is told by Peter Minshall himself.

From the empowerment and inspiration he got from Sailor Mas, in the beginning to  what inspire ‘This is Hell and the band RED, to the feelings he sometimes gets when he looks at his life in retrospect in the end, Mas Man Redux, is simply the second half of a fantastic voyage into the Mas, and Mind of Minshall. I will recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn more about Mas, to get these DVD’s, anyone who wants to know more about Peter Minshall, get these DVD’s  or if you are simply a collector of Carnival history, get these DVD’s , you simply won’t regret it.

Mas Assassin.

A little trivia for you guys Peter Samuel’s body suit for the Sacred and the Profane was hand painted by Peter Minshall while Samuel was wearing it and it took 61/2 hours to complete.


If you wish to see more of Peter Minshall's work or read more critiques on the movies see the Minshall Mas Man fan page on facebook.


If you want to purchase MASMAN go to the website here.   

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chemical Brothers releasing new album, playing shows including Electric Zoo on Randall's Island (dates) (brooklynvegan.com)
• Bohemian Carnival, February 2010 at DNA Lounge (dosooye.com)
• DVD review: Avatar (guardian.co.uk)