(Patrick Meikle left | Jade-Ashley Carberry right)
University of the West Indies graduate Patrick Meikle won best animation and best Post-production while the Producer Jade-Ashley Carberry, won best Producer at the 2021 virtual staging of the Lignum Vitae Film Festival held at the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville on April 18, 2021.
His animation Truly Valiant follows a Knight riding on his trusty donkey with a sword in hand ready to fight evil. The battle become a spiritual one this knight and his steed must overcome with strength from within and above.
Lead judge, professional filmmaker Kyle Chin, closed his remarks saying "I was very impressed by the animation". Patrick is among the first cohort to graduate with an animation degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona in 2018. While at the institution he was instrumental in starting the D-MAN club (Digital Media and Animation Network) of which he served as their first president. Since then he served from 2018-2019 as the Community development manager for the Jamaica Animation Nation Network, an association body for animation practitioners. He was a Team Jamaica Delegate in 2018 at the Kidscreen conference in Miami, an initiative sponsored by JAMPRO. He now works at the award-winning animation and design studio, Listen Mi Caribbean, where he works as a character designer and 2D animator since 2018.
The producer Jade-Ashley Carberry was responsible for co-writing the premise/story of Truly Valiant as well as the script. She was also completely responsible for creating all the hand-painted water colour backgrounds, 20 in total, including the initial teaser background and test backgrounds. Jade graduated from Furman University in South Carolina double majoring in Environmental Science and Political Studies. She serves/ed in PR at Jamaica Broilers and particularly enjoys outreach endeavors. She is a closeted artist slowly branching out into her real talent. She received a distinction in CAPE for Art Unit 2. In 2008 she won the Martin Luther King Jr Essay Writing competition staged by the US Embassy and Jamaica Observer.
The Lignum Vitae Film Festival has been running for 13 years in the center of the country, in the cool hill of Mandeville. Though student centric, it is open to all creatives and provides other awards such as Best Commercial, Best Music Video, Best Trailer, Best Short Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and more. It is held every year in April. This year was its first virtual showcase, and it maintained the red carpet feel it traditionally delivers.
