Women in Pan — a new docu-series from Mark Loquan and Maria Nunes
On Friday 9th September 2022, Mark Loquan and Maria Nunes premiered Women in Pan — an exciting 10-part web series exploring contemporary issues in steelpan through the lens of five outstanding women: Yuko Asada, Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin, Vanessa Headley, Michelle Huggins-Watts, and Natasha Joseph.
It’s the second documentary web series under Loquan’s “A Better Tomorrow” banner. And it was while working on the first about Kareem Brown in late 2021 that Loquan approached Nunes to develop a second series focussing on women in steelpan — with special emphasis on exploring music literacy and contemporary issues facing the artform.
These have long been areas of interest for Loquan. One of the songs on his Passion for Pan album in 2000 was aptly named “Woman in Pan”, inspired by the way pan history had always focussed on the men, despite the constant and consequential presence of women. “I was observing the increasing number of women playing, composing, arranging, conducting, teaching, making and tuning pans, and visiting Trinidad & Tobago to play from abroad,” he explains.
For Nunes, the instrument as well as its pantheon of female pioneers had long been near and dear to her heart. “I reached out to Attillah Springer and Caroline Taylor to work with me on developing ideas for the best way to approach the project,” she says. Given the number of women over the decades who have contributed immeasurably to the artform, and continue to, one of the early challenges was determining how best to approach such a vast subject area.
“This doesn’t try to tell the history of women in pan — that was beyond the scope of what we could do,” explains Nunes. “So Mark decided on five women he’s worked with on various projects over the last 20 years.”
“In my mind, these were highly accomplished women with their individual skills, experiences and insights,” adds Loquan, “but who as a holistic group would be able to discuss a wide range of issues that they would have all faced individually or collectively.”
By March of this year, everything was in place to conduct in-depth, wide-ranging interviews with all five women. Asada — who is Japanese-American and based at Northern Illinois University — flew in from the United States for a few days to film.
With Springer leading the interviews and Taylor working as Associate Producer for the series, Nunes took on the lion’s share of the work to conceptualise and execute each stage of the project — serving as one of its executive producers (along with Loquan), as well as director, camera operator, and editor.
With careful attention to making the series visually appealing and a rich representation of the women’s lives in pan, the interviews were shot with four cameras, and are complemented by archival video, audio and photographs drawn from a range of sources — including the women’s own personal archives and Nunes’ vault of material captured over the years. The final product is 10 episodes totalling nearly 400 minutes.
The series kicks off with five thematic episodes ranging from seven to 18 minutes long, followed by in-depth interviews with each of the women and averaging 60 minutes each.
The first of the issue-driven episodes — “We Love a Challenge: Gender Issues in Steelpan” — premiered on 9th September, followed by weekly episodes exploring the art and science of steelpan building and tuning; music literacy; leadership; and perspectives on Panorama.
The second half of the series, featuring the interview-based episodes, begins on Friday 14th October with Vanessa Headley’s interview, followed by Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin on the 21st; Yuko Asada on the 28th; Natasha Joseph on 4th November; and Michelle Huggins-Watts concluding the series on 11th November.
“It’s been an extremely rewarding journey to work on this project — it’s stretched me to further expand my horizons in the realm of producing video content,” says Nunes. “I feel a real responsibility to present their stories and perspectives in ways that they will feel very good about. There is equally that sense of responsibility to present a series that will hopefully have enduring value and also inspire other producers to create more steelpan-related content.”
“The goal for A Better Tomorrow is to shine light on people’s journeys in the pan world,” says Loquan, “showing that the people we see are a culmination of challenges overcome, experience gained, and knowledge being transferred to benefit or inspire others. The Women in Pan series does just that.”
Click here to access the series playlist on YouTube, where you can view the trailers, teasers, and individual episodes as they premiere. The full episode schedule is below. And make sure to subscribe to the Mark Loquan channel on YouTube so you don’t miss a moment of this exciting new series!
Women in Pan episode schedule
• September 9 — We Love a Challenge: Gender Issues in Steelpan
• September 16 — The Art & Science of Steelpan Building & Tuning
• September 23 — Looking to the Future: Music Literacy
• September 30 — Perspectives on Leadership
• October 7 — Perspectives on Panorama
• October 14 — Vanessa Headley
• October 21 — Dr. Mia Gormandy-Benjamin
• October 28 — Yuko Asada
• November 4 — Natasha Joseph
• November 11 — Michelle Huggins-Watts
Photos courtesy Maria Nunes