ABOUT ZEITGEIST!
The Series
ZEITGEIST! is a Barbadian television series that discusses, examines, and celebrates the island’s pop culture and entertainment, with select episodes focusing on that of the wider Caribbean. Using a largely retrospective lens, the series explores the areas of film and music through video essays that highlight the artistic heritage of Barbados and the Caribbean, alongside interviews with young Barbadian artists and creatives.
The aim of the series is to document Barbadian popular culture and entertainment in a way that is educational and informative, as well as entertaining, engaging, and accessible. The goal is to be enjoyable and thought-provoking, while also deepening viewers’ understanding and appreciation of Barbadian and Caribbean arts, and promoting them.
ZEITGEIST! Trailer
Our Story
ZEITGEIST! is a spin-off of the digital Zeitgeist Entertainment Magazine, a blog-format online publication launched in 2016 by Kota Forde-Cumberbatch; the series' creator and producer. The magazine began with a broad focus on global pop culture, covering film and television, gaming and technology, books and literature, and entertainment news, while also highlighting Barbados’ entertainment and creative community through similar coverage, events, and features. It later refocused exclusively on Barbados, with coverage spanning film, music, news, features, and events.
In addition to articles, the magazine produced a range of video content, including event highlight reels and interviews; pop culture trivia videos at AnimeKon; “Meet the Models/Contestants” profiles for SMS Model Search and the first Humanities and Education Pageant at UWI Cave Hill; a four-part series on make-up looks inspired by 2018 Kadooment costumes; video versions of written lists; and a podcast, as well as Facebook photo albums for event coverage.
Rebranded in 2021 to align with the series, the magazine went on a two-year hiatus from September 2023 to September 2025. The website is now maintained for archival purposes and as an SEO-friendly companion to social media content.
Development of ZEITGEIST! began in December 2018. The initial concept was an entertainment series in the vein of EP Daily, Access Hollywood, and Extra. This early version featured four segments: Film, Music, Feature, and Events. The series’ content included reviews of recent film and music releases, previews of upcoming films, a top-five music countdown, artist interviews, and highlights and interviews from arts events. Two pilot episodes were produced between February and May 2019.
When the COVID-19 pandemic paused in-person events in 2020, the Events segment was dropped and briefly replaced by a Gaming, Anime, and Technology segment, which was later removed.
During this period, the series’ direction shifted away from time-sensitive pop culture coverage towards a focus on retrospective content that remains relevant over time. This shift led to ZEITGEIST! in its current form and draws inspiration from the video-essay format popular on YouTube.
Season one was filmed over thirteen days between July and August 2021 and aired on CBC TV 8 in Barbados from October 12th, 2021 to January 11th, 2022. While the first season also examined some American pop culture, the second season changed focus to the Caribbean.
Our Work
Television Series
ZEITGEIST! is the flagship project. A weekly, half-hour series, each episode is divided into three segments.
The Film and Music segments consist of video essays exploring Barbadian and select Caribbean cinema, filmmakers, music, and artists through biographies, historical overviews, genre breakdowns, and lists.
The Feature segment comprises interviews with young Barbadian creatives across various arts disciplines, offering insight into their work, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Social Media Content
The series is complemented by social media content published primarily on its Instagram page, with some posts also shared on TikTok, YouTube, and the website. This includes:
I.C.Y.M.I. (In Case You Missed It)
Weekly 30–60 second videos posted on Mondays, covering new releases, announcements, and entertainment news in Barbados from the previous week.
Fast Five Features
Short, five-question interviews with young Barbadian artists and creatives, posted on Tuesdays.
#TriviaThursday
Posts published on Fridays highlighting interesting facts about Barbadian artists as well as arts and entertainment in Barbados.
Fun Facts
- The name of the series is German and means “spirit of the time”. Pronounced correctly, it sounds like “right guy”.
- The series’ title is spelled with all letters capitalised and includes the exclamation point: “ZEITGEIST!”, not “Zeitgeist”.
- After the Events segment was replaced with Gaming, Anime, and Technology, there were five hosts.
- Season two host Morgan Forde was part of the series from season one, but was unavailable for that season.
- Josué and Kofi were chosen because of their work on The Nerd Report Podcast and the INO Podcast, respectively. Morgan was selected from auditions.
- The series is produced by a small team of six.
- Half of the series’ production team are graduates of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination at UWI Cave Hill.
- Season one’s content was conceptualised to align with major holidays during its airing: Halloween in October, Independence in November, and Christmas in December.
Contact Us:
zeitgeistent.bb@gmail.com
