Lights, Camera, Action!
When the lights at The National Cultural Centre were switched off on Monday 7th April, 2014 at 7:50 p.m., the cameras had long been turned off and it was time to take in the action from three locally produced films: 21 Days, Cephas and Out A Street 2, Heated.
Despite the scanty audience at Monday night’s film showing, there was a general satisfaction with the films featured. One patron, when asked what he thought of the films said, “St. Lucia has real talent…it is so important though to create opportunities like these to allow fellow St. Lucians and in time the world the chance to see that talent…I’m very happy with what the CDF has done here tonight…I just wish more St. Lucians would embrace what is ours and support our artists a lot more.”
21 Days, written and produced by Dale Elliot is a docufilm presenting a piece of St. Lucian history occurring in 1985. In the spell-binding film the lone survivor shares the harrowing ordeal – one that would change the lives of unsuspecting families and a nation forever. Dale Elliott is “humbled” and “taken aback” by the response from the St. Lucian audience to his film. He is currently working on another project, The History of St. Lucia, which he hopes to release shortly.
An impoverished teenager, Cephas, finds himself battling with the overwhelming desire to belong and a feeling of obligation to his single parent mother, who constantly implores him to work towards being a role model to his siblings. Peer pressure from his school mates along with his mother’s chidings flood his mind, bringing him to a life-changing juncture. “Envy only brings regress”, says Cephas during that climactic scene. Cephas was written by Ted Sandiford and produced by A.C.I.D. Kreationz.
Out A Street 2, Heated is a compelling dramatization which tells a story of survival for young adults living in the ghetto. The Jungle House production portrays how a series of unfortunate circumstances drives them to survive at any cost. Film Director, King B, says “It is gratifying to see the result of this four-year project…We had many challenges, mostly financial, but when we have people come up to us and commend us on the movie, it’s phenomenal!”
Film Night was the first in a series of activities for Festival Week. On Wednesday 9th April, theatre artists will take the stage in a Night of Theatre. The show takes place at the National Cultural Centre from 7:30 p.m.
The National Arts Festival was launched in 2005, with the hope that the Visual, Literary and Performing Arts in St. Lucia would develop gradually as both an organizational and national priority. The Cultural Development Foundation is hopeful that Saint Lucians here and in the Diaspora will embrace the Festival which would encourage continual creativity and celebrate the artistic output of the Saint Lucian people.
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