St. Lucia is blessed with so many things; beautiful beaches, beautiful people, lush scenery, good food and not to forget, talented individuals. Meet Kiedel Sonny, a young videographer from the community of Anse-La-Raye. Kiedel has been doing video work for quite some time now. He has produced sketch comedy shows, filmed local events for his place of work and lastly, filmed music videos for the likes of Arthur Allain and Kayo.
I caught up with a busy Mr. Sonny and asked him a few questions. I found it fitting to feature him since I haven’t seen much media coverage on his work, which has reached far and wide.
Gareth: When did you realize that making people laugh and being behind the camera was ur passion?
Kiedel: I actually loved making people smile from a very tender age. I tried to change it but it never worked. I’m still trying to stop giving jokes at this age. My passion has always been videography. I used my comedy to get my name out in Saint Lucia first before I could switch to what I really wanted to do. So to answer your question in short, I realized that my passion was camera related from about age 10
Gareth: You’re known for your sketch comedy clips. Tell us about your development in comedy.
Kiedel: It started with my cousin and I (Huxley Popo). I had a smart phone that we would use to record fake radio shows for our friends to listen to and laugh at. Then my dad got me a laptop and I got myself a recording software called Audacity and a cheap computer mic. I also gathered a group of my closest friends to help me with the Facebook skits. Bare in mind that the show was named “Radio Out and Bad” by my cousin, because at the time our shows had no visuals only audio. Our aim was always to get 100 likes on Facebook just to see if it was possible. After a year or two of trying and failing we decided to quit the internet comedy. However, we weren’t going to do so without releasing one final video with actual visuals. On June 13th 2012 we released our first video shot with a camera. Surprisingly enough we got 337 likes and 233 shares. That was a huge deal to us at the time, so we decided to continue with the Facebook videos. Through the Ministry of Education, I became friends with one of my biggest enemies “Dexter Felix” (Dry Bones) and we began to do videos together as well. The group of guys in what was known as “radio out and bad” have been my closest friends from age 0. Yup we go way back!
Gareth: How challenging is the film industry in St. Lucia?
Kiedel: The film industry in Saint Lucia is actually really challenging, due to the lack of available funding for people who have already proven that they have what it takes to produce something of an international standard. In my opinion, there is no infrastructure to protect or promote the film maker, but then again that is my humble opinion. Then again, every situation is as good as you make it. I would rather go through struggles and emerge victorious with a story to tell, than to glide to the top having learnt nothing along the way.
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