Caribbean Filmmakers Invited to Participate in Soualiga Film Festival on St. Maarten
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Caribbean Filmmakers Invited to Participate in Soualiga Film Festival on St. Maarten
Filmmakers from Antigua, Grenada, St. Lucia and Montserrat have already agreed to participate in the first Soualiga Film Festival to be held on St. Maarten, December 15 & 16, 2006.
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Filmmakers of Caribbean heritage are being invited to submit their work for the first Soualiga Film Festival on St. Maarten to be held in December.
Soualiga, which means “Salt Island,” is the Carib name given to St. Maarten, which is home to two distinct nations St. Maarten-Dutch and St. Martin-French.
“Our Soualiga has so much to offer and we want to welcome Caribbean filmmakers to our festival that is designed to celebrate us,” said Nerissa Golden, President of the Truly Caribbean Network which is spearheading the event.
“We have over 100 nationalities represented on our island and certainly persons from every nation bordering the Caribbean Sea call us home. This is a time to look at Caribbean life through the eyes of our own actors, directors and producers,” Golden added.
Already scheduled to participate are Howard and Mitzi Howard of Hama Films in Antigua, producers of “The Sweetest Mango” and “No Seed”, Anderson Quarless of Grenada with his debut feature film “Blinded” and Mathurine Emmanuel of St. Lucia.
“We are accepting feature films, short films of less than 45 minutes, documentaries and animations that are made by Caribbean-born filmmakers whether they reside in the region or not. The deadline for film submission is September 30 and there is no application fee,” explained Golden.
Truly Caribbean Network, which is a non-profit foundation on St. Maarten, said the idea to develop the film festival was part of their initiative in 2006 to motivate young people to follow their passions and to think outside the box. TCN held the highly successful Young Entrepreneurs Symposium in May and is preparing for the National Creative Workshop for singers, dancers and musicians in October.
“We believe that our greatest assets and productivity will come from celebrating what is uniquely Caribbean and creating our own images rather than accepting foreign versions of who we are,” Golden said. “The Soualiga Film Festival, which will be held December 15 & 16 around Philipsburg, St. Maarten will also be a welcome addition to the events calendar for our island as it is the tourism high season.”
Details about film submission and attending the festival can be found at www.trulycaribbean.net or contact the SFF committee.