Please support the 25th Annual St Barth Film Festival!

Founded in 1996, the St Barth Film Festival has become one of the major cultural events on the island. Dedicated to Caribbean Cinema, the festival shows up to a dozen films each year in late April/ early May in outdoor settings including the cinema at AJOE in Lorient, the Port of Gustavia, or the beach in Flamands, as well as indoor afternoon screenings at the Theatre du Paradis in Gustavia. All of the films are in French or have French sub-titles so that they are accessible to the island audience. The video screenings are free to the public in order to attract the largest audience possible and best promote Caribbean cinema.
Over the past 24 years, the festival has created one of the few existing crossroads for Caribbean filmmakers to meet with their colleagues from Europe and the United States and share ideas about filmmaking. This unique forum appeals to filmmakers who do not often have the opportunity to meet and discuss their work in an informal festival setting such as St. Barth.
We have also developed an annual film-in-the-schools program. In addition to showing films and taking film professionals to speak with students in island schools. This is a very rewarding exchange for the students and the filmmakers.
The St. Barth Film Festival receives support from the local government of St. Barthélemy as well as the regional bureau of the French Ministry of Culture (DAC Guadeloupe). But as we expand our annual activities, we need to increase our funding with private donations, and public funds are limited to 50% of our annual budget.
All of the people involved in the organization of the St. Barth Film Festival are volunteers, and come from as far away as the US, France, Guadeloupe, and other Caribbean islands to make the festival possible. Your help will support their efforts. Be a Friend, a VIP, a Patron, or a Producer and be part of the cultural life of St. Barth!

Friend ($150)
VIP ($250)
All levels from $250 and up receive one complimentary festival t-shirt, one baseball cap, and passes to the films
Producer ($500)
All levels from $500 and up receive two complimentary ​​festival t-shirts,two baseball caps, passes to the films, and an ​ invitation to a festival party for two​​
Patron ($750)
Sponsor A Filmmaker ($1000)
Sponsor the films-in-the-school program ($2500)
Angel ($5000 and over)
Other $___________
All donations are greatly appreciated!

YES! PLEASE COUNT ME IN…
Tax-deductible contributions in US dollars can be made c/o The Center for New American Media, a 501C3 non-for profit organization in New York.

Name ________________________________

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City ___________ State _________________

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Email: ________________________________


Please make checks in US dollars payable to:
The Center for New American Media,
and mail to:
Joshua Harrison
140 Riverside Drive, Apt 5D
New York, NY 10024

I am fortunate to be on the island each year during at least a part of the Film Festival. It's a fun event, to which a number of participants in this forum have contributed over the years. I look forward to attending again this year.

the film festival is a great event. Everyone associated with this festival works really hard, please show your support.

I have really enjoyed watching the films over the years. and this year is a biggie, 25 years. a real milestone!

Anita and I will be there and make our contibution in person. Consider us a Friend.

A great contribution to the community & much enjoyed by visitors & island residents! It’s particularly gratifying that the 25th Anniversary coincides with Rosemond’s continuing return to strong health.

Out of curiosity, over the years, what films have made it beyond the Caribbean and had some success at the Box Office?

Ellen could give a much better response, but I think that she's tied up with personal matters right now, so let me take a shot at an answer. Please be clear that I have nothing to do with the Film Festival other than as a donor and as an attendee.

Probably not a lot of the films shown at the festival have had major box office success, but that's part of the point of the festival, isn't it? It promotes Caribbean Cinema, not Hollywood Cinema.

Some films, Vanishing Sail for instance, have had good runs on the Film Festival circuit. The World Premiere was on the quay in St Barth, in coordination between the Film Festival and the West Indies Regatta. When it went to DVD I bought a fistful, and have given copies to several friends in the sailing community.

There are a few other English-language films which come to mind, and you might even find one (Rockers) on DVD. I could tell you about a bunch of French Caribbean films, but it wouldn't matter. You won't find them in the US, either online or as a download. But I enjoyed them when I watched them, and they were good.

St Barth isn't Hollywood, Sundance, or any other major film venue. It gives a viewing (the showing of the films) and a voice (the opportunity to interact with the audience and to respond to questions) to film makers who may not otherwise have a similar opportunity. It gives peer interaction between filmmakers who might not otherwise meet. It's a cultural opportunity to the kids in the local schools who have the opportunity to interact with the film makers, and to be inspired by them.

So, has a Hollywood Hit, the next "Star Wars" maybe, ever been shown at the Film Festival? Not yet.
So, has the next "Martin Scorsese" shown a film at the Film Festival? Not yet that I know of, but some careers are young, and there's always hope.
So, has the next great movie maker been inspired by the Film Festival? I don't know, but there could be a student from College Mireille Choisy filming on her iPhone as I type.

Hopefully this long-winded response answers your question.

Note the address in the original post should you care to support this worthy endeavor. I write a check every year.

Thanks Kevin, that's a great answer.

I would say one of the biggest of the Caribbean films we have shown is The Harder They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff. Made by a (white) Jamaican filmmaker Perry Henzell in 1972 this film opened the world's eyes to reggae music and paved the way for Bob Marley and others to succeed outside of Jamaica. We revived the film for its 25th anniversary and had two 35mm prints that we toured all over the US for a few years to universities and art cinemas... definitely worth seeing even almost 50 years after it was made!

There is a Haitian filmmaker by the name of Raoul Peck and we showed an avant premiere of his film about Patrice Lumumba, and the film went on to have success especially on the festival circuit. He has met with success in France and internationally and his biggest film to date is I Am Not Your Negro in 2016.

Kevin is spot on when he says the St Barth Film Festival is a chance to see films you might never see elsewhere, other than similar festivals, or art cinemas in NY or Paris...
some of our filmmakers such as Jean Claude Barny have met with success in France, but there is a complicated relationship between French cinema per se and French Caribbean cinema. The most successful of the French Caribbean filmmakers is Euzan Palcy and we have shown two of her films, Sugarcane Alley and Simeon. She went on to Hollywood to make A Dry White Season.

We consider Mexico as part of the Caribbean basin and have shown films such as The Shape of Water and Roma, that met with great international success and would not have been seen in St Barth otherwise, except on Netflix...

...but sitting outside under the stars at AJOE, on the dock or on the beach in Flamands, where we run an electric cord from Rosemond's mother's house to the beach for the projector and loudspeakers.. there's nothing quite like it.

Thank you all for your support!!!

Great info and a fabulous poster! Are they available to purchase?

amyb said:

Great info and a fabulous poster! Are they available to purchase?

Click to expand...

not yet, but they will be!

D’accord — great poster!

who might the artist be that painted the original? its very nice!

Any chance Ellen of posting posters of years past as the 2020 one is a ‘beauty?’

A great poster for a wonderful St Barth event!!

yes, posters will be available and the "original" is not a painting actually, but a computer-enhanced photograph by the wonderful Alan Needleman. We have used his images for the past two or three posters as well... I love them... he would be willing to sign posters during the festival this year and also make the "original" image available in any size format people might want, with sales going to benefit the festival.. he has quite a collection of fabulous images.

I have been a supporter for many years, even though i have not been on the island
this is a special event
PLEASE SUPPORT

Please share some of your movie reviews.

stbartshopper said:

Please share some of your movie reviews.

Click to expand...

we don't review our movies, check out our website to see all of the interesting films we have presented over the past 24 years... go to the 2019 site and then to the archives...
stbarthff.org

Thank you