St John Film Presents: One Lucky Elephant

St. John Film presents a very special film about man and his best friend, you won't want to miss!

TUESDAY, May 6, 2014

 St John School of the Arts

Cruz Bay - 7:30 pm

ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT

Lisa Leeman, Director and Co-Writer

Ten years in the making,

ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT

follows the poignant journey of circus producer David Balding as he tries to find a nurturing and permanent home for Flora, the 18-year-old African elephant that he rescued as an infant, raised as his “daughter” and made the star of his circus. David’s love for Flora is put to the ultimate test when he realizes he made a terrible mistake keeping her as a solo elephant, and decides to retire her from the circus after 17 years of performing.

Knowing Flora will outlive him, and with his health and finances becoming an issue, David sets off on a quest to find a home for Flora can live freely with other elephants. This complicated task begins with Flora’s final circus performance in St. Louis and takes us on an emotional trek across America, then to Africa and back.

We follow David’s journey as he discovers just how difficult it is to find a proper home for an elephant in a world that reveres these animals for their majesty yet slaughters them for their ivory, adores them as cuddly Dumbos yet brands them “rampaging creatures”.

ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT

raises critical issues about the well-being and future of the hundreds of thousands of endangered and exotic animals kept in captivity, the over development and destruction of their natural habitats, our intense and often damaging relationship with wild animals, and how all these issues have impacted the life of one very lucky elephant.

      Come early to help set up the chairs! Thanks in advance!

Visit the

St John Film

website to find a list of recommended independent films that they purchased for the Elaine Sprauve Public Library on St. John.

SAVE THE DATE:

Last film of the spring season

June 3, 2014

:  BLACKFISH

St John Film - and Filmmaker - Presents Original Film Yurumein: Homeland

St John Film Society

presents and original film tonight! TUESDAY, April 1, 2014

St John School of the Arts

Cruz Bay - 7:30 pm

Yurumein: Homeland

 2014 Documentary / 50-minutes

What happens when a dislocated people begin to reckon with a past laden with trauma and repression?  YURUMEIN follows this journey as members of the Black Carib / Garifuna Diaspora attempt to rekindle a disappeared culture and revitalize its language, dance and music. The film reveals signs of resilience as local Vincentians (some with Carib ancestry, some without) come together to honor their ancestors and celebrate their Garifuna past, and in doing so, begin the journey of healing, rebuilding, and preserving the homeland.  YURUMEIN is a post-colonial story of re-identification and cultural retrieval among the indigenous Caribs in the Caribbean.

Andrea Leland

is an independent filmmaker and artist who calls St John home. She has produced and directed award winning documentaries focusing on Caribbean and Latin American cultures. In Haiti, Belize, Chiapas, and several Caribbean islands, she works collaboratively with community members providing a forum to voice their untold stories, personal challenges and compelling triumphs. Social, artistic or political actions are placed within context of their culture, imploring the viewer to confront old myths and discover a new perspective. These documentaries are successful tools for cultural preservation.

The April 1st screening will also include two short films directed by St John residents:

Janet Cook-Rutnik & Bill Setlzer

OTHER UPCOMING ST JOHN FIMS: 

May 6, 2014: ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT

June 3, 2014:  BLACKFISH

St John Film Presents: Rican-ing of White Boy

St John is a fabulous jewel in the middle of the Caribbean.  Most every St John lover knows that factoid. However, what many are just learning is what a vibrant artist community we have on this island in the sea.

One of our wonderful resources is the

St John Film Society

 whose mission is to: 

inspire a positive appreciation for the history, culture and environment of our US Virgin Islands by establishing a free monthly film series open to and for the benefit of our local community. We will present independent films that celebrate the human spirit with a focus on the Caribbean.

Showing at St John School of the Arts

Cruz Bay, St John

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

7:30 PM

Jeff Rodriguez: Visiting Cinematographer will be in the house!

What happens when a 47  year old paternally adopted Schmuck from Queens, NY, sets out for the first time to meet his long lost Puerto Rican family, after being raised by a tribe of white people?  Actor/writer, Paul Louis (Gonzalez) comically documents his journey, with no short supply of anxiety, culture  shock, religious jokes, and a surprisingly touching lessened learned on family, and the bond which connects us.

“The Rican-ing of White Boy” won the Audience Choice Award at the 2013 Rincon International Film Festival – thanks in no small part to cinematographer and supporting actor, Jeff Rodriguez.  Jeff is part of the dynamic duo behind the production of the award-winning comic documentary shot on location in Rincon, Puerto Rico.  Jeff also lent his effortless comedic persona to the film as he made his screen acting debut and played comic sidekick to the film’s star and director, Paul Louis.

SAVE THE DATES: 

March 4, 2014: LAS CARPETAS, Director, Maite Rivera Carbonell will be present for the Cruz Bay screening.

April 1, 2014: YURUMEIN: HOMELAND, Documentary Director and St John Film Director, ANDREA LELAND will present her most current work

May 6, 2014: ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT

MOVIE ANNOUNCEMENT: St John Art's Festival 2014

Chasing Ice

Gifft Hill School

Tues Feb 18, 2014 at 7:30pm

Free Admission

St John Artist & Filmmaker Seeks Crowdfunding

Repeating Islands reports that St Johnian artist & filmmaker, Andrea Leland, is at it again. Leland, an award winning documentary filmmaker, is the director of Yurumein (Homeland). She has just launched a crowdfunding campaign for this upcoming, groundbreaking documentary. Yurumein captures cultural revival among descendants of Caribbean natives and slaves, the Garifuna nation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. See excerpts of the press release with related links below:

YURUMEIN (Homeland) a documentary about the revival of Garifuna culture on the island of St. Vincent. Through her fiscal sponsor, the Center for Independent Documentary, Leland is trying to raise $20,000 by August 16th to complete post-production on the film. Leland is requesting help to finish graphics and animation, sound design and color correction for the film. Any remaining funds will be used towards outreach and distribution efforts.

When Leland began to film YURUMEIN, Garifuna culture had been all but lost on the island of St. Vincent for the last two hundred years. The Garifuna people, descendents of the native Carib and Awarak people and West Africans, once lived freely on the island of St. Vincent. Forced into hiding and exile by British colonial forces during the 18th century, St. Vincent’s Garifuna descendants knew little of their ancestral language, rituals, dance, music or food. While traditions may have been lost on St. Vincent, Garifuna culture flourished in the exiled communities of Central America. In the film, Leland captures the efforts of St. Vincent’s Garifuna descended population to recover their cultural traditions by connecting with their brothers and sisters in the larger Garifuna disapora.  

For a video:

The Film:  

YURUMEIN (your-o-main) is an important UNTOLD STORY of Carib / Garifuna resistance against slavery that deserves its place in the annals of the African Diaspora. The film recounts the painful past of the Caribs on St Vincent and the extermination of scores of their ancestors at the hands of the British, while building an intimate portrait of Garifuna culture-in-transition today. We are given firsthand accounts from both Carib descendents who remain on the island of St Vincent and voices of returning descendents whose ancestors were exiled to Central America—where Garifuna traditional culture was able to survive and flourish.

When members of the Diaspora are first reunited and make a collective pilgrimage to the sacred site of Balliceaux (where the genocide occurred) the film reveals the beginnings of a movement among Garifuna people to revitalize traditional language, music, dance, and ritual. As Garifuna from around the world come together to remember and celebrate the lives and resilience of their shared ancestors, they also begin to discover possibility and hope for the future of Garifuna culture and a greater worldwide community....more info on the film can be found on the Center for Independent Documentary site. After reading about this amazing story, sign up to support her efforts. For as little as $5 you can help a St Johnian filmmaker realize her dream and help get an important story told.

Another related story of interest is the Miami Herald's Caribbean Becoming Hotbed for Film Production

Movies under the stars on St John, USVI

What could be a better way to watch the movies than being on St John, out under the stars, able to enjoy your favorite liquid refreshment and great BBQ (more on that one later)? St John Film Society (SJFS) is including in its 2013 season screenings in Coral Bay at Cases By the Sea.  The SJFS recently announced:

St. John Film Festival Screenings in Coral Bay

We are pleased to announce that the St. John Film Society will be screening select films during the 2013 season in Coral Bay!  Please join us in kicking off  the Coral Bay film series on Wednesday, February 20 at Cases By the Sea with the 87 minute documentary film Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, directed by Ron Berger and Dan Klores.  Bring your own chair or sit at the picnic tables and enjoy food from Reggie’s (optional)!  Stay tuned here for more Coral Bay film series details!  St. John Film Society is partially funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, and YOU!  Your $5.00 suggested donation is greatly appreciated.

Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story

Directed by Ron Berger & Dan Klores,  87 minutes, Documentary, 2005

February 20, 2013/ 7:30 pm / Cases by the Sea, Coral Bay

Join St. John Film Society at Cases by the Sea in Coral Bay!  Bring your own chair or sit at the picnic tables and enjoy local food at Reggie’s.  Documentary filmmakers Dan Klores and Ron Berger look at a dark moment in American sports history — March 24, 1962 — when St. Thomas’s Emile Griffith fought Cuba’s Benny “Kid” Paret for the welterweight boxing championship. At the weigh-in, Paret taunted the gentle giant with an anti-gay slur. Later, Griffith pummeled Paret into a fatal coma as a nationwide TV audience watched. Decades later, six-time welterweight champion Griffith spoke of the fateful night that haunts him.  The film includes compelling boxing footage and interviews with Griffith and family, historians, and sports journalists.  Ring of Fire was a 2005 Sundance featured film and called “extraordinary” by The New York Times.

The St John Source also reports:

"We are very excited to have films in Coral Bay once again after a brief hiatus," said Andrea Leland, director of the St John Film Society. "For our first film we are particularly happy to have found a partner in Cases by the Sea, which features a large screen and food and drink for sale - it can be an evening out." Cases by the Sea and Reggie's feature food and drink at picnic tables under their open-air pavilion "or, bring your own chair if you like," suggests Leland.

Cuba comes to St John, USVI -- at least on film

Support the St John Film Society's 2013 season opening screening:

Films from the

4th TRAVELLING CARIBBEAN 

SHOWCASE OF FILMS

 Spotlight on CUBA

February 5, 2013/ 7:30 pm  

St. John

 School of the Arts, Cruz Bay

Join us for an insightful look into contemporary Cuba.  Three filmmakers capture the stories of teachers, cigar-factory workers, and taxi-drivers from urban Havana to rural Baracoa – inspiring, controversial, and uniquely Cuba!

Maestra 'The Teacher' highlights how thousands of young women taught nearly a million kids to read and write in a year

 ADOLPHO : 45–min , fiction, directed by Sofie Delaage 2006 Poor Adolpho yearns for life beyond his broken-down taxi and plots a journey across the sea in this contemporary Cuban comedy of errors.

CON EL TOQUE DE LA CHAVETA:  28-min, documentary, directed by Pamela Sporn In the cigar factories of Cuba, a unique tradition persists: ‘la lectura de tabaqueria’ . Every day, specially employed workers read out loud to the two or three-hundred tabaqueros as they sit rolling the country’s famous cigars. From classic novels to national politics and local baseball results, for centuries this daily tradition has been an education for the workers, or chavetas. But after years of listening, they are now knowledgeable and demanding, and the readers must be at their very best if they are to keep their discerning audience interested.

MAESTRA (THE TEACHER):  33-min, documentary, directed by Catherine Murphy, 2011 In 1961 Cuba 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old, over half were women.  The  Bay of Pigs invasion took place in Cuba impacting the both the women and the literacy campaign.  The young women who went out to teach literacy in the rural communities across the island found themselves deeply transformed in the process. This documentary includes present day interviews with women who volunteered to teach their country to read in 1961 along with archival footage and still photos from the 60’s.   Catherine Murphy has begun the recording of an oral history of one of contemporary Cuba’s greatest achievements.

The 2013 Film Series kicks kicks off on St John

Can't you just feel the waters and hear the waves break on the shore? This very well could be St John but actually was shot on Takuu, a small Polynesian community which is part of Papua New Guinea

Courtesy of St John Film:

There Once Was an Island

Directed by Briar March,  80 minutes, Documentary, 2010

January 15, 2013/ 7:30 pm / St. John School of the Arts, Cruz Bay

Among the world’s first climate change refugees, a unique Pacific island community considers leaving their homeland forever to escape life-threatening sea level rise.   There Once Was an Island presents the human face of climate change, challenging audiences everywhere to consider their relationship to the earth and to their neighbors.

What if your community had to decide whether to leave its homeland forever and there was no apparent help available?  This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny, low-lying Pacific Ocean atoll within Papau New Guinea.  As a tidal flood submerges this fishing and agricultural community they experience the devastating effects of climate change, firsthand.

In this documentary, the three intrepid characters of Teloo, Endar, and Satty allow us into their lives and culture, showing us the human face behind environmental crisis.  Two scientists, oceanographer John Hunter and geomorphologist Scott Smithers, investigate the impact of climate change on communities with limited access to resources and support, while the citizens of Takuu consider whether to move to an uncertain future in Bougainville or to stay on Takuu and fight for a different, but equally uncertain, outcome.

Find out more about the movie THERE ONCE WAS AN ISLAND here.

Thanks to our official film premiere sponsor,  ST. JOHN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION. 

Thanks to Elaine Ione Sprauve Public Library, home to the St. John Film Society film collection.