Robin Schmidt

Published On:Wednesday, March 17, 2010

By ROBERT BAIN

London - Monday night saw the climax in London of the 14 Islands Film Challenge. The contest, run by the Bahamas Tourist Office in the UK, gave 14 budding young filmmakers the chance to fly out to the Bahamas and make a short film about life on one of the 14 main island groups, in 14 days.

As one of the judges commented, it's "a pretty perfect gig". Especially so for 32-year-old Robin Schmidt, who walked away with the £14,000 prize for his film Open Your Eyes, shot on Long Island. Mr Schmidt said he was "gobsmacked" to win.

With the help of local actors and a rake n' scrape duo, his film told a story about a boy falling asleep during class and being whisked away on a magical journey by the 'island genie'.

The film was impressively shot (especially considering it was done in two weeks with one camera) with a real feel for colour, movement and action. Of the fourteen films, Schmidt's managed to maintain the most frantic pace over its five minute duration.

Mr Schmidt told The Tribune his film was inspired by Long Island and its people. "It's a place of colour and energy and vibrancy and fun. I wanted the film to be a dazzler. Then I heard about rake and scrape so I thought I'd do something funny and musical."

The 14 Island Film Challenge kicked off last year: in October the UK's Guardian newspaper reported on how the Bahamas was looking for someone to take the 'second best job in the world' - making a film on one of the islands. It's difficult to recall the last time a Bahamas tourism initiative got national press coverage in the UK - recent stories about the country have mostly been about less savoury subjects like death and extortion.

Still, the media coverage shows that the 14 Islands Film Challenge was having some success before it had really even begun - although it also gave many people the impression that there are *only* 14 islands in the Bahamas (a misconception that was evident even among some members of the competition's judging panel).

The idea of harnessing people power for a tourism promotion isn't new. The Bahamas isn't the only country to have eyed Australia enviously after it bagged phenomenal amounts of publicity with its 'Best job in the world' campaign. The tourist board of Queensland advertised for a caretaker to look after an idyllic island for a year for AU$150,000. The campaign caught the world's imagination, and resulted in a TV series, endless media coverage and immeasurable word-of-mouth chatter about the beauties of Queensland.

It's a perfect strategy in recessionary times: minimum cost, maximum impact.

When asked by The Tribune about the thinking behind the Bahamas project, Tommy Thompson, deputy director general of the tourist office in the UK, was candid: "The idea came about because our budgets got cut."

Without the opportunity to buy lots of advertising space (especially when you've decided that you're flogging 14 destinations, not just one), they needed to try a different approach. An ad agency came up with the 14 islands idea and Mr Thompson says we "took it hook, line and sinker."

So what of the films that were produced? They were screened in full on Monday at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) and can be seen online at bahamas.co.uk and will be being used extensively by the Ministry of Tourism, as well as appearing on Virgin Atlantic flights.

Nick Powell of the National Film and Television School told the finalists: "This challenge has been much, much more successful in terms of the films that have been made than I could ever, ever have imagined."

The filmmakers seem to have been given a pretty free hand ("I was just left on the island with a camera," one of them said), and the variety of styles they produced reflects this. Jan Bednarz's semi-documentary film about Ernest Hemingway on Bimini was a highlight, although it missed out on any of the honours.

Nimer Rashed won the second prize for his film about the flamingoes of Inagua, featuring a cute puppet flamingo called Derek, while Bruna Fionda decided to take a more serious tack with a touching piece called I Done Reached about a woman's journey to visit her estranged mother's birthplace on Hog Cay, Exuma.

Every one of the fourteen films featured local people, and showed a genuine effort to engage with Bahamian culture (although in two weeks, there's only so much you can learn).

In the Bahamas itself, response to the contest has been marred by complaints

that the money should have been invested in local filmmaking. But tourism officials say this misses the point.

Minister of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace told The Tribune: "Our objective was to get a perspective of our islands through the eyes of the people in the market we're trying to attract. We're not saying local filmmakers aren't capable - they are - but when it comes to getting a new perspective, this is how you do it." The quality of the films, he said, was "outstanding".

Mr Thompson points out that the involvement of Bahamians was one of the key factors that made the project a success. "Each of the filmmakers lived with an island envoy," he said. "They showed them the hidden gems and acted as a production crew, and some of them crop up in the films. Without that local knowledge you would not get the results that we see."

Even so, it's hardly surprising that such a high profile initiative to bring foreign filmmakers to the country would be met with irritation among some members of the local arts community. The Ministry of Tourism doesn't seem to have thought much about this.

Here's an idea: why doesn't the Government just match the £14,000 ($21,000)

prize with a donation to Bahamian filmmakers? When The Tribune put this question to Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace on Monday night, he said that we would have to ask the Minister for Culture.

So consider this article an open letter to Charles Maynard. Why not spend $21,000 commissioning film projects locally? Or donate the sum to the Film Festival? If the 14 Film Challenge proves successful in bringing in tourist dollars, you should be able to comfortably afford it.