What
happens when a small Caribbean island is hit by a massive
hurricane? How does a country cope when 90% of its
homes are destroyed or damaged? What happens when your
agricultural sector is wrecked and your major export crop
will take years to recover? What are the hopes of the people
for the future under such conditions? These are some of
the questions that GRENADA: THE MAROON SPIRIT hopes to
answer for people. This new production by the Pumpkinhead
Production Company was filmed on the island of Grenada
in the Eastern Caribbean in November of 2004, two months
after Hurricane Ivan devastated the island nation on September
7.
Traveling throughout
Grenada and its sister island of Carriacou, GRENADA: THE
MAROON SPIRIT interviews people from all walks of life,
hearing about their experiences with the deadly hurricane
and their efforts to rebuild their lives. They tell of
the deadly winds, the flying debris and the resulting destruction.
Their stories of working together with their neighbours,
as a community to quickly get back on their feet are inspiring
and educational. They credit Hurricane Ivan with rekindling
the “Maroon Spirit” amongst the
population. The actual live footage of Hurricane Ivan shows
the deadly force that these brave people had to face.
The
film places Hurricane Ivan within a historical context
by interviewing two of Grenada’s foremost historians,
author and historian George Brizan and Beverly Steele, author
and Head Tutor at T.A. Marryshow House, Grenada campus of
the University of the West Indies about Grenada’s past.
This is a past that includes mass suicides, civil wars, dictatorships,
revolutions, and invasions. Brenda Hood, Minister of Tourism,
tells of the hurricane’s affect on the government and
its efforts to rebuild their country.
GRENADA : THE MAROON
SPIRIT is a fifty-minute documentary film. It is the first
feature length film by the Pumpkinhead Production Company,
an independent film production house located in New Westminster,
British Columbia, Canada. The DVD is now available at www.grenadamarket.com
GRENADA :
THE MAROON SPIRIT was produced and written for the Pumpkinhead
Production Company by David Maidman. Mr. Maidman has been
active with the local collective of Indymedia and has worked
with Global Justice, a show on Shaw Cablevision’s
local cable access channel and with Workingtv. This is
his first feature project. The music was recorded by Alan
Lomax in Carriacou in 1962 and is used with permission
of Rounder Records and The Alan Lomax Collection. Pumpkinhead
Production Company would like to acknowledge the assistance
of the Grenada Broadcast Network and Brian Steele of
Cable and Wireless, Grenada. Accommodations were provided
by Len and Anne
Griffiths of the Grandview
Inn and Russ and Magdalena Fielden of True Blue Bay Resorts. |
