Six young Saint Lucian creatives recently spent a weekend at the Balenbouche Estate learning how film can be used to tell environmental stories in a way that feels closer to home.
The residency, called Listwa Latè-a, which translates from Kwéyòl as “Earth Stories”, was hosted by the Listwa Collective with support from the Caribbean Culture Fund. Its sessions were led by award-winning Dominican filmmaker Michael Lees.
The focus was climate and environmental injustice, but not only through statistics, reports or scientific language.
Listwa Collective Founder and Creative Director Amanie Mathurin said the aim was to get participants thinking about the people and histories behind those issues.
“Living in the Caribbean, there are certain realities that we have to contend with and vulnerabilities that we face specific to our region,” Mathurin said.
She believes part of the challenge is that climate conversations can sometimes lose the human side.
“I think we don’t often spend enough time considering how we can make narratives around climate and the environment human-centred and also grounded in history,” she said.
“So what we’re trying to do is focus on narratives of history and story and community and people.”
During the residency, which ran from October 17 to 19, participants worked in pairs and began developing short films of their own. Those projects are still being completed and are expected to be screened virtually in the coming months.
Lees said he wanted the filmmakers to leave with a broader idea of what environmental storytelling can look like.
“There are creative ways to tell these stories,” he said.
For some of the participants, the residency also pushed them to think differently about their own work.
Joel Paul said he left Balenbouche feeling more confident as a filmmaker and more connected to the kind of stories he wants to tell.
“I walked into Balenbouche one version of myself, but by the time the retreat was over, I was more confident in my abilities as a filmmaker,” he said.
Elon Sonny said the workshop encouraged him to be more intentional in how he approaches storytelling, while Jeremie Louis said the experience gave him a deeper interest in documentary work.
The residency also extended beyond the Balenbouche Estate.
Lees screened his documentary, ‘Uncivilised’, at the Vieux Fort Arts and Entertainment Centre and the University of the West Indies Global Campus. He also visited students at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and the A-Level Department of the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School, where students viewed clips from the film and took part in question-and-answer sessions.
