Antiguan Film to Have its Canadian Premiere at Commffest Film and Arts Festival

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Alastair Fyfe       Mitzi Allen and Howard Allen of HaMafilms Antigua whose feature film, Deep Blue, will have its Canadian premiere at Commffest, a global film and arts festival in Toronto, on September 16, 2023.

When the film Deep Blue premieres in Toronto in mid-September, its creators want it to spark a conversation about climate change and the environment.

Already launched in Antigua and Barbuda, and New York, the 90-minute film will be featured at the 18^th annual Commffest, a global community film and arts festival that brings communities together for social empowerment, on September 16 at the 500-seat St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

Created by Antiguan-Canadian husband and wife team Howard and Mitzi Allen, the film is about the clash between a marine biologist helping the residents of a small fishing village preserve their way of life and a resort developer wanting to build on their land. 

 

Speaking on the phone from Antigua, Mitzi and Howard say they wanted to tell that story because of what is happening in the world today.

 

“We’ve experienced it, firsthand, within the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that climate change is a major factor that is affecting our lives whether you want to believe in climate change or not,” says Mitzi who believes that while most Caribbean people are directly affected by it, they don’t realize that there is a deeper meaning to what they are experiencing economically and how it is affecting their way of life. 

 

She wants people to be aware of the things they have around them that they need to preserve.

 

SIDS are islands of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans that are vulnerable to environmental challenges, such as climate change, and generally small in size. They were recognized as a distinct group of developing countries in June 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development.

 

Howard thinks most Caribbean people, including him, do not understand enough about how environmental ecosystems work and how important things like coral reefs and mangroves impact their everyday life.

 

“That’s something I learnt from doing a series of environmental documentaries and that really was the impetus for writing this screen play,” he says, referencing the significance of mangroves to the environment and fish although the trees or shrubs look like bush. 

 

The writer and director says in writing the screenplay he was trying to get some of that information to the public in a way that was easier to consume than in a documentary that can be heavy on information.

 

“I think this film presented some of that information in a more entertaining way. It makes the information easier to consume.”

 

The couple’s interest in the environment was sparked over a period of 15 years when their company, HaMafilms Antigua, produced several documentaries for the environmental division in Antigua and Barbuda that were internationally funded. 

 

Music has always been an integral part of their film production, says Howard, noting that he grew up listening to a lot of calypsos, reggae and Caribbean music that, for the most part, always had a strong story element. For him, music is not included in the film as a background to a scene but the songs are deliberately chosen and are integral to complementing a scene. 

 

The filmmakers said the film was made on a shoestring budget in Hollywood terms. “In Hollywood terms, $10million is a low budget film and this is in no way $10million,” says Howard acknowledging that although they spent more than they did on their first film, The Sweetest Mango, it is still a shoestring budget and they are working with meagre resources. But part of their Caribbean reality is being resourceful, “finding ways to make the little that you have work for you and I think we have become almost experts at that.”

 

The screenwriting process for Deep Blue started in 2012 and production in 2019, but everything was soon interrupted by the pandemic. Some of the entities that they were relying on for funding became stretched financially which hampered their ability to raise the funds they wanted for the film.

 

Undeterred and driven by their philosophy that once they start a project they are going to complete it, the couple found ways during the pandemic to persevere and finish it. “We are really quite happy with what we were able to do,” says Howard.

 

The film and television director/producer says Antigua and Barbuda does not have a film industry but instead has a film culture in which there are budding filmmakers and people who have an interest in filmmaking. “There isn’t a structure in place that truly supports what we’ve done and are doing.” 

 

Part of how they get their work done is to collaborate with other filmmakers and filmmakers in the region and in Canada, and anywhere in the world they can find people who are likeminded and believe in what they are doing and want to support them.

 

“This has come about when we tour with our work to conferences and film festivals. They are always amazed with what we are able to accomplish with our limited resources and they want to come on board and do things,” says Mitzi, executive producer of Deep Blue, noting that it is the work of their production company that brings actors and other professionals to them.

 

Their earlier films, The Sweetest Mango, a love-story loosely based on how they met and produced more than 22 years ago, and The Skin, based on Caribbean mythology, premiered at the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival.

 

Although their films have been shown before in Toronto, Mitzi says what is different with Deep Blue is that it is coming to a much larger venue, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and they are looking forward to having a capacity audience.

 

As the producer, Mitzi says the film is their most ambitious project, with many collaborations — from Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Maurice Gregory, formerly of Third World, writing the theme song “Beautiful,” to Antigua and Barbuda’s reggae artist ambassador, Causion, who has music in it and is in the film. Both musicians will be performing at the Toronto premiere of the film.

 

“We have seasoned professional actors, Canadians who have lent their talent to the film because before we would draw from our local talent at home. Well, in The Skin, we have Carl Bradshaw out of Jamaica who was excellent in his role. But for Deep Blue, it is really in every sense of the word an international and Caribbean collaboration.”

 

Canadian actors Peter Williams and Kim Huffman star in the film and are accompanied by a roster of international talent including Canadian-Guyanese actor Ryan Singh, British actor Tom Durant Pritchard (of Netflix’s The Crown and biopic Judy), Antiguan-British actress Julie Hewlett (The Sweetest Mango), and Canadian-Trinidadian actress Rhoma Spencer. 

Photo credit: Ryan Singh    Shooting on location at Urlings Fishing Complex in Antigua will actors Nevil Nichols (Antiguan) and Kim Huffman (Canadian).

 

Mitzi’s and Howard’s first film, The Sweetest Mango, became Antigua and Barbuda’s first locally produced feature film and the first indigenous film for the Eastern Caribbean. It has become an iconic film that is still being screened after appearing at several film festivals in North America and the Caribbean and made its world-television premiere on Caribvision in via DirecTV. It is now archived at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Bell Lightbox Reference Library.

Mitzi’s career began as a broadcast journalist for CFTO TV (CTV Canada) as a reporter and continued in Antigua & Barbuda with various media organizations before she joined her husband Howard as co-owner of HAMA Productions, an independent film and television production company founded in 1992. Howard’scareer in television spans more than 30 years but he made his feature film directorial debut in 2001 with the release of The Sweetest Mango.

At one point, Mitzi was Howard’s boss when she worked as a news and production manager in Antigua. She says when they started their company both brought different skills to the table that allowed for great collaboration.

 

“We have been able to separate the business from the marriage in the sense that we’re really professionals when it comes to what we want to see and the deadlines that we have to meet and so on. And Howard is very creative in the story he wants to tell, and I may have to pull him back a little bit and say where’s the money going to come for that? We have been able to do it, we started out as really good friends.” 

 

She says they share the same vision and passion for their work as they do for themselves as a couple. “That has really pushed us through because we’re both on the same page, in terms of what we want to accomplish with our company, with our storytelling, with our films and we’re both on the same page when it comes to our relationship and what we enjoy doing together as a couple.” Mitzi and Howard are with each other 24/7 on set and off the set.

 

Howard says although he is very creative he is also technically trained, and in terms of working together, they respect each other’s role.

 

So why should Canadians attend the premiere of the film?

 

“I want the audience to feel immersed in Caribbean culture and also learn about the complexities of conservation and development because it’s not really a simple issue. As individuals we need to appreciate what we have so that we can protect it,” says Howard.

 

“I expect them to experience a very thought-provoking film that also entertains them,” says Mitzi, while sharing a comment from a woman who saw it and was emotionally moved. “She came out of the film all in her feelings; she was upset about so many things and it ranged from morality to class privilege. She felt differently leaving.

 

“I think you’re going to come away moved because it’s a mirror on society and people will see themselves reflected, so the way you feel after you see Deep Blue is going to say a lot about you as an individual and it’s going to spark discussion.” 

 

When the film was shown in Antigua and Barbuda, because its story resonated so much with what is happening in Barbuda many people thought it was about them but it is not, says Mitzi.

 

“It’s happening in many Small Island Developing States but we all think we’re isolated,” she says before Howard chimes in: “We do want the audience to take ownership of elements of the story that are relevant to them.”

 

Mitzi and Howard wanted Deep Blue to come out during the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) hosted in Glasgow in late 2021, however, that was not possible because of the pandemic.

 

On September 16, 7:30 p.m. at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Canadian lovers of film will have an opportunity to see it, participate in a Q&A with both filmmakers, and enjoy the live performances of Causion and Maurice Gregory. Tickets are available at the Commffest website. The festival runs from September 14-22.