A film portraying the culture and wildlife
of
Long Island scooped top prize in the
Bahamas
14 Island Film Challenge.
The contest saw 14 amateur film-makers flown to one of 14
different islands or island groups in the Bahamas, to make a short film in 14 days that
captured the essence of the island.
Amateur director
Robin Schmidt,
who went home with the first prize of £14,000, used a local fisherman
with no acting experience to play the part of a "genie" who shows a
young boy the wonders of Long Island. VIDEO LINK.
In second place was a light-hearted film using a flamingo
sock-puppet set on
Inagua, and third place went to a
story set on
Mayaguana.
The
Armchair Critics award,
voted for by travel agents and members of the public, went to Kevin
Curtis who wrote and directed a story of a young boy set various
challenges by the father of the girl he loves, filmed on
Acklins/Crooked
Island.
Speaking at the red
carpet finale at the Bafta HQ in London, senator
Vincent
Vanderpool-Wallace, minister of tourism and aviation, reminded
the audience that Nassau/Paradise Island, for which the Bahamas is
well-known, occupies only 1.5% of the landmass of the Bahamas.
"I feel my ministry will have succeeded if
places that people have never heard of like Inagua and Mayaguana join
with Nassau and Grand Bahama in the traveller's lexicon," he said.
The senator added that the films will now be
available to travel agents, tour operators and other trade partners for
use in training and at industry events and consumer shows.
From Thursday you can watch all 14 of the
finalists' films here on ttglive, and enter to win a seven-day trip for
two to The Bahamas, staying at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort.
The Bahamas Tourist Office has been giving
away different prizes since November in competitions with
TTG. Hayley Holder of Thomson Waterlooville had a
taste of the red carpet treatment after winning two tickets to the
finale event in the
TTG competition, along with a night in a
top London hotel and a Canon camera.
(above) Hayley is pictured left with Tommy Thompson,
deputy director general of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation.
