The UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia in collaboration with the Msgr. Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre), will on Thursday 15 February, at 7:00p.m. celebrate The UWI's 70th Anniversary of service to the region, with the presentation of a documentary film on the late Sir Derek Walcott.
“Derek Walcott Poet and Seer” is an in depth exploration of this poet’s relationship to the land, the people and the history of St Lucia and of the Caribbean as a whole. It was filmed in Saint Lucia and Trinidad and relates the land and seascape to Walcott’s poetry-in particular, his later poetry.
The 52 minute documentary by Jeanne Antoine-Dunne contains interviews with Monsignor Patrick Anthony, Jean Antoine, Sigrid Nama and John Robert Lee and also of Msgr. Patrick Anthony (Paba) interviewing Dunstan St. Omer. The film brings together archival material from fifty years of Walcott’s career and includes footage from Banyan Films and from the Walcott archives, including rehearsals and dramatisations of his work. There are also spectacular sequences where Walcott reads his poetry and demonstrates his inimical wit and style.
Dr. Antoine-Dunne has recently authored a book on Derek Walcott’s interest in film, published by Peepal Tree Press.
Preceding the main event will be the film short “The Knot” by young Saint Lucian filmmaker Davina Lee.
‘The Knot’ is based on a true story about a couple secretly casting love spells on each other. Originally retold by a priest, for the purpose of a magazine article written by Jacintha Annius-Lee, it explores the use of Obeah in Saint Lucia, including ‘love ties’.
The two films will be screened in the Conference Room of the Finance Administrative Centre, Pointe Seraphine at 7:00 p.m. A contribution towards the cost of screening the films will be collected at the door.
The public is invited to attend.
About Jeanne Antoine Dunne
Jean Antoine-Dunne is a critic, modernist, painter, disability activist, filmmaker and retired UWI academic. She has written extensively on the interface between film and literature. She is a Walcott specialist and her monograph Derek Walcott’s Love Affair with Film was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2017. She is co-editor of The Montage Principle: Eisenstein in New Cultural and Critical Contexts and editor of the Journal of West Indian Literature 2010 volume, Where is Here. Remapping the Caribbean. Her edited collection: Interlocking Basins of a Globe: Essays on Derek Walcott was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2013 and launched in St Lucia and her collection on Caribbean cinema, Visions and Revisions: Film/ in (g) the Caribbean, was published by Caribbean Quarterly in 2015.
She co-designed the BA in Film at The UWI St. Augustine, the first such degree programme in the Anglophone Caribbean, and was its first Co-ordinator (2006-2009). Her documentary Walcott as Poet and Seer premiered at the Bocas Lit festival in 2015 and a revised version was screened at the West Indian Literature Conference in 2017 at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. She is also the Founder and First Chair of the UWI Network and Outreach for Disability Education and Sensitisation (NODES). She writes a weekly Monday commentary in the Trinidad Newsday.
About Davina Lee
Davina Lee is a Saint Lucian filmmaker. She has produced music videos, commercials, short films, documentaries and television shows. She has visually interpreted works of celebrated Caribbean poets, including Sir Derek Walcott and Aimé Césaire. Davina holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Film from the Miami International University of Art & Design and a Master of Arts Degree in Screenwriting from Goldsmiths, University of London. She has received a CEMA award from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for her film “The Coming of Org” and a Screenwriting award and grant from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for her film “The Knot.”
ABOUT THE UWI
Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.
