NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (JULY 10, 2013) — Deputy Premier of Nevis and Minister of Tourism Hon. Mark Brantley welcomed Coordinator of Outreach and Community Engagement at the Sewanee University of the South in Tennessee Mr. Samuel Dixon Myers to Nevis, when he paid him a courtesy call at his Nevis Island Administration (NIA) office at Bath Hotel on July 09, 2013.
The visit stemmed from Mr. Dixon’s visit to the island to premiere a film through the Nevis Film Commission, entitled “Born in Trench Town” and Mr. Brantley urged the public to attend the premiere.
“I want to thank this gentleman for coming all the way here from the United States. He is obviously doing some excellent work… I want to thank Mr. Ahmed as well for inviting him to come in for us to have a film premiere here on Nevis. I think it’s very significant.
“This event happens this Thursday at the Trott House on the [Samuel] Hunkins Drive. It starts about 6:30 p.m., I am told, and we are inviting the general public to come out and be part of this very significant film premiere on Nevis,” he said.
Mr. Brantley who is also the Minister of Culture on Nevis said Trench Town, made popular through the music by renowned Reggae singer Bob Marley and his Wailers and others, had become a brand name of sorts with which Nevisians could identify.
“We have heard about it through the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers and others and so we are very familiar with it, even those who have not visited. It’s almost as if it were a brand name of sorts. Everybody would know of Trench Town and I am very happy in my discussions with you, thus far, to learn that you know a lot about it, that you visited it quite often.
“I myself have been there perhaps on one or two occasions but not as often and so, Trench Town is a very significant cultural place and some place which is part and parcel of the embedding, if you will, of the cultural phenomenon of reggae music that has taken over the globe. So we are very happy that someone has seen the need to chronicle that by way of film and so I am coming to see it on Thursday and trust and hope that all the people will come out and see it as well. I want to thank you for that. Thank you for choosing Nevis and if you have not been here before, welcome, and if you have been here before welcome back,” he said.
In response Mr. Myers, who is the Film’s Executive Producer thanked the Minister and gave an insight into the movie directed by Mr. Greg Pond.
“We are bringing a film here called “Born in Trench Town.” It’s a documentary on the voices of those who live in that community in Kingston, Jamaica. We are actually here at the request of Abdul Ahmed, a friend of ours, and [we] showed him the film and trying to develop some possible film opportunities here in Nevis,” he said.
The film premiered in the United Kingdom at the One Love Reggae Festival in Kent, in Jamaica on September 12, 2012 and in the United States of America on February 09, 2013 at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Meantime, during the visit, Mr. Dixon presented Minister Brantley with a copy of a book entitled “Turning the Wall” which was written by a photography professor at the University. It consisted of many stories and some documentation by an Architect who had written about Trench Town.
Accompanying Mr. Dixon was his wife Annwn and President/Film Commissioner of the Nevis Film Commission Mr. Abdul-Kareem Ahmed.
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