POETRY IS AN ISLAND an 80-minute documentary film on the life of Nobel Literature Laureate Derek Walcott will be screened on Daher Broadcasting Service at 10:00 a.m.today as part of National Day Celebrations.
POETRY IS AN ISLAND is produced and directed by Surinamese Ida Does and co- produced by Rebecca Roos, field producer Gandolph St. Clair with photography by Ingmar Maduro. The film features the first ever life documentary on 1992 Nobel Prize winner filmed entirely in St. Lucia during 2012 with Walcott interviews and readings, and additional clippings from Stockholm and Trinidad and Tobago.
POETRY IS AN ISLAND features Walcott’s boyhood friends Sir Dunstan St. Omer, Arthur Jacobs; Sigrid Nama, his companion, Peter Walcott, his son, Michelle Serieux and Natalie La Porte. The late celebrated Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney is also part of the cast.
POETRY IS AN ISLAND has been shown in Trinidad & Tobago where it premiered, Havana, New York, Aruba, Amsterdam, St. Lucia, Washington, London and will be sub titled for Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian and Indian audiences. John Robert Lee wrote: “An open look at Derek Walcott, from the perspective of the aging poet tracing his journey from youth to this point, where he is 83.” Professor FunsoAiyejina of UWI comments, “A fantastic film about a great Caribbean Cultural Icon. It brought Mr. Walcott and his words to life in a way that I have never enjoyed before.” Writer Andre Bagoo in his review said, “It is a startling and moving achievement. Ida Does’ use of imagery is simply magnificent, bearing the hall marks of a great film maker.”
Walcott’s own impression of POETRY IS AN ISLAND is …”A beautiful and gentle job.”
Pertinent issues arising out of the film, are his vision of the Rat Island Foundation and the intention by the St. Lucia Government to set up a Museum in his boyhood residence along Chaussee Road, Castries.