Caymanian filmmaker Frank E. Flowers received the Rising Son award by the Institute of Caribbean Studies in Los Angeles. The award is given to Caribbean people working abroad who have given evidence of great promise in their careers. Flowers, a young writer and film director from the Cayman Islands, wrote and directed Haven (2004, a movie starring Orlando Bloom and Agnes Bruckner. He received the HBO Director to watch in 2006. Haven was set and filmed in his native Cayman Islands.

The Government of the Cayman Islands has noted his success, including the receipt of this new award. “The best thing about the evening was arriving to find a beautiful congratulatory ad from the Cayman Islands government and Department of Tourism,” said Flowers. “It really made me feel at home and I was lucky to have a number of my friends from the island who are living or working in Los Angeles joining me.” Flowers went on to express his appreciation for the ongoing support that government has shown his efforts in the filmmaking industry. “Minister Bush has always been so supportive, from way back when we were trying to film Haven on the island, and it makes me proud to see that support continue to this day,” he said.

Flowers is working on the remake of Taps with 20^th Century Fox. The original 1981 military drama helped to launch the careers of Tom Cruise, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn.

Flowers considers himself a representative of the Cayman Islands when writing and directing in Hollywood, he said. “I bring my voice, which is very much a Caymanian voice, to all the work I do,” he said. “The dialogue, the worlds, even if a story has nothing to do with Cayman specifically it will have some vibe of my perspective. Like every writer, I often work in quotes or characters inspired by people that I know or have grown up with on the island.”

First reported at http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=10383838