The Bahamas Weekly reports that the Bahamas figures prominently at China’s first Latin American and Caribbean Film Festival held this month in Beijing, China. The films are Gina Rodgers-Sealy’s Trailblazer: The Mychal Thompson Story and her documentary, Gentle Giant: The Andre Rodgers Story, and Tyler Johnston’s documentary, My Father’s Land.

The award winning filmmaker [Gina Rodgers-Sealy] said, “Our appearance in this film festival was validation to me that the topics of faith, family, hard work and determination are global issues that are held close to the hearts of many.” She said that both films were extremely well received and that she is “still in awe of the widespread popularity of the films throughout the US and the world.”

Ambassador Gomez says that “clearly Bahamian director Gina Rodgers Sealy is at the top of her game with Trailblazer and Gentle Giant: The Andre Rodgers Story, which were presented with Mandarin subtitles for the benefit of the Chinese audience and which were very well received. The audiences got to know a lot more about the best of The Bahamas.”

The third Bahamian film shown was Tyler Johnston’s feature length documentary, My Father’s Land, which explored the life of a well-loved Haitian gardener Papa Jah, as he returns to his homeland of Haiti from The Bahamas, to visit his 103-year-old father. [. . .]

For full article, see http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/entertainment/Bahamian_Film_Kicks_Off_Regional_Festival_in_China48478.shtml

For more on the film festival, see http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-05/08/content_25141749.htm