The St Barth Film Festival
The SBFF was launched in 1996, with the aim of giving the island's inhabitants access to the cultural riches of Caribbean cinema. Since its first edition, which was a resounding success, the festival has brought together film buffs every year. Caribbean films are screened at the AJOE (the only open-air cinema in the Lorient district, over 30 years old), on Flamands beach or on the quayside. The festival also organizes meetings with filmmakers and workshops in Saint-Barthélemy schools. In 2019, the festival will be screening De Mémoire d'Anciens (2007), directed by Belgian filmmaker Victoire Theismann. This documentary is based on the accounts of several island locals, who tell us about a less touristy Saint-Barthélemy, the salt harvest in Saline, alcohol and cigarette smuggling, and a simpler life where men, for lack of work, left clandestinely to seek employment on the island of Saint-Thomas.
Aerial stroll and romance on white sand
In 1993, Jean-Luc Azoulay discovered the Lesser Antilles on his show "Le Club Dorothée ". Producer and creator of numerous low-cost series, Azoulay was behind many successful programs, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. With his series Les Vacances de l'amour (a spin-off of the cult series Hélène et les Garçons), Azoulay travels to Saint-Barthélemy, where he shoots one of Hélène et Nicolas' legendary kisses. It took Belgian journalist and film-maker Pierre Brouwers three trips to the island to capture all the images needed for his documentary La Belle et l'Avion (2008). In his work, Brouwers pays tribute to the island's air strip, the only flat piece of land that has brought Saint-Barth into the modern age. The director criss-crosses the island, recounting the parties and encounters in this tribute to the pioneers of aviation. In 2018, Julie Mauduy and Thierry Trésor arrive in the tiny Caribbean for their film Les Petites Antilles, Cœur Battant. This work is framed by Connaissance du Monde, a French organization founded in 1945, famous for its filmed conferences. With this journey through the islands that make up the Lesser Antilles, Mauduy and Trésor tell us the story of the Amerindians, the European settlers, but also of the nature that is the common identity of the West Indians. Unlike Azoulay, who presents Saint-Barth as the island of love, Brouwers, Mauduy and Trésor join Victoire Theismann in their desire to show the authentic character, rich in history and memories, of Saint-Barthélemy.
