A documentary narrated by former Chief Cultural Officer Raymond Lawrence has won the Best Documentary Short category at the Cannes World Film Festival in France.
This is a big win for the documentary which is entitled “Island Under Pressure” and was produced by Harold Jessurun and the Third Eye Productions company based in Puerto Rico.
The documentary deals with the aftermath of the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in St. Vincent in 2021.
The narration by Raymond Lawrence was recorded at Clint Henderson’s studio in Goodwill. Other audio was recorded by Katherine Orfila in Puerto Rico. The photography was done by Ramesh Cintron and the script was written by Marvin Emerson of Third Eye Productions.
Mr Lawrence says he’s humbled and honoured by the huge success of the documentary. He also thanks Clint Henderson for his audio work and Harold Jessurun and his Third Eye Productions for engaging talent from Dominica to be a part of this award-winning documentary.
Mr. Lawrence says ultimately he gives thanks to God for this wonderful opportunity and for the great success of the documentary.
The You Tube video of the 15 minute documentary, is posted below.
Correction: This film didn’t win at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. It won at Cannes World Film Festival. A totally different festival that has only been running for 1 year.
This film is actually highly unethical. It uses images that it claims to be St. Vincent and it’s not St. Vincent. It doesn’t present an empowered vision of Vincentians, but rather stereotypes them. We barely even get to hear any Vincentians speaking in the film.
Well said Barry. As a Vincentian who have experienced La Soufriere 2020-21 eruption this film is a huge disappointment as it not only does what you stated but is portrays factually incorrect information (the historical review & the scientific information about the eruption and volcano are both riddled with errors). In addition, to not providing Vincentians with voices it actually appropriates the words of one of the two persons interviewed persons and re-interprets them to serve the films’ agenda. This is a good example of how NOT to do a documentary about people in this region. The fact that it was narrated by a Dominican and made by a Puerto Rican company makes this even more of a travesty.
Well I had to come and re-read the article after I watched the videos to see again which award they said this won. My high school students would have presented a more authentic production if given an assignment. It’s is misleading, ingenuine, and lacking, not to mention erroneous. Cannes Film Festival??
Great job, Mr Lawrence. Very articulate as usual.
Congrats…..well done!!!
Vincy’s prefer to be identified as Garifunas over Kalinagos.
CONGRATULATIONS Raymond. You have a one of a kind voice. Not surprised at this award. Your voice is your gift from the Almighty. Use it for good promotion and creativity. Well done.
Congratulations to mr lawrence.you have made Dominica so proud through out the years and still continue to do so even in retirement.