A Belizean made film had an international premier earlier tonight in London, England. "Unknown Belize" is made by Feste Films with funding from the European Nature Trust. The premiere screening was held at the prestigious Royal Geographical Society.
A release says, "The documentary uncovers the wild wonders of Belize, showcasing a little-known nation of immense pride and purpose." The film focuses on conservation efforts led by environmental foundations and NGOs.
It was an evening of immense pride for Belmopan based Feste Films - which did all the photography. We spoke to one of the filmmakers and the presenter in London Town a few hours ago after the premiere:
Tom Hinds, Filmmaker
"Some at its most basic travel log through Belize, but with strong environmental themes running through it. The crowd really enjoyed it. It was probably about a few hundred people here and everybody seemed to enjoy it and o see it come together like this in a foreign land and to show it to other people, it makes me proud as a Belizean, because I don't think there's been anything like this before. It's the first of its kind. In other production companies that come into Belize and told our story, but not really by Belizeans and not a Belizean presenter or Belizean crews. That kind of thing hasn't happened before and it's not just something like proof official, it's something that actually mean something. We can show the world something we can be proud of and something we can really move forward with and hopefully make another one."
Sean Kuylen, Presenter
"Don't you ever come to my country and bring a foreigner or a foreign producing company and try to tell a story that we know. So, I am very proud, although I'm a chef, to tell the story of what is Belize and especially proud that I did it with Feste Film, because any other producing company that came into Belize for 12 to 15 months and mosquito bite them and its hot, they would not be able to survive. So, it is surely world class and I know the Belizeans will be proud of it. I was teary eyed; I feel so patriotic and the people in the audience were all applauses."
Jules Vasquez
"It was that moment for you that was transcendent in the film and you felt it, you felt the cold seed when a larger audience saw it."
Sean Kuylen, Presenter
"For me one of the cold seeds moment that I re-lived, because I lived it once and I re-lived it just now while I saw the film, was a thing called a "Mayahac" Mayahac, you might even know what it is because not even Channel 7 probably have documented this, its going deep in the rainforest in the Toledo District with the Ketchi and the Mopan [Maya] and this is a ritual that you go and you burn the Copal, the Copan resin and you give back to mother earth. So here we have the contrast of I don't want to say the industrial part of Belize, let's say the Mennonites bulldozing the land and everything and then you have the Mayas who like, let's call Christina Coc's name who want to preserve it, but from a spiritual transcend - it's this spiritual thing that gives me cold seed then and when I saw it just now, it gives me cold seed again."
Tom Hinds, Filmmaker
"I would have to agree with Sean from a film perspective behind the camera, that was very spiritual. At one point I was expecting some of the Mayan ancestors to just jump out of the forest. Alex and I in the heat of the whole ceremony, Alex and I pretty much had to put down our cameras. It was so powerful. Then we just had to put down our cameras and take away our minds from actually working and be like wow, this is something that has never been film before. Nobody has ever been invited to a ceremony like this before."
100% of proceeds from tonight's event will be directed to the protection and promotion of the Belizean environment.
So how can you see the film? The filmmakers tell us it's being shopped to several streaming platforms at the moment. They also hope to screen it at the Belize film festival in November.
