(l to r) Nerissa Golden of goldenmedia Montserrat, Chief Minister Reuben T. Meade and Executive Producer of The Skin, Mitzi Allen at the Montserrat Cultural Centre on Friday, July 8, 2011.
LITTLE BAY, Montserrat – Movie lovers on Montserrat got a rare treat this past weekend, when they were able to watch The Skin, a Caribbean thriller from HAMAFilms Antigua at The Montserrat Cultural Centre.
Since the evacuation of Plymouth, Montserrat has not had a full-fledged cinema, however the duo behind The Skin Howard and Mitzi Allen have made it their business to bring their new movie projects to the island.
It was "great to see a feature length film with Caribbean themes. Great filming, good actors, fun suspense," said moviegoer Pamela Holley.
The Skin tells the tale of a young couple who unleash the terror of a soucayant after finding and selling an ancient artifact. The movie was filmed on location in Antigua & Barbuda and featured a star cast including Jamaican film icon Carl Bradshaw, Jeff Steward from the UK show The Bill and Peter Williams of Stargate SG-1 and A Winter Tale.
Mitzi Allen and Howard Allen on The Cultural Show with Rose Willock on Saturday, July 9, 2011.
Chief Minister, the Hon. Reuben T. Meade attended the first screening on Friday night and remarked to the directors that he was pleased to see this level of work coming out of the Caribbean and more specifically the Eastern Caribbean. "It shows we can produce films of an international quality," he said.
Other callers on the Saturday morning radio talk show remarked that the visual and audio effects had them jumping out of their seats.
The couple is preparing to take this their fourth project to several upcoming Caribbean film festivals as well as to North America later this year.
You can view the film's trailer and read The Skin Diaries about the production on http://theskinahamafilm.wordpress.com.