This Friday, UVI’s Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center presents the film screening of “A Blue Estate,” a compelling work produced, directed, and written by St. Johnian Savannah Lyons Anthony. The film examines family legacy and land rights through the lens of two brothers meeting on their family property after life and disaster pushes them apart.
Hadiya Sewer, director of the VICCC, believes that this film screening and subsequent question and answer segment will allow the audience to engage in deeper dialogue around interpersonal relationships and the way our colonial wounding has shaped our environment and familial dynamics. “We hope that this conversation may help to strengthen our intra-territorial dialogue so that we can continue to grapple with the nuances of our unique histories and land rights on each of our respective islands,” Sewer said.
Lyons Anthony was recently featured in Volume 5 of “The Forgotten Lands Art” publication which highlights artists and creatives across the Caribbean and the diaspora. In her contribution, she had an opportunity to write alongside Malik Smith in the piece titled “You Don’t Know Me, But You Think You Do.”
Sewer said, “Their collaborative work forces us to think deeply about the legacies of incarceration, Black masculinity, fugitivity and how the enduring legacies surrounding colonial violence frame what we think we know about the Fountain Valley massacre that took place on St. Croix in 1972 and the men who were convicted for it.
“This question and answer segment also opens the door for the audience to explore what it means for a St. Johnian to be writing alongside a Crucian about such a pivotal moment in St. Croix’s history. Savannah’s line of work often asks questions about freedom, movement and the Black body, not only in St. John but the wider Virgin Islands and African Diaspora,” Sewer said. “She forces us to use and see art as a vehicle for looking in the mirror and taking an honest accounting of who we are so that we can chart a path forward.”
The VICCC is determined to highlight Virgin Islands creatives and filmmakers. They believe that doing so opens pathways for dialogue around Virgin Islanders’ unique identities, experiences, and cultures.
The film screening of “A Blue Estate” will be held on Friday at 5 p.m. at RT Park on the STX UVI Campus.
For questions or comments, please contact Hadiya Sewer at hadiya.sewer@uvi.edu.
