Life's a Beach at the first annual Virgin Islands International Film And Video Festival

We are pleased to announce the success of the first annual Virgin Islands International Film and Video Festival. The festival spanned eight nights and was jam packed with 15 world class films. The encouraging results and support of all involved have put us straight to work on making next years festival bigger and better, including possible screenings on all three Virgin Islands. We will continue to focus on those films and videos which foster greater understanding among different cultures.

We would like to thank all the filmmakers and supporters who made the event possible. Without their great talents, hard work, and perseverance, our enthusiastic audiences would just be sitting in the dark.

The festival was a triumph for us and we are pleased to announce the successes of some of the filmmakers involved. Speaking in Strings has just been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This is the first nomination for both Paolo di Florio and Lilibet Foster. Foster is a native of St. Thomas and of course a local favorite.

Ninth Street, produced by Rick Cowan and starring Martin Sheen and Isaac Hayes will be aired in the near future in San Francisco. It is scheduled to be a part of the celebration of black history. Check your local listings for details.

She Smokes, by Christa Collins has garnered several awards including: 1st place - Best Short Film and 2nd place - Best Film Overall at the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and was featured at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Keep your eyes toward HBO for Jon Gold and Desmond Hall's production of A Day in Black and White, A Movie In Color, About Color, And How It Colors Everything.

Dumbarton Bridge continues to gain popularity. Often called a tone poem, this film has been awarded the Best Cross Cultural Film and the Kodak Award for Best Cinematography by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Learn more about it at:

Special thanks to:
Christa Collins, Rick Cowan, George Cox, Thomas Dreijer, Lilibet Foster, Dorothy Karvi, Charles Koppelman, Edward LeBorde Jr., Thomas Outerbridge, Oliver Samuels, Yvette Smalls, Miyoshi Smith, Victor & Michael Stills, Alonzi Rico Speight, Flo Wiley and Eric Zucker

Please check back here for updates on the successes of those films that were shown at this years festival, as well as for information on next years festival and other developments.

If you missed the festival you can still read the recap of films and events from the first annual Virgin Islands International Film and Video Festival archive pages.