I produced and directed a documentary in Kingston, Jamaica. I’ve had people ask me how I was able to do that. Honestly, it came about because I met a guy at a barbeque.
I was at a low point in my creative life. I lost my Agent at CAA. It was an amicable split. She said they’d no longer be working with me, and I said okay. I left my home in Austin, Texas with a broken heart from a hard break-up and I found myself working as a temp employee in Frederick, Maryland. I felt like a failure. But I was ready to put the past behind me and move on. My creative portfolio and screenwriting awards and accomplishments fit all nice and neat in a cardboard box tucked away in a closet.
I wasn’t in much of a party mood. But I stopped in for a few minutes and met my sister’s best friend’s boyfriend. Jamil Bennett. He seemed like a nice guy. We chatted for a bit, and I went on with my day. Later that night I heard from my sister that my entire family was invited to spend a week at Jamil’s family home outside of Kingston.
My first reaction was, no. I didn’t know this guy or his family. Why would they invite all of us to Jamaica? It made no sense. But as it rattled around in my mind, I realized I couldn’t come up with a reason not to go, other than fear of the unknown. And my life clearly needed a jumpstart, I decided to remove the negativity; get out of my comfort zone and go for it.
It was quite an adventure. Most tourists see the country from plane to shuttle to resort. And after a few days inside the luxurious and gated confines. From resort to shuttle to plane. We were given an opportunity to see the island through the eyes of people who lived and worked there. A beautiful and captivating oasis, with danger and corruption and stagnation and poverty hanging over the tropical paradise. Jamaica, warts and all.
The family we stayed with were lovely people who opened their home to us. The Bennett’s were accomplished business professionals who had left Washington D.C. and returned to their homeland determined to give something back to their country.
They had created a school. KBC Learning. A center designed to help grade-school kids from impoverished communities who had fallen behind in their studies and fallen through the cracks. Poor kids abandoned to a bleak future of gangs and drugs. This program gave those kids a second chance at their education.
I can’t remember when I had the idea. One night on this out of nowhere adventure, I had a simple thought. A picture tells a thousand words. What if we made a short film? Interviewed teachers from the program. Parents who’s kids were saved by this second chance. School administrators who saw the benefits of the center. Hear them in their own words, tell their own stories. Would that be something that could help the fledgling school? The family liked the idea and were eager to see it come to life.
All I had to do was figure out how to make that happen.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea for the rest of the vacation and the trip home and sitting at my temporary desk at my temporary corporate cubicle. Somewhere in that return to reality, I became a film producer.
I never made a film before or a documentary before. But a good producer knows how to find talented people who do know what they’re doing. I reached out to a documentary filmmaker friend of mine from Austin. I pitched Buckner Cooke the idea. A bare bones shoot. His room and board would be covered by the Bennett’s. I would cover his flight. We’d need his camera and his eye. Would he want to do it?
Maybe it was the concept, or it could have been the prospect of two-weeks running around a Caribbean paradise that convinced him. Whatever it was, he was on-board. Along with his editor and partner, Nevie Owens. She would handle post-production and help craft the material into a short film. I would conduct the interviews and Jamil would be our man on the ground, driving the van and getting us from place to place throughout the chaos of Kingston.
Buckner said we needed a sound mixer, and did I know anybody? I had an idea. My best friend Andy was a married web designer but a San Diego surfer at heart. He rode a motorcycle, played a lot of soccer and drank a lot of rum, usually out of a mason jar. I never saw the man get angry at anything and he had never held a boom mic in his life. He was perfect and the last piece of the puzzle for our Jamaican documentary crew.
That trip was one of the best adventures of my life. And the completed film shined a light on the program and brought in additional funding, allowing more kids to work through the center. The creative accomplishments aside, I’m proud of my first-ever documentary film. It’s still one of the best things I’ve ever done as a human being.
By Sean Bridges
(Article published on The Relatable Voice Magazine - September 2024)
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