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August 25, 2020

By Kevon Browne

St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Local music video director, Nigel ‘TruCapo’ Lewis, or ‘Capo’ for short, has a short film entitled “A Rose Between Thorns” that premiered at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) on Friday (August 21, 2020).

On Tuesday (August 18) broadcast of WINN’s weekday morning show ‘Island Tea’, Capo, known for directing music videos for local artists including Infamus, Dejour, Nicha B, Konris, and Rolhensha , spoke about his entry into film.

“A Rose Between Thorns” is his solo directorial debut in the realm of film making.

Capo spoke about how he got into videography and directing despite the slow start and skepticism he faced.

“ How to put it… I just kind of walk into it in a way. I use to listen to music videos a lot and I use to visual videos for songs so I said let me try and do some music videos… At first it started off slow, I went to certain artists and they were skeptical,” explained Capo.

Capo was asked what he thought was the video or videos that helped him to gain attention and recognition as a director.

“Infamus, ’21 Gun Salute’. I think that one, and possibly ‘Feel like Crying’ as well, that’s a next Infamus video. Probably my second video too, SMI’s “I Stay Fresh” because that was the first time I ever did green screen in my life.”

During the broadcast, he was asked how he became a film director. He mentioned the title may be the same but film is a different beast when compared to a music video.

“You direct music videos; it’s a whole different thing from directing a short film or a film. When I start doing the videos I said I would like to try to do a short film or a film and I just tried to make the push for it.”

The film features a young girl, Rose, who through dance, tries to escape her abusive family, but Rose’s escape is not so simple.

“The movie is called A Rose Between Thorns. It’s about a young girl who tries to escape her abusive family by dancing, but everything just follows her wherever she goes… in a nutshell.”

The runtime of the film is 76 minutes. It was produced by eight-time Emmy winner Juan Agustin who also has an Oscar under his belt.

The film stars Bernel Huggins, Roberitine Webbe, Jervin Nisbett, Charles Parris, Judy Dupont, Unoma Allen, and others, with an appearance by Unexpected.

“A Rose Between Thorns” has been accepted into a total of three global film festivals. It is a semi-finalist in one of the three so far. It is also the only film from the Caribbean to be accepted into the ABFF, one of the biggest black film festivals. Thus far it’s been accepted into three film festivals, one being the American Black Film Festival which starts this Friday (August 21). So you can actually see the film this Friday on the American Black Film Festival website, which is ABFF.com. We also submitted it into the Austrian Film festival which it’s a semi-finalist… and we just recently got accepted into the Urban World Film Festival which is an Academy Award film festival” explained Capo.

There are also talks about a second film and web-series in the works for Capo.

” The talks is always there, the second film we hoping to bring in some actresses and actors hopefully. I have to convince my producer… We [are] actually [going] start shooting a sitcom or web series you can call it, can’t say the date as yet, I already saw the script it needs some work on it but we already have the script so we [are going] to start our sitcom in the near future.”

He also spoke about the opportunity available for local film producers and to compete globally.

“Once you have a camera and you into film making just shoot and try to get a producer, that is what I’ve learned along the way especially listening to sessions online you need that producer to shop your film cause that’s the role of the producer really to market your film get the film out there into the eyes of people.”

Capo’s advice is to just try and enter whatever work is produced to regional film festivals, even without a producer, in an effort to spread one’s name and gain the necessary experience.

He said St. Kitts and Nevis is a great destination for films/movies to be created, produced, and filmed.

He alluded to a few films that were in fact shot here in the past and indicated that the federation could continue to attract such projects with the right marketing.

“Yea, I think St. Kitts is a destination for film. I mean I think a lot of people don’t even know this that a film was shot here in the 1980s at Royal St. Kitts call “Hot Resort”… It’s just to create that market for persons to want to come.”