DIRECTOR'S BIO
Andrew Millington
Born in Barbados Andrew Millington is a filmmaker who has lived in the United States for the past thirteen years. He worked on numerous industry and independent productions in the northeastern United States as an Assistant Director (including the internationally acclaimed film "Sankofa") before writing and directing his own films.
In 1999 he completed his first feature-length film "Guttaperc" which he wrote and directed. Shot on the island of Barbados the script is based on childhood experiences of his life in Barbados and was produced with personnel from the United States and Caribbean. "Guttaperc", well received at both national and international film festivals is being released on videocassette in July, 2001. He is presently in production on a documentary on writer and essayist George Lamming.
Andrew Millington is also presently a Professor of Film at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1986 he graduated with a degree in History and English from the University of the West Indies and went on to study film at Howard University in Washington D.C.
Born in Barbados Andrew Millington is a filmmaker who has lived in the United States for the past thirteen years. He worked on numerous industry and independent productions in the northeastern United States as an Assistant Director (including the internationally acclaimed film "Sankofa") before writing and directing his own films.
In 1999 he completed his first feature-length film "Guttaperc" which he wrote and directed. Shot on the island of Barbados the script is based on childhood experiences of his life in Barbados and was produced with personnel from the United States and Caribbean. "Guttaperc", well received at both national and international film festivals is being released on videocassette in July, 2001. He is presently in production on a documentary on writer and essayist George Lamming.
Andrew Millington is also presently a Professor of Film at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1986 he graduated with a degree in History and English from the University of the West Indies and went on to study film at Howard University in Washington D.C.
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DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
The film "Guttaperc" written and directed by Andrew Millington was shot over a period of four weeks on the island of Barbados. The director is a native of that country and its crew was comprised of persons from the United States, Puerto Rico and Barbados. It also features a cast of local actors including Richard Weekes (Eric) and Clairmont Taitt (Grandpa) with a special appearance by acclaimed Jamaican actress Leone Forbes (Sister Pam).
Set on a Caribbean island ‘Guttaperc’ is the story of a ten year-old Eric, spending a holiday with his grandparents in the countryside. At a time when the government has just revealed plans to build a tourist resort on the villagers’ land, Eric befriends an old woman of the village. Sister Pam tells the boy stories, one of which bears the answer to the future of the village. Soon Eric realizes that the venture threatens to displace the villagers and that his grandfather will be a major supporter and beneficiary of the project.
The film deals with questions of displacement, socialisation and creolisation in terms of individual experience and more generally in terms of cultural relations and the contradictions of development- social and political. The poles of contradiction are contained in and represented by the image of the "guttaperc" (or sling shot), an image which also functions as an indigenous tool for projecting stones and other small missiles.
The filmmaker is presently a resident of the Boston area and serves as an Assistant Professor of Film at Emerson College. "Guttaperc" is his first feature-length film and follows the short film ‘Masks’ a 18min fictional short film about a homeless man’s search for identity in Washington, DC