Michael
FrancescaCaribbean Studies Association Film and Performance Track presents:
German Gruber
German Gruber is young filmmaker who lives and works in Curacao. He is a recent graduate of Utrecht fine arts school in directing. His recent film “The Legend of Buchi Fil”. (20 mins) won the best short narrative film award at the 2010 Trinidad and Tobago film festival. The film was screened at the Caribbean studies association conference film and performance track in Curacao to a very appreciative audience with a question and answer session with the producer of the film Sulin Passial. The Legend of Buchi Fil is an visual retelling of the story of a young male slave who could not be beaten into submission by a violent overseer. The only way in which his spirit could be broken was through the kidnapping of his beloved wife who was taken away to another island. It is based on a poem that is well known to the people of the Dutch Antilles, The remarkable cinematography captures the arid and haunting landscape that reflected the heart wrenching brutality of the life of the slaves.
Responses of the audience ranged from gratitude from Curacaons for the visual rendition of this classic poem, the sound track which contained vocalizations by one of Curacao best known theatre performer. Academic critique from an anthropologist challenged the representation of the unrealistic representation of the division of labour in the film, which placed men as field slaves and women as house slaves. The producer indicated that the film had remained fairly accurate to the poem.
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