(The St. Christopher National Trust): November 19, 2018: The acclaimed docudrama “Panama Dreams,” by Barbadian filmmaker Alison Saunders will premiere in St. Kitts at a special event in aid of the St. Christopher National Trust.
The Premiere is being screened at the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium on Friday November 30th at 7:00 p.m. The cocktail event is being hosted by the National Trust in collaboration with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.
Tickets are EC$75.00 and are available at the National Trust offices.
Panama Dreams” features gripping re-enactments of Prince Collymore a relative of Saunders who left Barbados in 1907 to work on the construction of the Panama Canal. Saunders uses the film to explore her family history and examine the great Caribbean migration that transformed global commerce.
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km waterway that cuts across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Construction began on the canal in 1881 but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. It was re-started in 1904 and the canal opened on August 15, 1914. Close to
25, 000 labourers from across the Caribbean are estimated to have journeyed to Panama to work on the project.
Panama Dreams follows Saunders’ personal journey that began in search of Collymore’s descendants. The compelling scenes feature archival film footage and photographs as well as contemporary images and interviews that reveal a larger story of strength, endurance and sacrifice of the early Caribbean migrants and their descendants in Panama, Cuba, and the United States.
