Mirror To The Soul (2012)

  Mirror To The Soul from Soul Jazz Records on Vimeo.

Mirror to the Soul is a new 2-hour documentary film about the Caribbean, which is made up entirely of footage from British Pathénewsreels (short news pieces of two or three minutes in length) thatwere filmed during the period 1922-1970. The film presents many aspects of Caribbean life – from bananaplantations to Voodoo ceremonies, Calypsonians to revolutionaries.

As well as an insight into aspects of West Indian life, the film alsoallows us to see how a private British film company presented a constructed Caribbean identity to the outside world. Consequently the film tells us as much about British society and its own identity and values – especially in regard to attitudes towards its then colonies – as it does those of the Caribbean itself.

The relationship between the Caribbean and Britain is also explored through items and footage of the onward diaspora of West Indians to the ‘motherland’, including the arrival of Windrush in 1948, racial troubles and more.

The film is not just limited to the relationship between Britain and the Caribbean, documenting the changing relationship between a number of islands and their protectors or enemies – such as, for instance, Cuba and the USA – with footage from the Cuban revolution onwards.

Similarly the scope of the film includes footage of Venezuela, Belize, Colombia and Florida, USA – which form the wider Caribbean region,rather than just the West Indies islands themselves.

British Pathé was established in London in 1910 to make newsreels which were screened in cinemas throughout Britain before main features. In the 1950s, to compete with the new medium of television,Pathé began adding entertainment, cultural and educational stories to add to its hard news items. Pathé stopped production in 1970 accumulating over 3,500 hours of documentary history.

Directed by Stuart Baker / Edited by Dan Crouch / 120mins

Further information:
karen@soundsoftheuniverse.com
020 7734 3341