(Video) Travel Archives Footage of Nassau, Bahamas in the 1950s

Watch a Travel Film Archive production called, Nassau in the Bahamas done in the 1950s and narrated by Charles K. Field.

The film highlights the various aspects of Nassau as a travel destination and gives a glimpse of life in those days, in particular the once thriving sponge industry.

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20 QUESTIONS

Bahamian artist Michael Edwards answers this week's 20 Questions from The Nassau Guardian's Arts&Culture.

1. What's been your most inspirational moment in the last five years?
Difficult to say. Most recently sharing the road with a 91-year-old who ran 26.2 miles - I didn't make it quite that far.

2. What's your least favorite piece of artwork?
Can't think of any.

3. What's your favorite period of art history?
Mid 20th century - Abstract Expressionism.

4. What are your top 5 movies of all time?
o Schindler's List
o The Usual Suspects
o The Shawshank Redemption
o Being John Malkovich
o The last name escapes me right now but it was by Ingmar Bergman

5. Coffee or tea?
I try to limit my caffeine intake as much as possible.

6. What book are you reading now?
"Wilderness and The American Mind" - great read.

7. What project are you working on now?
An environmental public art initiative to commemorate the country's 40th year of independence. It will be inter-disciplinary in nature for a systems thinking approach in order to regenerate and draw people to the proposed site.

8. What's the last show that surprised you?
Don't recall - sorry.

9. Saxons, One Family, Valley Boys or Roots?
None - they are distracted by the parade competition.

10. If you had to be stranded on one Family Island which one would it be?
Lutra.

11. What's the most memorable artwork you've ever seen?
That's a tough one. Perhaps Cloaca - Art(ificial) Shit Machine.

12. Which artist do you have a secret crush on?
None.

13. If you could have lunch with anyone who would it be?
Hedley Edwards - such creative vision and hustle.

14. Who do you think is the most important Bahamian in the country's history?
In terms of the modern economic model - perhaps give the nod to Sir Stafford Sands. It has not been challenged up to this point but I suspect it will be soon.

15. Who is your favorite living artist?
Don't have one as yet.

16. Sunrise or Sunset?
The former.

17. What role does the artist have in society?
To challenge the status quo;
To reimage and represent narratives;
To hold up a different lens through which to experience things;
To broaden the concept of creativity.

18. What's your most embarrassing moment?
The first day of repeating the eighth grade.

19. What wouldn't you do without?
Peanut Butter.

20. What's your definition of beauty?
Number 16 - early morning run watching the sun break the horizon.

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20 QUESTIONS

Bahamian artist and educator Heino Schmid answers Arts & Culture's 20 Questions this week.

1. What's been your most inspirational moment in the last five years?
This is ongoing; I don't think the general public understands how easy it sometimes is to abandon an artwork, not abandon art, that's something else entirely, but to scrap a work that's not going well. My favorite thing teaching at The College of The Bahamas is when students invest themselves in their work and follow through to the end with a project. There has been a lot of that in the past two years and I find that really motivational. These guys don't realize it but the best of them really keep me honest.

2. What's your least favorite piece of artwork?
It's always the last thing I finished the day after I've finished it.

3. What's your favorite period of art history?
I have two answers here. One, is the cave paintings of the Paleolithic. I just think they are the best examples of man's innate urge for visual expression. It is easy to get distracted by the business of contemporary art but the wall paintings from Lascaux, Altimira and others which date back 20,000 years and more come from a very human urge for expression. That need kids have to put pigment on their hands then to put it on a surface ties right back to early man and I think that is wonderful.
Two, is the art being produced now. There is a lot of foolishness in contemporary art but there has never been a point in art history with so much opportunity for interdisciplinary practice and such cross-pollination of ideas and aesthetics. I think that too is wonderful.

4. What are your top 5 movies of all time?
In no order,
1. The first 21 minutes of "Inglourious Basterds", the whole movie's great, but the first chapter is amazing.
2. "Let The Right One In", the original Swedish version, it's such an odd love story.
3. "Stranger Than Fiction", the protagonist is a watch, amazing!
4. "Barton Fink" I'm still trying to decipher the symbolism behind the slowly
peeling wallpaper.
5. "Rebecca". This is Hitchcock's best, I've seen it 20 times.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee in the morning, tea in the evening... I'm very colonial that way.

What book are you reading now?
"The Master of Petersburg" by J. M. Coetzee. This is the third time for me, that book is a masterpiece, Coetzee distills all these epic human experiences into simple human interactions. Also, I just finished Haruki Murakami's "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle", it's very surreal but really good. It's like someone telling you about a really long dream they had and it actually being interesting.

What project are you working on now?
I'm putting the finishing touches on my entry for the NE6 at the National Art Gallery; that entire show I think is going to be very exciting. I'm watching other people install their work as well and most artists are really pushing themselves and their work in interesting ways.

What's the last show that surprised you?
This is a tie. I taught an Intermediate Drawing class at The College of The Bahamas for the first time at the beginning of the year and asked them to put together an exhibition as their final critique, and the show, which was called 360, really blew my mind. This ties in directly with question 1.

Saxons, One Family, Valley Boys or Roots?
I like the scrap groups.

If you had to be stranded on one Family Island which one would it be?
Crooked Island. Mosquitos as big as your head but that is some of the bluest water I've ever seen... sorry Exuma.

What's the most memorable artwork you've ever seen?
About 10 years ago I saw this work, which was simply a world map crumpled into a ball sitting on a black wooden table. I don't remember the artist or the title and it's not even my favorite artwork but it really left an impression on me. It's hard to describe but by simply crushing the world map, it realigned geographical boundaries and created a new planet of sorts and the black wooden table became a new universe. The gesture was as simple as you can imagine and easily dismissed at first glance but when you got it, the work was oddly affecting.

Which artist do you have a secret crush on?
Kiki Smith. Witches are hot!

If you could have lunch with anyone who would it be?
Tom Waits. I listen a lot to him in the studio. His music is so polar, I would just be interested to see if he'd eat meat straight from a bone with his hands or order a spinach salad instead.

Who do you think is the most important Bahamian in the country's history?
A really tough question and I don't have an answer, I think the people who do all the heavy lifting in this country are the ones we'll never hear about.

Who is your favorite living artist?
Kendall Hanna, he's in his mid-seventies, he's wrestled with his share of demons but his work has never suffered as far as I can tell. That's incredible to me. A few weeks ago he was reading an art magazine and I jokingly asked him if he was doing research and he looks down at me and with a straight face says, "It's like Napoleon said 'you can't win a war on a empty stomach'," and goes back to his reading. Who quotes Napoleon first thing in the morning?

Sunrise or Sunset?
Sunrises. I'm not an early bird so I see less of these.

What role does the artist have in society?
To be honest.

What's your most embarrassing moment?
I'm super awkward so I block these out, otherwise I'd get nothing done.

What wouldn't you do without?
I'm really lucky to have three or four really good friends who have become my family. Having people you count on, really count on, is a gift.

What's your definition of beauty?
My wife getting dressed in the morning.

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20 QUESTIONS

Artist Jessica Colebrook answers this week's 20 Questions from Guardian Arts&Culture.

1. What's been your most inspirational moment in the last five years?
Besides watching the emerging personalities of both of my daughters, I would say the most inspirational moment I had in the past five years was watching God truly move in my life and answer prayers of about 10 years ago.

2. What's your least favorite piece of artwork?
My least favorite piece of artwork would be the two tile murals that were in the departure area of the old airport. Gosh, I really hated those!

3. What's your favorite period of art history?
The Renaissance Period.

4. What are your top 5 movies of all time?
Coming to America, Clash Of the Titans (1981 version), Ghost, What's Love Got to Do With It, Scream and The Lion King (that's six).

5. Coffee or tea?
Coffee.

6. What book are you reading now?
"Mother, Stranger" by Cris Beam.

7. What project are you working on now?
I am working on my upcoming "Mother and Daughter 3" exhibit scheduled for May at Hillside House as well as ACE 3 "My Flamboyant Bowls and Cups" scheduled to open in October at Doongalik Studios.

8. What's the last show that surprised you?
Can't say at the moment.

9. Saxons, One Family, Valley Boys or Roots?
Valley Boys for sure. My husband (Carlos) is a Valley and I have grown to respect his position and love for the Valley Boys over the many years we have been together, and so I pledge allegiance to that group (for the time being).

10. If you had to be stranded on one Family Island which one would it be?
Abaco for sure.

11. What's the most memorable artwork you've ever seen?
Adrian Arleo's "Turtle/Transitions", 2009.

12. Which artist do you have a secret crush on?
None really.

13. If you could have lunch with anyone who would it be?
Adrian Arleo and Oprah.

14. Who do you think is the most important Bahamian in the country's history?
Sir Lynden O. Pindling.

15. Who is your favorite living artist?
Adrian Arleo.

16. Sunrise or Sunset?
Sunrise.

17. What role does the artist have in society?
Artists bring life to just about everything. They preserve history and at the same time create history.

18. What's your most embarrassing moment?
Can't recall.

19. What wouldn't you do without?
Spending time with God first thing in the morning.

20. What's your definition of beauty?
If God made it, it's beautiful. There so much beauty in everything, even the bad!

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20 QUESTIONS

Director of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) Amanda Coulson answers this week's 20 Questions from Guardian Arts&Culture.

1. What's been your most inspirational moment in the last five years?
The One Family tribute to Jackson Burnside on Bay Street, Boxing Day Junkanoo 2011, without a doubt. It was the first time I saw the topic of "art" addressed directly in the costumes, with dancing portraits, palettes, paintbrushes... It was amazing! All the things dear to Jackson's heart brought to life again in this our ultimate Bahamian art form... it made me think about what my mission was here, in returning home. That moment made me realize how much the gallery had to open up its doors so much wider to the community. On the opening night of our first show, including some of those costumes, we had a rush out and I was intensely moved to see people from all walks of life celebrating together and going into the gallery as if it was their own.

2. What's your least favorite piece of artwork?
Anything shallow or facile, whether it's all craft and no concept or all concept and no craft. Great art - or even merely good art - requires not only technique but also deep thought and a meaningful goal.

3. What's your favorite period of art history?
Aside from the present moment, which is the most exciting and vital, it would have to be 16th century Venetian painting, the masters such as Giorgone, Mantegna, Titan, Tintoretto and Veronese. Although I do have a soft spot for Caravaggio as well, who was more from the Roman school (and I'd like to point out that they were all considered extremely radical and shocking in their time!)

4. What are your top 5 movies of all time?
Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point", of course! Just kidding... If time allows I do love going to the movies and I can enjoy a big silver screen epic as much as an independent production or an animation flick with my family. So, it really could be anything from "Apocalypse Now" to "Lord of the Rings" to "Juno" to "Shrek", depending on my state of mind. My top Bahamian movie is "Children of God" by Kareem Mortimer.

5. Coffee or tea?
Tea in the UK and coffee in Italy. Here I'd rather have a fresh ginger lemonade (or a Switcha!). Always go for what the locals do best!

6. What book are you reading now?
"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. It's a book that elucidates how fast nature would take over again if humans would cease to exist, but also explains what can never be reborn, thanks to the destruction we have wrought on our planet. It's a book that gives you great respect for Mother Nature. I'm also flipping through "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World" an exhibition catalogue from a show that was in NY across three museums. There is a copy in our library if anyone from the public wants to come and read it too!

7. What project are you working on now?
I am working on several ... "The John Beadle Project", which opens on April 25 at the NAGB, as well as "Master Artists of The Bahamas", a traveling exhibit that was in Iowa and Florida, opening the same night. Since we plan our calendar though a few years in advance I am already researching the Brent Malone Retrospective we hope to have at the end of 2014; "40 years of Bahamian Painting" for the 40th this summer... the list really goes on and on...

8. What's the last show that surprised you?
A Felix Gonzales-Torres retrospective in Frankfurt a couple of years ago. He was a Cuban-American contemporary artist that died in 1996 in Miami from AIDS-related complications. His practice was very conceptual and, first of all, I thought I knew the work so well that I would be bored by another retrospective and, secondly, I thought it was fairly straightforward, a bit of a one-trick pony. This show, however, was curated by another contemporary artist and choreographer and he completely revitalized the work and made it so relevant and powerful. I took my kids to the show and they completely engaged with these very deep, very adult themes of love and loss, of our singularity but also how we are part of a greater whole. It was pretty amazing.

9. Saxons, One Family, Valley Boys or Roots?
One Family.

10. If you had to be stranded on one Family Island which one would it be?
Eleuthera. It's where both my family hail from originally and where my husband proposed to me.

11. What's the most memorable artwork you've ever seen?
I get to list five movies and one artwork? Not fair! Picasso's "Guernica" in Madrid, which I was able to see at night with no other people in the gallery at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, was extremely memorable; it's one of the few overly-reproduced artworks that is not a disappointment in the flesh. The Rothko Chapel in Houston made me really understand how abstract art could connect you to the infinite and I found that a very moving, spiritual experience. Watching Christian Marclay's 24-hour video "Clock"; the full room of Monet's water-lilies at the Orangerie in Paris; Titian's "The Flaying of Marsyas"... sorry I need a top 100!

12. Which artist do you have a secret crush on?
Well, it wouldn't be much of a secret if I shared it in the paper now, would it? But to ease everyone's imagination let's say: Giotto!

13. If you could have lunch with anyone who would it be?
It would be my husband, who I do not see alone often enough. But if not him, it would be one of four great women: Jane Austen, Florence Nightingale, Tina Fey or my mother, who passed when our first daughter was born. As a mother myself now, I find I have a lot of things to apologize for!

14. Who do you think is the most important Bahamian in the country's history?
Always the next baby to be born. We are a country with a longer future than a history and we mustn't forget that.

15. Who is your favorite living artist?
Whoever the last one was to really completely surprise me. That can happen anywhere and by anybody. It can happen at the NE6, at the MoMa or in the studio of an (as yet) unknown artist. To keep the mind open is the true challenge.

16. Sunrise or Sunset?
The golden rays of the late afternoon sun until it drops over the horizon have always been my favorite hours and colors of the day.

17. What role does the artist have in society?
Artists are visionaries and inquisitors. They have to ask difficult questions, form ideas and create images which are ahead of their times. Good art will be understood and proven by future generations and very seldom appreciated by the present.

18. What's your most embarrassing moment?
Asking my husband (who is a diehard romantic to my hardheaded realist), really sarcastically, "What? Are you going to propose or something now?" right before he actually did propose. The fact that he still did is a testament to his patience with me.

19. What wouldn't you do without?
My family.

20. What's your definition of beauty?
A smile after a moment of despair, the sparkle in the eyes of enlightenment, a gentle touch in a moment of need, a single note of love struck in the right chord. I think we are often too caught up in traditional notions of physical beauty to see the inherent beauty of a gesture or a spirit. Confucius said: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

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60 Home Movie Sure, But It's Still In Theatres

MOVIE studio Universal Pictures and its new parent, cable TV giant Comcast Corp., will try giving film buffs a chance to watch a movie that's still in theatres from the comfort of their living rooms. But the price tag for a single movie could have consumers spitting out their popcorn: $60. The test involves "Tower Heist," a PG-13 rated comedy caper starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller due out Nov. 4.

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9.7 capacitive multi-touch screen Ematic Pro Tab

• $ 299Electronics - MP3 Player & Ipods
• Nassau / Paradise Island, Bahamas

Android 4.0. Keyboard case with stylish pen.16 on board storage.High resolution. HDMI mirroring enables you to connect to your TV and play. games,browse the web,or watch 1080 HD movies all on your HDTV.Front and Rear Cameras.   more »

A Legacy Of Great Artists

As a film medium, documentaries can inspire as well as surprise and incite - but above all they inform their audiences about marginalized stories. It's a powerful form of film that in the right hands becomes a work of art able to transform the very spirit of its viewers.

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A legacy of great artists

As a film medium, documentaries can inspire as well as surprise and incite but above all they inform their audiences about marginalized stories. It's a powerful form of film that in the right hands becomes a work of art able to transform the very spirit of its viewers.Such is the medium used by the American filmmaking duo Karen Arthur and Thomas Neuwirth who have set out to share the inspiring stories of Bahamian artists. Through their first 2008 documentary,"Artists of The Bahamas", and following films"Brent Malone: Father of Bahamian Art", released in 2010, and most recently "Amos Ferguson: Match Me If You Can" which just earned the Bahamas International Film Festival's "First Look" award the pair have been paying tribute to the master artists who have shaped the foundation of Bahamian art history.

"We just totally fell madly in the love with The Bahamas and we were just at a time in our lives when we were kind of semi-retired and we were looking for a new challenge," says Arthur. "We decided we would do documentaries, for it's an area where the two of us with our expertise combined could do this together."

Indeed the couple are no strangers to film. They've been in the industry for 40 years, and ever since they met in the early 1980s, they've been filming dramatic movies and miniseries under Arthur Productions, Inc. with Arthur as director and Neuwirth as the director of photography.

It wasn't until they moved to The Bahamas six years ago that they came across Bahamian art at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and decided to share it with the world. Though the heavily contemporary exhibition they viewed inspired them, they searched extensively for artwork by"master"artists. Finding little more than a single book on the founding fathers of Bahamian art, they decided their documentary would focus on uncovering and featuring these artists.

"We wanted the seminal artists for that particular picture the artists who set this whole thing in motion,"explains Neuwirth.

"We were reaching for the masters," adds Arthur. "Who is the Picasso, the Michelangelo, who are those Bahamian counterparts?"

After consulting with the late Bahamian art collector Vincent D'Aguilar about who he considered to be master artists of The Bahamas, the pair set out to earn the trust of 12 local artists for their documentary. Forming Island Films, they released"Artists of The Bahamas"in 2008 which explored the lives and work of Amos Ferguson, Kendal Hanna, Max Taylor, Brent Malone, Dave Smith, Eddie Minnis, Stan Burnside, Jackson Burnside, Antonius Roberts, John Beadle and John Cox.

The film was a major achievement in the local visual art world, creating a buzz locally and abroad as it traveled. The pair did face criticism, however, for showcasing only the male artists. When Arthur noticed D'Aguilar had only selected men, she being a feminist and the first woman in America to get a female director's card fought him, but he wouldn't budge.

"We would be insane to think we could walk into a country and know who's a great artist, and that's why we went to Vincent. The only thing I fought was for the women," says Arthur. "It's fair criticism. There were none of the level of these men, especially in the very early days, not working on that scale or with that consistency or with the level of skill these men had day after day after day."

"What I say to women is you have a template in our film here, so follow the template and make a film about female Bahamian artists."

Despite this, the pair continued on, for they had only begun to uncover the surface of the stories and work by these individuals. With grants from the Cable Cares Foundation, they set out to make a series of documentaries that take a deeper look at each featured artist in their original film.

They began with Brent Malone, the only artist who, at the time of "Artists of The Bahamas", had already passed. Thanks to efforts by his daughter Marysa Malone, they were able to pay tribute to the artist named "Father of Bahamian Art".

"We felt we had missed the great adventure of getting to know Brent Malone," says Arthur. "We thought, how can we do him a service now because he's not around to speak for himself?"

"A father means not that you started everything but that you took care of everything. He was selfless in that way. He gave artists a forum when nobody had a forum. In that sense, he fathered Bahamian art and that's why he garnered that title."

The film"Brent Malone: Father of Bahamian Art"was a gorgeous achievement, weaving together his life story and the memories of those whose lives he touched with his breathtaking paintings.

Soon thereafter, with another grant from Cable Cares and with significant help from Ferguson's family and niece, Loraine Bastian, they embarked on a documentary about Amos Ferguson. Though he had passed, the pair got to know him during the making of their original documentary.

"We had numberous meetings with him where we just sat and talked and watched him paint so that he would feel comfortable with our presence no camera involved, just the three of us," says Neuwirth.

The resulting documentary,"Amos Ferguson: Match Me If You Can"was another breathtaking production that followed the life and artistic practice of the intuitive artist who became a worldwide phenomenon through the spirit of his paintings.

"Amos had a purity and a quality of color. I responded to his childlike application to the Bahamian folklore. I learned something about The Bahamas every time in Amos's paintings," says Arthur.

The film premiered at the "Master Artists of The Bahamas" exhibition in Waterloo, Iowa, and then again at the 2011 Bahamas International Film Festival, where it earned their First Look Award.

It's certainly not over in fact, their toughest challenge lies in their next documentary which will feature the life and work of Jackson Burnside who unexpectedly passed away earlier this year. Both Jackson and his wife Pam had been major supporters of Island Films, and it was Jackson who coaxed an interview for the pair out of Amos Ferguson, so they had formed close professional and personal relationships over their time in Nassau.

"Jackson Burnside is going to be a great challenge to us because of all the films we've made. Jackson was a very dear friend,"says Arthur."Jackson was so eclectic, and he was such a renaissance man. His tribute is going to be so much more diversified because that's who he was."

No matter the film, however, the goal remains the same: to introduce local and international audiences to the ways these artists lived their lives and lived for their art, what inspired them to pick up their brushes and how their legacies live on through the artists they taught and communities they touched. With Arthur's vision and Neuwirth's eye, they capture and weave the threads of their stories through those who knew and loved them and the stories they told through their work.

"What we try to do every time is try to find a different way of using visual filmic elements of nature and finding ways to connect it to paintings themselves,"explains Arthur."I knew from day one we were going to open Amos'film in the clouds with his angel paintings and with the choir, and I knew we were going to end that way. I knew we were going to address his relationship with God because it was a seminal part of him."

"I knew Brent gave Junkanoo its voice in art so that's why we started with that, and with Jackson we think we'll address his tangents in his storytelling," she continues. "Each artist helps you because you understand kind of where they're coming from, and then you begin to dream for the film structure prior to the film shooting."

It's certainly a change of pace for the pair who worked with huge crews and budgets in major Hollywood productions, but with their combined experience and close relationship, they're able to produce equally breathtaking films.

"It's very very tedious work when you're trying to find the silver bullets in everything your interviewees say and being able to coordinate that with other people on the same related subject," says Neuwirth. "It's more tedious than a scripted movie."

It's also quite an achievement, points out Neuwirth, because the pair came completely from the outside to a particularly enclosed and tight-knit community of creative people. It took several months to create the right contacts and convince local artists that they were not trying to take advantage of them that they were in fact serious professionals who were so inspired by local work that they wanted to elevate it through their own artistic craft.

Indeed, the pair has done a great service for Bahamian art, recording its very important and auspicious beginnings in fascinating documentaries that have reached global audiences.

"We're trying to put this thing on the planet that can be sent all over the world, that is representative of the great important art being made in The Bahamas. That is important to me,"says Arthur."We can do our tiny drop in a bucket to help put them on a planet that they so deserve. That was the original instigation with'Artists of The Bahamas'and it continues to be."

The effects have been tremendous and far reaching. In fact, their inaugural documentary has recently inspired a historical first"Master Artists of The Bahamas", a visual art exhibition dedicated to these 11 local artists at the Waterloo Center for the Arts in Waterloo, Iowa, which opened earlier this year. Through that, a student from Iowa, inspired by sculptures by Antonius Roberts, traveled to The Bahamas to engage in a short artist's residency, promoting cultural exchange. Indeed, further major effects emerging from the impact of these films that could significantly raise the profile of Bahamian art may still lie in waiting.

Locally, too, the filmmakers have a goal to educate and inspire Bahamians with their own cultural history. To that effect, they continue to struggle to get these three films into schools and to be shown on local cable channels, for their aim is to provide this education for free. It's the only way the legacies by these master artists can live on inspiration and creativity are powerful tools to build up communities, and that's what the pair hopes to accomplish as they continue on the new filmmaking chapter of their lives.

"I think it's important when a child is exposed to art. When they watch this and see that somebody coming from very little can achieve their dream, no matter what it may be, it's hope," explains Neuwirth. "That's what makes me happy about these three films. There's so much need for hope in this country."

"So much of this history needs to be passed on," agrees Arthur. "Bahamians need Bahamian heroes. That's why whether you're an artist or an aviator, whoever you are as a hero, you elevate. It can't just be taught through Junkanoo it can't be the be-all and end-all. Humans beings achieve in so many other ways."

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A reflection on Robert Kennedy's Presentation and its Bearing on the Country

Dear Editor,
The room was packed at The College of The Bahamas on Monday, January 21 at 11 a.m. when Robert Kennedy Jr. addressed students, staff and faculty of the college as well as interested persons from the wider community.

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