“Choices” hits big screen on Monday
It’s a genre that’s difficult to classify…but whether you call it a movie, a video or a teleplay, what’s important about the presentation is the effect it has on viewers. That, we’ll learn on Monday evening when the home-grown production, “Choices” debuts at the Princess. Janelle Chanona has a preview.
Kimberley Vasquez, Writer/Director, Choices
“All the time, we feel that youths they share a common bond, some of their experiences are the same but some reason some make the right decisions and don’t.”
It was that puzzling phenomena which drove Belizean writer Kimberley Vasquez to create “Choices”, the latest attempt in AIDS education. The plot of the sixty-minute movie centres around the two main characters: Tiffany and Irene, teenagers forced life-changing decisions about their sexual activity.
Kimberley Vasquez
“It’s one of the things we explored in the movie, the need to lift the taboo, especially for parents, they have a hard time–the generation gap–and there was a taboo generation gap– and there was a taboo in those days, you are not to talk about things like that or you talk about it but somehow the information becomes misguided because you don’t want to get open with the subject and what we are trying to say is young people need to be able to approach their parents, their counsellors, their teachers and get open advice, sort of lift the silence of the issue because AIDS is killing young people, killing the people of Belize and definitely the issues need to be addressed and what we tried to do in the movie was address the issue, without some of the rawness association with it, heavy language, the obscenity, the vulgarity.”
To help her do this, Vasquez and her producers enlisted the help of high school students from across Belize City, young men and women she says brought the art to their own lives.
Kimberley Vasquez
“They are rapping but they are rapping from a Belizean point of view even though it is a foreign music source, they are bringing into Belize and these are young people; when you listen to their lyrics and what they were able to come up with, you know, it’s really creative and the same goes for the actors. I was really amazed by the way they were able to take on the role, try to really internalise, the characters and give that back on screen.”
“Choices” has been a work in progress since October 2002 and seven months later, Vasquez is convinced the realism she has produced just might make young Belizeans change their behaviour patterns.
Kimberley Vasquez
“They are several themes that you are going to see, there is family, the need for parental guidance, of community elders on a whole, you are going to see the involvement of teachers and like I said, parents. Through that you see values coming out, the need to be making sound moral decisions in life, abstinence. Both abstinence and safe sex are explored. We have really worked hard for a number of months and we believe we have a positive message to get across to the young people and to the Belizean population on a whole.”
Cameraman and editor of Choices is Javier Molina. The project was funded by the Rotary Clubs of Belize and Grand Cayman. Sandra Mckay, the Rotary Club of Belize’s community service director, served as executive producer. The premier gets underway at 4:00 on Monday afternoon, tickets are $10.00.
