Belize Film Festival brings international movies and directors

The reel has been rolling all week long at the Belize Film Festival.  Industry insiders such as music and film makers have flown in from around the region to participate in the annual film showcase.  Independent film maker Albert Xavier arrived in town to showcase his second film.  Xavier finances his projects by working on projects with networks such as ESPN. He recently worked on a tour for Alicia Keys.  In 2009 Xavier was in Belize for the film festival to present Red Passport.  Earlier this week, Xavier told News Five about his latest film, Hermaphrodite.

Albert Xavier, Independent Film Maker

albert xavier

“Hermaphrodite is based on a true story. It’s really like a one of a kind. It’s a film that takes place in the 60’s, it’s shot up in the mountains in the south part of the Dominican Republic, very country side. ON the night of a hurricane, a hermaphrodite; and a hermaphrodite, if people don’t know what it is, is a person that’s born with penis and vagina, they have two hormones. We followed the true story of this girl named Maria, of how she actually lives her life, growing up as a hermaphrodite, being discriminated by society, having this battle between the religions. The Catholic Church, they’re telling her that she’s not his; the doctors don’t even know what hermaphrodite is; and then the whole thing about having her first love. The film has a lot of action. It’s not a documentary it’s a movie. Sometimes people say, oh its hermaphrodite, oh it’s a documentary, it’s not a documentary.”

“I believe that every person that’s born is a filmmaker because we all have stories to tell. You get you know, if your get together with your boys and have a couple of drinks on the corner, or whatever, you tell them a story. That story your telling, your saying it in a way that your visualizing what you did, you can remember what happened; and that’s the same way a producer and a director and a screenwriter thinks because when you’re writing , you’re telling a story, your visualizing it. If you can tell a story, you can always bring that to life.”

Showtime for Hermaphrodite is eight p.m. at the Bliss and eight thirty at Ka’ana.