Documentary film profiles “Three Kings”

There’s a new film opening this weekend at the Princess. Entitled “The Three Kings”, the name could not be more appropriate, as the royalty in question is as Belizean as rice ‘n beans, corn tortilla and sere. News Five’s Janelle Chanona explains.

Katia Paradis, Director, “The Three Kings”
“They are not the ones that we see all the time, you know, they’re just ordinary people that have like values and something really important to say. They don’t say it loud but it’s there and if we really listen to them I think we can really keep something for the rest of our life, like a life lesson.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
When Katia Paradis met Belizean musicians Florencio Mess, Paul Nabor and Wilfred Peters ten years ago she knew her life would never be the same.

Over the last four years, Paradis spent more than seventy days with Mess, Nabor and Peters, accumulating a hundred hours of video in her search to find the source of their passion for music.

Katia Paradis
“I was following them on their trips when they were playing music or sometimes just spending time with them at home and they are so inspiring that there’s no way you could just drop a project like that. When I started I knew already that I wanted to put them together in one story, three portraits in one story and that’s how I did it finally.”

Paradis has compiled her footage into an eighty-eight minute documentary entitled “The Three Kings of Belize”. Paradis says her directorial debut has an important message.

Katia Paradis
“So you have to put all this together try to create a story, try to select what is meaningful for the story, for what you want to say and what I’ve learnt actually is to be as patient as they are. They never give up these men never give up and so I try to do the same.”

“They taught me how to be confident in life and be passionate. It doesn’t matter what is your passion, but you just have to keep on doing what you like to do.”

The Three Kings will premier to an audience of invited guests on Friday night before it opens to the public this weekend at the Princess Cinema. Shows have been scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at three and a final screening at seven on Monday night. Tickets will sell for five dollars a person. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

According to Pardis, funding for “The Three Kings” came primarily from grants courtesy of the Canadian government.