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 ANDREW MILLINGTON,
Barbados
:: Guttaperc ::
 Born
in Barbados, Andrew Millington has lived in the United States for
the past thirteen years. In 1986, having graduated with a degree in
History and English from the University of the West Indies, he went
on to study film at Howard University,
Washington D.C. He
worked on numerous industry and independent productions in the
northeastern United States as an Assistant Director
(including the internationally acclaimed film Sankofa,
by the Ethiopian director, Haile Gerima) before writing and
directing his first feature, Guttaperc, in 1999. He is
presently in production on a documentary on Barbadian writer and
essayist, George Lamming. He is also a film professor at Emerson
College, Boston, Massachusetts.
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 GUTTAPERC
Country:
Barbados
Year:
1998
Length: 84 minutes
Language: English
Genre: Drama
 Shot
on location in Barbados, using local actors, the script is based on
the director’s own childhood experience of growing up in a poor
rural community. It is the story of Eric, a ten year-old boy who
spends a holiday with his grandparents in the countryside, at a time
when the government has just revealed plans to build a tourist
resort on the villagers’ land.
Eric befriends an old woman of the village, Sister Pam, who
tells him stories, one of which bears the answer to the future of
the village. Soon the boy comes to the difficult realization that
the venture threatens to displace the villagers and that his
grandfather is a major supporter and beneficiary of the project. The
film thus dramatizes the tension between the old folkways and
spiritual beliefs and the forces of development, notably tourism; as
well as being a rite of passage story about a young boy coming to
terms with the fallibility of the older generation. The film
features local actors and was produced with personnel from both the
United States and Caribbean.
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