When did you know you wanted to be involved in the arts?
I was involved in the arts since my younger age without really knowing it. Through my mother who incited us (my brother & I) to get involved into music, photography, filming and also sports. But I think I really became conscious of it 20 years ago. After graduating from science and the death of my grandmother, my quest about life and my Caribbean-African identity manifested into art and mostly cinema.
Who or what inspires you?
Life inspires me, encounters, history, injustice, my grandmother, my understanding of where I’m coming from, who am I today and where I’m going. The life of great artists. The movement of life definitely, it’s a long process…
What's unique about being an artist in or from your country?
This is a difficult question, but I think that all artists carrying with them their culture and identity have a special vision that feeds them since they born. I don’t think I have something unique, the only thing about it is that we are all unique as individuals…it’s the nature of life and science. It’s solely about being me or ourselves that makes us unique.
From your perspective, what is it about New York that brings Caribbeans together?
New York is a place built out of melting pots of communities. What bring the Caribbean together is the movement of the city toward curiosity, discovering, and from my point of view, understanding. But the different communities from the Caribbean islands that live today in New York must know that a Caribbean identity can only be built without the fear of moving towards the future. One plus one is something else. We mustn’t be afraid to lose something to gain something else.
How important is it to culturally educate through your art?
It’s about knowledge, building step by step a culture who is perpetually in evolution. It’s about understanding yourself and also understanding others. Cinema is the 7th art form, means that it gathers all the other ones. Being a Caribbean from the French West Indies, that makes me want to educate myself first by understanding the Caribbean…it’s about a learning process first before rendering it and attempting to educate. Education is important in my art only if the education is important in my life. Art is a way to express feelings about life. It’s about understanding ourselves as Caribbeans.
What is the message that you are trying to portray through your work?
Difficult question…today I’ll say that some topics are important for me…aesthetics, beauty of life, commitments, simplicities. Years ago I would really want to incorporate messages, today I’m mostly trying to talk about my heritage from life, culturally, socially and artistically. But I’ll need more time to develop this question.
What can we do to help raise artistic awareness in your country?
First of all, understand the needs of my country before trying to help it. It’s not an easy path to build and raise awareness. Our community is coming from all parts of the world. So doing a festival like cariBBeing is a first step to establishing a relation into building together. We mustn’t forget that we’re coming from different tribes but we are all the same, human beings.
