Zahra Gor­don

The doc­u­men­tary about No­bel Prize-win­ning po­et Derek Wal­cott, Po­et­ry is an Is­land, had its world pre­miere at the 2013 T&T Film Fes­ti­val (TTFF) on Sat­ur­day.

The film, which was di­rect­ed by Ida Does, fo­cus­es on Wal­cott's cre­ative process and his ded­i­ca­tion to art. Both Wal­cott and Does were present at the screen­ing and par­tic­i­pat­ed in a ques­tion- and-an­swer ses­sion.

Does, in an e-mail in­ter­view, said she was hap­py the film was pre­mier­ing at TTFF. "I think it's great since Wal­cott has lived in Port-of-Spain for many years and has a his­to­ry of work­ing in the arts there."

She al­so said her team was de­vel­op­ing a film fes­ti­val strat­e­gy to turn Po­et­ry is an Is­land in­to a trav­el­ling film. Does is go­ing to have the film sub­ti­tled in at least three lan­guages and will be pro­duc­ing a DVD pack­age with ex­tra footage for sale.

Post-pro­duc­tion of Po­et­ry is an Is­land was com­plet­ed through crowd-fund­ing be­tween April and March. Does said the sup­port came from both fans of Wal­cott and cor­po­rate spon­sors.

"On the one hand a lot of peo­ple were fans of Wal­cott, or sim­ply loved the whole idea of a movie be­ing made of our great po­et, while he can still par­tic­i­pate. On the oth­er hand we have been spon­sored by some cor­po­rate donors who want to con­tribute to the arts and to the lega­cy of Wal­cott. So that's a won­der­ful thing. I like to think of it, as an en­er­gy that recog­nised our own in­ten­tion, be­ing a labour of love," she said. So­cial me­dia sites such as Face­book and Twit­ter al­so helped Does pro­mote the film and gauge the re­sponse from the Caribbean. While there was sup­port from peo­ple all over the world, Does said peo­ple in Bar­ba­dos, T&T and Wal­cott's home St Lu­cia gave the most sup­port.

"Peo­ple were wait­ing for this film and kept say­ing: I can't wait to see this film. We our­selves couldn't wait to see it, while we were still in the mid­dle of the whole process of edit­ing, the ac­tu­al mak­ing of the film...It was an in­ter­est­ing ex­pe­ri­ence."

Po­et­ry is an Is­land was shot on lo­ca­tion in St Lu­cia, where Wal­cott lives, and in Trinidad, where he lived and worked for many years.

The film in­cludes footage of Wal­cott read­ing his po­et­ry and paint­ing, in­ter­views with his friends and fam­i­ly, and scenes from the places im­mor­talised in his po­et­ry.

Wal­cott is a po­et, play­wright and painter who has writ­ten near­ly 20 books of po­et­ry and more than 20 plays.

�2 Guardian Me­dia Ltd is the of­fi­cial me­dia part­ner of the T&T Film Fes­ti­val.

About Ida Does

Ida Does is an in­de­pen­dent doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er and pro­duc­er and head of Ida Does Pro­duc­tions. A for­mer jour­nal­ist and ed­i­tor, she has worked in print, ra­dio and tele­vi­sion me­dia in Hol­land, Suri­name and Aru­ba.

In 2009, her film I Am Not I Tre­fos­sa re­ceived spe­cial men­tion at the TTFF and in 2010 it won the Pub­lic Award at the Africa in the Pic­ture Film Fes­ti­val in Am­s­ter­dam. Her film Peace, Mem­o­ries of An­ton de Kom won Best Short Film at the TTFF in 2012.

Does was ed­u­cat­ed at the Me­dia Acad­e­my in Hil­ver­sum and the Binger Film In­sti­tute in Am­s­ter­dam. A sec­ond screen­ing of Po­et­ry is an Is­land will take place on Sep­tem­ber 30 at 5.30pm at the Lit­tle Carib The­atre, cor­ner of White and Roberts Streets, Port-of-Spain. Tick­ets are avail­able at the venue at the time of screen­ings, and in ad­vance at the box of­fice.