THE FIRST CARIBBEAN-MADE FILM on cricket has been completed at a cost of $1.4 million.

Hit For Six is also the first film about a modern day cricketer and the first Barbadian film to be marketed internationally.

All this was revealed yesterday at a Press briefing at the Island Inn Hotel, where script writer and director Alison Saunders-Franklyn, of Blue Waters Productions, gave details about the process of making the film, from funding to final edit.

Prime Minister Owen Arthur has consented to be the patron at the premier on April 18 at the Olympus Expo.

Hit For Six is the story of a West Indian cricketer Alex Nelson (played by Andrew Pilgrim), who was sidelined from the team for scuffling with his coach, Amir Misra (Nirmal Thani). The film also stars British actor Rudolph Walker, Barbadian Alison Sealy-Smith, Varia Williams and Jeanille Bonterre, a VJ (video jockey) on MTV's Tempo.

Co-executive producer Dr Basil Springer said there would be other launches in other parts of the world and distribution arrangements were being confirmed.

Chairman of Blue Waters Production, Jerry Blenman, said the development of an idea depended on the successful marriage of strategy, human capital and finance, and he declared Hit For Six was a classic example of such. He said they had been successful in raising the money for the film through equity investors, some from the international community.

Also speaking was Deighton Smith, project co-ordinator of Cricketing Legends of Barbados, who said the fallacy that the Caribbean did not have a natural resource must not be propagated. That resource, he asserted, was its human capital.

Speaking on behalf of the National Cultural Foundation's Cultural Action Fund, Ian Walcott said Hit For Six was one of the successful applicants to the fund, and it highlighted the need for more producers, film actors and screenplay writers.
(AK)