The Price for a Better Life is Sacrifice – Bahamian actress Aulenna Robinson is pictured in a still from the four-time award-winning short film Passage by Kareem Mortimer. Passage tells the story of a young woman and her brother fighting for survival while being smuggled into the United States of America on a fishing vessel.
Nassau, Bahamas – The award-winning short film Passage by Kareem Mortimer scored two major international feats in recent weeks. The film was both acquired by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and won the prestigious Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Diaspora Film.
As the US distributor of Passage, NBPC has secured online streaming exclusively on the websites PBS.org, AfroPop.tv and BlackPublicMedia.org during the month of June. June is recognized in the US as Caribbean American Heritage Month. Mortimer’s Passage is the first Bahamian film to be distributed through NBPC in its 35 year history. Passage is his fourth film to achieve international distribution, preceded by the short film Float, and the feature length films Children of God and Wind Jammers.
Passage will also be featured in NBPC’s series AfroPop:The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. AfroPop is a US-based public television show featuring independent documentaries and short films about life, art and culture from the contemporary African Diaspora. Films featured on the series are introduced and curated by American actor Anthony Mackie.
Best Ever Film Company – Best Ever Film co-founders Kareem J. Mortimer, an award-winning Bahamian filmmaker and Alexander I. Younis, a successful Austrian entrepreneur and artist.
Not only is Passage making waves in the US, across the Atlantic the three-time award winning film snagged its fourth award as the recipient of the Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Diaspora Short. The 10th edition of the prestigious awards for filmmakers of the African Diaspora was held in Nigeria on May 24. Passage beat out more than 150 short films that were submitted and was announced as the winner out of seven nominees at the awards ceremony.
“Passage is not only our story but it is the story of our world, as human smuggling is a global issue,” commented Mortimer in a statement. “Although our country is small in population, the work we do resonates through the world and that makes me feel extremely blessed. I believe that our feature film Cargo will go even further than Passage has.”
Mortimer and his team at Best Ever Film are currently in development of Cargo, a feature length version of Passage. For more information on Cargo and Mortimer’s film projects visit besteverfilm.com.
