Francis &Quot;Chino&Quot; Eiley

The harsh reality of life is visible every day on the streets of Belize City. One man’s struggle, including his trial, imprisonment, and subsequent release has reached the ears of enterprising individuals who want to see the growth of a movie industry in Belize. The story of Chino, now a movie, will be launched at the upcoming film festival at the Bliss. Earlier today News Five spoke to the writer and Chino about the production.

Michael Flores, Executive Producer, Belize Liberator Productions

michael flores

“Belize Liberator Production is an evolution the Liberator Newspaper of which I was the owner and publisher. We are now evolved from doing newspaper into producing movies. We started off last year with the advent of the Belize International Film festival 2009 in which we attended all the workshops because we understood that we wanted to contribute into the film industry that we see sort of new and busting out into the country. We ended up producing two movies—Chino’s story being the second one. The first one we started shooting last year was a short film about twenty-two minutes called “Amina, the powerful”—shot in Hopkins and Georgetown. It deals really with the sexist attitudes of Belizean mentors and women and the second one being Chino’s story which we finished first and we are working on finishing “Amina” for Monday. I think Belizean people in general have a tendency to want to see images of themselves, reflections of themselves, stories that relate to their day to day lives that they can identify with. Chino’s story is just one of those stories. He’s a Belizean citizen that just went through a particular experience in his life but it is not isolated experience and it’s not only related to him.”

Francis “Chino” Eiley, Life Story made into a Movie

November the fourth, 2009 I was released from prison after being exonerated by the Privy Council. While I was in prison I was doing a lot of writing, I was putting my words together. I didn’t know I was gonna come out of prison. But I did a book and after I came out I published my book. I am into music. I want my story to be told. I want people to hear my story and hopefully they don’t have to deal with what I dealt with. It’s like a warning, it’s an omen, it’s an enigma, it’s life in Belize as we know it. It talks about what we going through as a people and what’s causing all this fuss. Why are we like this right now? Why?”

The films will be shown at the Belize International Film Festival 2010 on July sixteenth.

Channel 5