Howard & Mitzi

Husband and wife team, Howard and Mitzi Allen, founded HAMA Productions in 1992 and have been called the most prolific filmmakers in the Eastern Caribbean. Their debut movie, The Sweetest Mango, was the region’s first indigenous feature-length film. Their second and third movies, No Seed, a political drama, and Diablesse, based on Caribbean folklore, were released in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Their 2011 supernatural thriller, The Skin, was screened to great success at film festivals in Toronto, Los Angeles, the UK, Washington, Trinidad & Tobago and Belize. They are due to release their fifth film, Deep Blue, next year. HAMA has also produced a wide variety of television programmes, including the widely distributed drama series Paradise View as well as many documentaries. Howard and Mitzi found the time in their busy postproduction schedule to sit down with The Citizen and talk about their last 30 years as HAMAFilms.

How did HAMA Films come about?

Mitzi: Our first movie from 2000, The Sweetest Mango, is the story of how we met and fell in love. Thirty years ago, I returned to Antigua & Barbuda after working in Toronto as a broadcast journalist. I met Howard at CTV/The Superchannel where we began together. When we started dating, he told me that he had always wanted to have his own company and had created the name HAMA as a company name. I thought it was our names combined, so I asked him what it stood for - thinking I was being coy - and he told me “Howard and Maxwell Allen” – Maxwell being his brother! However, it did become Howard and Mitzi in the end! Filmmaking was always Howard’s dream, and I had always dreamt of being an actress. Howard: One day, Mitzi was reading some of her old journals, and she remembered that I had given her a mango as a gift when we first met. And that is how the idea for The Sweetest Mango as a screenplay came about. With all the excitement leading up to the year 2000, I wanted The Sweetest Mango to be a millennium project – to take Antigua & Barbuda into the new era. Although there had been a few films made previously in the 1970s and 1980s, they weren’t feature films and I wanted to take filmmaking to a new level.

Howard & Mitzi - Founders of HAMAFilms

What are you working on now?

M: We’ve just wrapped Deep Blue and are now in post-production. Our original idea was to have it completed in time for the COP26 conference because of the environmental theme. But since it’s an important story, we believe it will resonate whenever it shows. HAMA turns 30 in July 2022, and we plan to celebrate that milestone. From the beginning of January onwards, we are going to promote the work that we’ve done so far and then gear up to show our fifth movie!

You made a very popular series Paradise View – I’ve heard you’re bringing it back?

M: Yes, we produced Paradise View in 2007 and we are now bringing it back as viewers have been asking us for season two. H: It will be a brand-new story with new characters. This time we are tackling the controversial subject of human trafficking. The first season dealt with HIV. It was partly funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation and distributed across the Caribbean by the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CBMP/HIV).

Is the industry growing in the region?

M: Yes, it is growing. The technology is accessible and because of the streaming platforms, a lot of Caribbean filmmakers are producing content – mainly short films. Films are costly to produce and filmmakers don’t always get the kind of support they should. There are plans to bring filmmakers together as a pan-Caribbean movement, as it is vital that we work together. There is also talk of Netflix establishing an office in the Caribbean and it would be wonderful to have Antigua & Barbuda as the hub. However, training is a key component so that we can benefit from them being here. Without enough technical know-how, the economy doesn’t benefit as much as it should. We hope that the governments of the region will understand the viability of indigenous filmmaking. Filmmaking is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but for some reason this region doesn’t see itself as part of the bigger picture yet. The governments sometimes see the islands as a beautiful backdrop, but they don’t see themselves investing in local film productions. It is very important for us to tell our own stories.

How do you fund your films?

H: As HAMA, we usually raise at least 30 percent of the film’s budget, and the rest is through product placements and in-kind investments from family, friends and supporters of our work. We have been fortunate to have friends who support us by letting us use their homes or cars or whatever else we may need to add production value. The Ministry of Tourism sometimes provides ground transportation, airline tickets or accommodations for our international cast and crew.

HAMA TURNS 30 IN JULY 2022, AND WE PLAN TO CELEBRATE THAT MILESTONE. FROM THE BEGINNING OF JANUARY ONWARDS, WE ARE GOING TO PROMOTE THE WORK THAT WE’VE DONE SO FAR AND THEN GEAR UP TO SHOW OUR FIFTH MOVIE!

Mentoring young people is very important for you, can you tell us more about the way you develop young talent?

M: Ten years ago, we participated in a youth media workshop with the Department of Youth Affairs; it was funded by UNICEF. The participants were young people between the ages of 12 and 18. We trained them to produce, shoot and present PSAs about issues that affect them. In 2003, we began an internship programme with one of the best film schools in New York, Ithaca College. A couple who worked at the school were in Antigua on holiday and after seeing our film being premiered, they got in touch and asked us to come to their college to speak to their students. We conducted a masterclass on “Feature Filmmaking on a Shoestring Budget”. It was the beginning of a collaboration in a series of workshops in Antigua & Barbuda with Ithaca students and Antiguan and Barbudan students. There were workshops on sound-gathering and screenwriting and it led to us offering internships every summer.

Deep Blue is an environmental story, what brought that idea to you?

M: Over the past 15 years, we have been producing documentaries, infomercials, and PSAs for the Department of Environment, the Environmental Awareness Group and other NGOs. We learnt so much from this, that we thought that a fictional environmental story would bring that same information to a broader audience. H: By using entertainment and emotion, you get to connect with the audience on a very different level.

What next?

H: The story of King Court, one of our National heroes, was the first story I wanted to tell but it would obviously be a period piece and a multi-million-dollar project. It continues to be in development until we find the right collaborators.

Find out more on www.hamafilms.com