Winners of the short story competition

For the third year in a row, the St B’Art association organized a short story contest open to all residents of the island. Sixteen stories were submitted, compared to 25 last year and 29 the year before. Many of the writers admitted that this was their first attempt at a short story, and there were many more native St. Barth writers participating this year than in the first two years of the event. They looked at the past to describe the way life used to be on the island, capturing traditions that risk to disappear with the old-timers. Another first this year was the participation of four youngsters, three junior high students in a mini-scholastic version of the event, and a 16 year-old high school student, Erwan Capitaine, who won third prize in the overall contest. The awards were presented on April 14 at Bagdad Gallery, with St. Barth native, Miguel Berry, a 28 year-old junior high school science teacher, taking first place. A special jury prize was awarded to Josiane Brin who had won third prize last year.

Famous DJs at Nikki Beach

For the past two years, Nikki Beach has hosted world-renowned DJs during the month of April. This year, from April 11 to 18, Paul Lomax was in the house with a hot mix direct from Ibiza, where he spins his magic when not working at the other end of the world. The next week featured Stéphane Pompougnac, who was invited by his friend, Jacques Dumas, the official DJ of Nikki Beach St. Barth, Pompougnac has produced seven lounge compilations for Hôtel Costes, as well as a “ Best of…” with more than three million CDs sold world-wide. Originally from Bordeaux, the DJ is currently working on an eighth Costes compilation that will come out next September. His personal album, Living On The Edge, will be followed by another solo effort next year. One of the most solicited DJs in the world, he came to St Barth from a tour in Asia for a week of half-work, half- vacation. Next stop was Caracas, Venezuela.

Cinema: St Barth Film Festival “Cinéma Caraïbe”

For the 10th annual St. Barth Film Festival, organizers Ellen Lampert-Gréaux, her husband Rosemond, and their friend Joshua Harrison presented an interesting and varied program, with film screenings at AJOE. Things got underway with an opening night party at La Plage on April 25, followed the next night by Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the festival. The next night was dedicated to international French language cinema with Madame Brouette by Moussa Sene Absa, a director from Senegal who came to present his film. Thursday evening, Guy Deslauriers from Martinique presented his most recent feature film, Biguine, while on Friday night there was a sold-out audience for Neg Maron by Jean-Claude Flamand-Barny from Guadeloupe. The festival closed on Saturday night with Motorcycle Diaries by Walter Salles, a road movie about the adventures of young Ernesto “Che” Guevara, while on a tour of South America. An annual part of the festival is a film-in-the-schools program where the fimmakers explain their careers to the students in CM2, and they worked with a group from the junior high who were making their own documentary about the festival. A bright, colorful painting by island artist, Pompi, was used to create the festival poster this year.