Local filmmaker debuts new film

Bahamian Son is the story of man’s reunion with his estranged father

Bahamian Son, a semi-autographical film, was filmed both in Minneapolis and the Bahamas. It stars Reggie Henderson, who wrote the screenplay and co-produced it.

Henderson plays Kevin, a man who hasn’t seen his father in over 30 years but decides to look for him via an Internet search. He finally finds a match, emails him, and to his surprise receives a return email from his dad, who now lives in the Bahamas. Kevin accepts his father’s invitation to visit him, but quickly finds more than he had hoped as a result.

Constance Anderson plays Kevin’s mother and Toki Wright plays one of his “boys,” who first discourages Kevin from his paternal search but decides to join his friend on the Bahamian excursion.

The film made its “red carpet premiere” October 7, at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema in Uptown. Henderson afterwards spoke to the MSR.

“I didn’t want to openly bash my father,” he said of his first feature film that was shot in late 2011, including three weeks’ filming in the Bahamas. “I really took my time” to do the film, he added. He didn’t, however, anticipate a house fire that set him back a couple of years.

“It probably took about two-and-a-half years. It took way longer than it should have,” continued the Minneapolis filmmaker. He enjoys being an independent filmmaker, but Henderson quickly pointed out, it does have challenges, such as those he experienced while filming the Bahamian scenes.

“I couldn’t get the crew that I want[ed], so I had to fly a crew from here out there,” he explained. Nonetheless, “If you’re independent, you have complete control. I definitely wanted to make sure that the major points I wanted to get across were given, as well as I wanted to make sure that it was given a good representation.”

Bahamian Son featured music from the late 1970s and 80s, which Henderson noted he got the proper licensing to use. He also noted that there were some scenes in his movie that were put in for entertainment value and not based on real-life events.

“The actual flashbacks…were very much real. Eighty-five to 90 percent was true,” said Henderson.

The audience at the October premiere left pleased with his first effort, based on the questions asked in a brief Q&A after the screening, which Henderson said afterwards was very encouraging. His next film is a Black crime drama set in the 1930s.

“I am not trying to do the comedies, [or] the super romantic thing. I want to do movies. I want to show from a Black perspective that we can do those other films as well.”

According to the website, a DVD will be available this month. Go to http://bahamiansonmovie.com for more info.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Updated 11/26/2015 10:30 am: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Bahamian Son was part of this year’s Twin Cities Black Film Festival. The error was corrected.