St. Croix Landmarks To Screen Documentary Film Sunday

ST. CROIX — The St. Croix Landmarks Society will host the screening of the documentary film “We Carry It Within Us – Fragments of a Shared Colonial Past” this Sunday, at 3:00 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Parish Hall at Mount Pleasant, Frederiksted, the society announced Thursday.

The film, by Helle Stenum, investigates the collective memory and different perspectives of the people of Denmark and the U.S. Virgin Islands with regard to their shared colonial past.

The screening will also feature a panel discussion with Michael Dow, and St. Croix Landmarks Junior Preservationists Chelsea Valery, Keshawn Hardy, Ammiel Francis, filmmaker Helle Stenum and artist LaVaughn Belle.

The event is free and open to the public, but donations are always welcome.

About the film:

The colonial history of the U.S. Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies), and the history of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, are often told in Denmark from a Danish perspective: ‘Danes telling the narrative about and for (primarily) other Danes’.

In “We Carry It Within Us,” the legacy of slavery, the memory of the Danish presence, the sale of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, and the relationship of the islands to the U.S., are told through interviews conducted on St. Croix, in New York and in Copenhagen. Four Virgin Islanders are featured in the documentary: La Vaughn Belle, Chenoa Lee, Tiphanie Yanique, and Tami Navarro.

The film aims to investigate colonial histories as told through the memories, experiences and reflections of four Virgin Islanders (an artist, a student, a writer and an anthropologist) as they engage art and cultural historians in Denmark. In this way it seeks to illuminate how the colonial past is leaving its mark on today’s media, art, museums, education and wealth distribution, as well as in various ways of commemorating and forgetting.

Praise for “We Carry It Within Us”:

“Helle Stenum’s documentary ‘We Carry It Within Us’ is a very powerful yet elegant interrogation of the legacies of Danish colonialism, a film full of memorable insights into the postcolonial condition of Denmark communicated in very poignant ways. This film should become a catalyst for altogether new kinds of dialogue and debate within and beyond Denmark,” said Nicholas De Genova, editor of ‘”The Borders of “Europe”: Autonomof Migration, Tactics of Bordering”.

About the director:

Helle Stenum, PhD, is a researcher and educator who has for many years worked on issues including migration, culture, collective memory, ethnic relations, transnational connections, and race and gender constructs at Danish universities and as an independent researcher and consultant.

For more information about St. Croix Landmarks Society, its museums, library and programs call 340-772-0598 or email [email protected].