“I have faith that change is coming.”This was the final statement in a moving documentary about poverty in Bermuda, first released to the public at the Bermuda Documentary Film Festival. The film will be shown again tonight, at the Liberty Theatre.The movie, ‘Poverty in Paradise The Price We Pay’ was produced by local filmmaker Lucinda Spurling in conjunction with charity Coalition for the Protection of Children.It features in-depth interviews with many women living below the poverty line, and also testimony from community experts such as the Coalition’s Sheilagh Cooper, Cordell Riley of Profiles of Bermuda and social imagineer Michelle St Jane.Ms St Jane wrote one of the songs used in the soundtrack called ‘Cahows Bermuda’s Own’.“On Saturday night, about ten of the women who were in the film came to the screening and they were in tears even though they had already seen it,” said Ms Spurling.The film was sold out both nights it showed at Bermuda Docs. Many audience members were shocked at the level of poverty in the community.“Having some of the ladies from the film there added a special opening dynamic, especially for the Q&A session,” said the Coalition’s executive director Nicola Feldman. “The Q&A session was quite intense, and went on for over 40 minutes. Some of the ladies who were in the film also got up and talked at length.”One of the things that came out of the first screenings was that the audience thought that the Government should view the film.Progressive Labour Party MP Dale Butler took part in its making. The Bermuda College has offered to do a private screening just for members of the legislature. There is also interest in getting the film shown in the prison system.“Our focus, now that the film is actually done, is to get it out in the community as much as possible,” said Ms Feldman. “We want to do more screenings. We are in the process of contacting local high schools to get students to see it. We are thinking of doing corporate nights. The Bermuda College is allowing us to use their facility multiple times to do showings.”Ms Spurling said the challenge for the Coalition is that the film took 18 months to make and was quite expensive.The Coalition was unable to get any corporate sponsorship for the film, so the cost is coming out of their operating expenses.“My assumption about why no one would sponsor it is that maybe companies were not sure of what the underlying message would be in what the corporate community’s role was,” said Ms Feldman. “Once people see it they will probably be more open to sponsoring going forward. It is not a matter of blame or anything like that.“It is just an analysis of the issue, predominantly from the women’s perspective. We are now looking to bring the DVDs in to sell.”Ms Spurling said she would most like to see social change come out of ‘Poverty in Paradise’. Ms Feldman said she wanted people who saw the film to help get the message out there that this is a problem in Bermuda.“There is still not an acceptance in the broader community that there is an issue of poverty in Bermuda,” she said. “Everyone sees the crime and it is understood to be a serious problem. It is about making the connection about where is this crime coming from. It is our belief that it is very connected to poverty. This is something that has been proven sociologically.”In the last year, both the Salvation Army and the Coalition have seen increased demand for their emergency food stores.Ms Feldman said: “The Coalition has a food store house where families in need can get food. In the last couple of months demand has gone through the roof.“They are coming in for food aid, but also electricity bill, medical bills, school uniforms. There is an assumption that these parents are irresponsible or have poor budgeting skills.“We work quite closely with them on budgeting skills, but when you can’t find a job or when your take home pay is only $300 or $400, the best budgeting skills can’t cover rent, groceries and all the other bills that these families face.”The documentary put forward several concrete ideas to help tackle poverty in Bermuda. They included excluding people living below the poverty line from paying payroll tax.The Coalition would like to see adequate affordable housing recognised as a basic human right in Bermuda. They also want to stop the practice of evicting families from Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) properties when they are unable to afford the rent.“A lot of people have said they were surprised by some of the links that the film makes and the statistics,” said Ms Spurling. “They weren’t prepared to be so surprised at how bad it is. A lot of the statistics really hit home. The film is quite dramatic that way. A lot of people will be surprised.”Many may find some of the statistics given during ‘Poverty in Paradise’ shocking:n The Bermudian home ownership rate of 51 percent is considerably low compared to other developed nationsn One in ten registered voters in Bermuda lost their job in 2010n One in ten Bermudians don’t have health insurancen In 2008/2009, one in every 14,405 persons in the United Kingdom had a gun compared with one in every 798 in Bermudan Bermuda’s violent crime rate is 20 times that of the United Kingdom.Ms Spurling, who has made several other historical documentaries, said this one was different and much harder to make because the issues in it were so much more sensitive.“We did the film very differently than I would do any other film,” she said. “We really wanted to protect the women interviewed, and make sure they felt that this was their voice.“We agreed that they could decide how much they wanted to be involved throughout the whole process.“We interviewed them with the understanding that they could see the end product and decide if they wanted their face or just voice shown or not be in it at all. That is crazy, as a filmmaker. Usually, you get people to sign a release right when you interview [them]. In this case, we wanted them to be part of it. It is a trust issue.“We edited it all together and showed it. A lot of the people who didn’t want their faces shown in the beginning, decided in the end to show their face.”She said another problem was imagery. It was impossible to get permission to film in offices such as government’s Financial Assistance Office.“You wouldn’t get permission to do that,” said Ms Spurling. “The minute you say you are making a film about poverty, people say they don’t want to have anything to do with it. We ended up doing three different enactments in the film.”Bernews allowed them to use footage of crime scenes, and The Royal Gazette allowed them to use newspaper headlines. “If you want to film guys hanging out on Court Street, just try whipping out a camera there,” Ms Spurling said. “We were chased, and screamed at. Even doing a drive by we were screamed at and chased.“It is not a friendly environment out there right now. If you whip out a camera people want to know what it is for and what you are doing. Ten years ago, when I started making films, you could whip out a camera anywhere and people would be hoping they would be on television.”‘Poverty in Paradise’ will screen at 7pm tonight. Tickets are available at bermudatix.com or at All Wrapped Up and Fashion Fabulous at the Heron Bay.Organisations interested in a private screening of the film should telephone 295-1150 or send an e-mail, nicola.cpc[AT]logic.bm.