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MP Dale Butler’s ‘Flip The Script’ documentary premieres Sunday

MP Dale Butler

The reasons why some Bermudians work through their troubles while others express their anger through crime will be examined in a new thought-provoking documentary.PLP MP and filmmaker Dale Butler aims to get to the bottom of why people make certain choices when they fall on tough times.The 70-minute documentary called ‘Flip The Script’ is to be premiered at Liberty Theatre on Sunday.It seeks to find answers to Bermuda’s unprecedented levels of crime and gun violence through interviews with community activists “who have their fingers on the pulse”.Mr Butler said the majority of the documentary’s interviews conclude that Bermuda “has lost its hope”.He said: “It’s a thought-provoking documentary looking at why some people choose to take different roads in life.“We can all get angry or frustrated and not know what to do, but the corners we turn can change our lives.“We all know people who haven’t had the most perfect of lives but, despite their circumstances, they pick themselves up.“Some people set goals and overcome everything with traditional values. Other people end up with guns or knives in their hands.”Mr Butler hopes the documentary will be seen as motivational and help to keep Bermuda’s young men on the straight and narrow.He calls it “a documentary with a twist” as it ends by suggesting a tried-and-tested community programme, which could be rolled out to all parishes to tackle rising crime.It features a number of artists who have turned their frustrations into creativity.This includes recording artist and photographer Ras Mykal, dancer Eric Bean, artist Manuel Palacio, musician Keith Caisey and sculptor Carlos Dowling.There is also an educational perspective with the views of Lou Matthews, director of educational standards and accountability at the Ministry of Education, and former school principal Freddie Evans.A number of single moms are also put on the spot about life in Bermuda.Mr Butler says the documentary attempts to answer the question of choices using the simple Bermuda proverb: “Why do some people let their sherbet melt while others find a shady tree and rest and enjoy it?”He got the idea for the documentary from lawyer Larry Scott’s controversial new book, ‘It’s Only 4 percent: Crime in Bermuda’. The book examines why black men end up on the front line of crime.It has taken Mr Butler about five weeks of “late night stints and lots of weekend work” to film ‘Flip The Script’, which he only finished editing yesterday.It is Mr Butler’s fifth documentary in just two years as a self-taught filmmaker. He has previously focused on musicians and the homeless and aims to use film to “educate and inform”.Mr Butler says filming also helps to “slow him down” as he always seems to be on the go. He admits: “I’m no Steven Spielberg” but he says it is his dream for one of his pieces of work to be featured in the Bermuda Docs Film Festival.Mr Butler has also previously published 50 books on topics such as Bermuda’s football teams, the nicknames of Bermudians and the cars and architecture of Cuba.‘Flip The Script’ will screen Sunday at 2.30pm. Tickets are $30 and available from Liberty Theatre. The price includes two books from Atlantic Publishing House, and raffle draws.