Two 40-year-old paper boys in Bermuda are the stars of the film ?Paper Byes?.

The film, which was produced by Seymour Artists and Close Encounters Productions, will make history as Bermuda?s first locally produced entertainment film to be released in a local cinema. It opens at Liberty Theatre on Saturday.

?No entity has ever attempted to produce and release an entertainment film here in Bermuda,? said Al Seymour Jr. ?It is hoped that ?Paper Byes? will pave the way for a whole new generation of writers, actors, and budding cinematographers here in Bermuda.?

The film, which is 56 minutes long, details the lives of two older men, who should really have things together, but are instead living at home with mom and just selling papers, rather than being settled in a career.

But despite their lives they had a motto ?Fifteen cents will get you a paper, but twenty-five cents will guarantee you a smile?.

But all was not lost and while searching for that ideal position, they happen upon a windfall. This situation takes the pair on an unexpected journey.

When asked how did it feel to be finished the film, Mr. Seymour said: ?To me it is another milestone because in my life and my career there always things that I wanted to be first at and to be a pioneer in.

?And Willie (Ferguson) has always seconded that. Another dream of mine was to make the first Bermudian animated cartoon, the ?Blue Manta? and ?Raptiles on de Rock?, and that was done in 2002.?

Aside from the ?Blue Manta? they also produced ?Crimson and Gold? an all Bermudian kung fu movie, 26-years ago. The latter has now been released on DVD.

When all the original members of Close Encounters came back together they met with Mr. Seymour again and decided to produce ?Paper Byes?.

Aside from Mr. Ferguson the other members of Close Encounters are Gregory Wade, Eston Rawlins and Kevin Dill. ?When we met with Al again we just took up from where we left off,? said Mr. Ferguson. ?A lot of the artistic side, the writing and what you see ? we were really responsible for and we?d like to emphasise that it is a collaboration.

?Working together has been a real camaraderie and usually when people are working together they don?t seem to agree on anything. But it is really exciting times for us and we were in production for 14 months, so our minds have gone onto the next project.?

One of the main points that Mr. Seymour wanted to emphasise was that whatever people want to achieve, they can make it their reality.

?This is a demonstration to young people of what is possible,? he said. ?We didn?t have a big budget, we used pure guts and this movie is like building your first boat.

?You make mistakes along the way and of course the movie is not perfect and there are some things that I wish I could change, but when I look at the ship ? it is getting ready to sail.

?But this is laying the groundwork for the next project ? our feet are now just wet and if we wanted to give ourselves a headline it would be ?just the beginning?.?

?Paper Byes? was originally entitled ?Bus Fare?, but Mr. Seymour pointed out that it was just too common. ?If you type the words bus fare in on the Internet, you get millions of answers, but then we thought of Paper Boys and it seemed too ?hood? or gangster-like.

?But then we thought, what do Bermudians call themselves? Byes! I Googled it and nothing came up, so the title stuck.?

Mr. Ferguson said the film was ?a whole Bermudian production?.

?When you watch it, you get this sense that somewhere in the movie you can see yourself,? he said. ?Either it is something you do and it has a cultural emphasis. If people could look at it and see something about themselves than I would feel that I have accomplished something as a writer.?

But Mr. Seymour pointed out that Bermudians are not used to seeing themselves as stars.

?There have been many movies made here over the past 50 or 60 years, but Bermudians have been extras or had bit parts,? he said. ?And there have been a handful who have gone to star in different movies, but in this one we get to be stars.

?We also tried to film a lot of Bermuda in terms of outside scenery, because in 20 to 30 years time things will change. For instance on King Street, one of the buildings is now gone.?

For many of the actors and actresses in the film this was their debut performance, said Mr. Ferguson. ?These are people who have really done it for the first time,? he said. ?They have done no public speaking, they haven?t read a scripture in church, and we kind of convinced them to come out. We wanted that look and feel that it is everyday Bermudians.

?One of the actresses is named Prudence Fraser and when I had asked if she would play my mother, she just said, ?okay, I?ll do it?.?

?Paper Byes? touches on some of Bermuda?s common issues of sons nesting after 40-years-old. How many people in Bermuda have family members who have gone 40 and still stay home with mama? They feel no shame and in most cases they don?t have a job and their mother and father take care of them. That is what was portrayed in that little section and people who viewed it found it funny because they could relate and it is a celebration of Bermudian culture.

?People argue that we don?t have a culture, but we do and when you relate to it and acknowledge it is out there ? the good, the bad and the ugly.

?As writers there were a lot of things that we wanted to put in there, but we put it in there subtlety. In a lot of ways this movie has provided a great sense of satisfaction.?

The emotion and reactions of the audience offers new light to the producers and artists.

?We have watched ?Paper Byes? so many times that the emotion you get or what you feel is different for us,? said Mr. Seymour. ?It is part of the creative process for us, but when I see the audience we are watching their reactions. I said to Willie that we know how to make people laugh, but we need to do something serious and see if we can make them cry.?

One of their colleagues Gregory Wade cited that being born in the 1960s was the best time to be born and Mr. Seymour asked him, ?why??.

?He said: ?Because we were young enough to miss the real bad scene of the times, because the political scene was rough, but we were young enough for Motown coming in.

?But when we made this movie (Crimson Gold) the technology wasn?t there, but the ideas were there. So, here is the technology and here are the ideas and we are old enough and we are in a position where we can buy a $5,000 computer. It is not like I am 14 and I want it. So it would almost be a shame if we didn?t pool our ideas and get going.?

The film opens at 5.30 p.m. at the Liberty Theatre.

There will be no show on Easter Sunday and from Monday to Friday at 5.30 p.m. and 12 p.m. on next Saturday.