Bermudian actor Earl Cameron will talk about his 50-plus years in the film business at A Conversation With—Earl Cameron, the centrepiece event of the 10th Bermuda International Film Festival.

Mr. Cameron and his wife, Barbara, will be in Bermuda for the duration of the festival, which runs from March 16-24, at which three of his films will be screened.

A Conversation With — Earl Cameron will take place Saturday, March 17 at Liberty Theatre at 1 p.m.

A screening of Mr. Cameron's first film, 'Pool of London' (1951) will be followed by a sit-down chat with US film critic, and longtime festival attendee, Peter Rainer.

"Mr. Cameron grew up on Angle Street, just yards away from the Liberty Theatre, so it is only fitting that he should return home to be honoured in this way in his own neighbourhood," said festival director Aideen Ratteray Pryse. "We invite the community to join us in welcoming him home."

Mr. Cameron has been a leading actor in the United Kingdom for more than 50 years.

He is a Baha'i, and in 1979 he quit the stage and screen and moved to the Solomon Islands for 15 years so that he could teach the religion's principles of human oneness.

The festival will also screen 'Flame in the Streets', another of Mr. Cameron's early films, as well as 'The Interpreter', the Sydney Pollack film that many consider Mr. Cameron's "comeback film" after his stay in the Solomons.

Tickets to A Conversation With—Earl Cameron are $50, while tickets to regular film screenings are $12.50.

Following the film and chat, ticketholders to A Conversation With—Earl Cameron are invited to a reception in Mr. Cameron's honour at the No. 6 Passenger Terminal, Front Street.

The films screening in the retrospective are:

[box] 'Pool of London' (d. Basil Dearden, United Kingdom, 85 minutes)

Pool of London marked Earl Cameron's debut as a film actor. Made in 1950 by Ealing Studios, it had a three-week theatrical run in London, and was also released in the United States, largely due to the lead, Bonar Colleano, being American. Essentially a crime thriller, the film also has a story line about race relations, which was very controversial for the time. Depending on the skills of a top-flight cast, the film is about a diamond robbery in London, about a police car chase after the bandits — and about an interracial romance between a white woman (Susan Shaw) and Johnny, a Jamaican seaman (Earl Cameron) while he and his merchant ship crew are ashore for the weekend. Earl received a huge amount of fan mail after his performance in the film — and he says that many people felt sorry for him. "People really thought I was that lonely Jamaican guy wandering around London, looking for friends," he chuckled. The part remains one of Earl's favourite roles.

[box] 'Flame in the Streets' (d. Roy Baker, United Kingdom, 93 minutes)

Set amidst the backdrop of working class London, Sir John Mills stars as a craftsman, Jacko, working in a factory. A union member, he is considered by the multi-racial workforce to be their representative. Trouble arises when a Jamaican, Gabe (Earl Cameron), is nominated for a higher position within the factory. Jacko backs this, standing against the racial prejudice that pervades the attitudes of many of the white workers. Gabe successfully gets the job and dashes off to tell his wife. Meanwhile Jacko goes home to find that his daughter is planning an inter-racial marriage. This is the true test of his beliefs, but all the while there is trouble brewing in the streets.

[box] 'The Interpreter (d. Sydney Pollack, United Kingdom-United States-France, 128 minutes)

Directed by Oscar-winner Sydney Pollack, The Interpreter stars Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn — and Bermuda's Earl Cameron. Kidman stars as African-born UN interpreter Silvia Broome, who inadvertently overhears a death threat against an African head of state (Earl Cameron) scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. Realising she's become a target of the assassins as well, Silvia's desperate to thwart the plot— if only she can survive long enough to get someone to believe her. Tickets to BIFF 2007 will go on sale March 5 at 10 a.m. both online at www.biff.bm as well as at the festival's physical box office at # 6 Passenger Terminal, Front Street, Hamilton. Tickets to A Conversation With—.Earl Cameron are $50.