ERROR RG P4 P24 31.5.1994 In last week's Living section, the photographs accompanying the story on Alison Swan's film, `Still Water', should have been credited to Mr. Marshall De Couto.

Bermuda's first award-winning film director will be showing her latest film at a special fund-raiser in St. George's next week.

Alison Swan, who won the Spike Lee Award while she was still a student at the New York University Graduate Film School, says she is excited about the Bermuda screening of her half-hour thesis feature film, entitled Still Water.

"I want to support the arts in Bermuda, so it seemed a good idea to screen the film in support of Masterworks,'' says the daughter of the Premier and Lady Swan. "But, of course, I would like other people to see it as well!'' There has certainly been plenty of interest in her project, since it was filmed over a two-week period in Bermuda last autumn, and `stars' a number of local residents, including Cynthia Kirkwood (who has the lead), Laura Gorham and local veteran actor, Danjou Anderson.

Speaking from New York last week, Miss Swan said she did not want to "give away the story'' of her film: the most she would say was that "it's a family drama'', also revealing that the plot (which she has written herself) centres around "an Anglo-Bermudian family''.

Noting that it was shot "mostly in Paget'', Miss Swan says the whole project was quite a challenge, as there is no film equipment on the Island.

"I had to bring everything in, from lights, cameras and dollies. Some friends who said we could use their house thought we were shooting with video cameras, and nearly had a fit when they saw all our equipment.'' To add a further touch of excitement to an already tension-filled day last October, Alison Swan and her laden film crew and cast arrived in Bermuda on the very day her father was seeking re-election as the Island's Premier, "but he was very understanding and patient!'' After three weeks rehearsal in New York and a further week in Bermuda, the actual shooting of the film took two weeks.

"We had incredible co-operation from everybody,'' she says, "especially from my mother's friends, and people who let us use their houses.'' The music for her film is original, and provided by a group called Black Market Productions in New York. She says: "They are well known for their commercials, and wanted to break into features. They decided to select one or two films from NYU and chose mine.'' For Alison Swan, this latest film is her second major project. "All my films are completely different. My second-year film was about a Hispanic prison guard. It was an all-women film set in a prison where the guard befriends a black female prisoner.'' In contrast, she says, her Bermuda film is "a very elitist study. In the prison film, the setting was very stark but the characters were very warm, whereas in this one, the setting is very beautiful and the characters are cold and repressed. So the two films are polar opposites of each other.'' Alison Swan's journey into the specialised world of cinema was a gradual one.

As a talented young dancer who had trained at Patricia Grey's School of Russian Ballet, a career in dance was certainly an option for her. "But,'' she explains, "I found dance too stifling.'' The discipline imposed by ballet training, however, has been useful in her chosen career. "Film-making is very arduous. You have to get up early, and you work all day without any rest. There are a hundred decisions to be made a minute, so it's physically tiring and emotionally draining. I think the dancing really helped, because I had already experienced that concentrated sort of discipline in another milieu.'' Her dance training, she says, also helped keep her fit. "This is important, when you are working under such tension. In film-making, so much can and does go wrong. Every second costs money, so it's always a race against time. If it rains, you can see money, time and energy washed away! So you have to re-harness yourself and if you have a fit body, it is so much easier.'' Miss Swan worked in New York for a while, with Channel 13, "a `gofer' sort of thing. It taught me what I did NOT want to do -- I did not want to be in public television!'' Then it was off to LA for a while, where she worked for movie mogul/impressario Robert Stigwood. "I'm sending him a copy of my film today,'' she confides over the phone.

Undecided on what she wanted to study, Miss Swan was living in Paris when she decided, "as a lark'', to do a film course. "Everybody in Paris is crazy about movies. It's such a different atmosphere from growing up in Bermuda, where the movies were ten years late at that time, and then at one point, they closed down completely for a while. I had no idea that film had the potential to be so exciting until I went to Paris. We saw different films every night.

French people go to a movie, then on to the cafe, and then dancing! Even in the lunch hour, you could watch a film for 50 cents.'' When she returned to Bates College in Maine, where she was pursuing a course in art history/history, she decided to make a documentary on a paper-mill strike that was in process in that State.

"The strikers used that film to rally support from the International Paper Workers Union. It was called `Solidarity Forever' and for a while, I thought I would like to be a documentary film maker, but I like to be more in control, so I chose to concentrate on features.'' It was while she was at NYU that she met Spike Lee.

"I met him on a couple of occasions. He is a very inspiring person and has been a huge influence on my work, in a weird sort of way -- maybe not very discernible to others. He has really opened the door for black film makers. He has broken down boundaries and I will always be indebted to him for that.'' Now, Alison Swan is planning to enter her film in various film festivals during the summer. Then, it is on to the next film, which she is already planning. She will be writing the script herself and plans to do this on Long Island, where she will stay with friends.

"Yes, I would love to make another film in Bermuda -- especially an historical film -- so many of the old buildings are so beautiful.'' Ideally, she would like to direct a script written by someone else. "But I haven't seen anything yet that really appeals to me. Hopefully, if this film goes well, it will help give me the clout to get good writers. I would prefer to direct and have my own writing partner.'' Reflecting on her filming experiences in Bermuda, Alison Swan says: "I think Bermudian people have a confidence that others don't have. They are so supportive and enthusiastic about things. I couldn't have done any of this without my parents. When we came down -- about 20 of us, altogether -- it was like a barn-raising, a real bonding of friends. My family and mother's friends were making huge helpings of things like lasagna and fish pie, to feed everybody! And my poor mother didn't have a car for two weeks, but she never complained!'' Alison Swan will be returning to Bermuda for the screening of `Still Water'.

"I would like people to see it. I wanted to support the arts in Bermuda, so we're doing this fund-raising, but I'd really like to show the two films. I wonder how we can do that?'' Any group interested in showing the films are asked to contact Miss Swan as she does have further prints and videos available.

In the meantime, the Masterworks showing of `Still Water' takes place at the Somers Playhouse in St. George's on Saturday, June 4. A champagne reception will precede the 7 p.m. screening at 7.45 p.m. and dinner will follow, "with the stars, under the stars''. Tickets are $75, and seating is limited.

Reservations can be made by telephoning 295-5580 and all proceeds are in aid of the Masterworks Foundation.

Alison Swan.

QUIET ON THE SET! -- Bermuda's film director, Alison Swan peers through the camera as she sets up a scene from her latest movie, `Still Water'.