The_Press_files/A Grain of Sand (EPK).pdf

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Table Of Contents Synopsis 01 Brendon Grimshaw 02 Director’s Bio 03 The Making Of 4 - 5 Interviews & Crew 6 - 7 Press & Festivals 8 Wandering Eye Productions wanderingeyeproductions.com
Synopsis THE FILM A Grain of Sand A Grain of Sand was filmed between the summers of 2007 and 2008 and is an 83 minute documentary that tells the love story that came to be between Brendon Grimshaw and Moyenne Island. Brendon Grimshaw, a British national, was editor to some of the most important newspapers in Africa. But in 1972, he gave it all up to go and live on Moyenne Island, which he purchased for ten thousand pounds. In the thirtysix-years that he has lived on the island, Brendon and his friend, Rene Lafortune, planted sixteen-thousand trees, built 4,8 kilometers of nature paths, and brought and bred 109 giant land tortoises, creating an island of incredible beauty now worth 34 million Euros. Pristine tropical islands with beautiful eco-systems have become a rare commodity in a world that seems to measure everything in economic terms. And there is a voracious global appetite for places like Moyenne Island, which will be passed on to unknown hands when Brendon dies, as he does not have any children. And what does capitalism want to do with his island, you might ask? Well, it wants to apply its newly popular 5-star “eco-tourism” resort formula, which would effectively privatize Moyenne Island and offer it as a tourist destination to those rich enough to afford the up to 2000 euro per night price tag. With this accomplished, the developers, environmentalists and politicians involved would claim another success story. In their mind, they took a profitless piece of land and conserved the majority of its beauty. Who cares if the only people who will ever get to see that island again will have to be rich and on vacation? Who cares if you transform a temple of 16,000 trees with nature paths for all to visit into a private resort with 5-star bungalows? No, this is the new world we live in, where the speculation and privatization of the last beautiful natural habitats in our devastated world is seen as a Darwinian solution to our problems. ! Brendon’s story on Moyenne Island gives us a perfect view of many of the problems and ideas that we are confronted with in this Brave New World, where organizations like the IMF and World Bank force small countries like the Seychelles to completely liberalize their economy in exchange for any future loans. So what trend can you really expect from a country where 81% of the jobs are related to the tourism industry? How can you ask these people to sacrifice the opportunity of more wealth and prosperity in exchange for environmental protectionism when the United States and Europe have not done the same? A solution does not seem around the corner and more and more of our precious heritage is being privatized every year. Who knows what the price of experiencing the beauty of nature will be in the future? But Brendon remains hopeful that Moyenne will still be around for all those, rich or poor, who wish to admire its beauty. He continues to get up every morning and dedicates his time, love and energy to an island that seems to deserve more than an uncertain future. Wandering Eye Productions wanderingeyeproductions.com 01
Page 4 and 5: BRENDON GRIMSHAW ! The Seychelle Is
Page 6 and 7: THE “MAKING OF” A Grain Of Sand
Page 8 and 9: Island Conservation Society Brendon
Page 10: Brendon Grimshaw PRESS & FESTIVALS

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