Patrick Baucelin

• Name — Patrick Baucelin • Born — 13 November 1957 • Birthplace — Fort-de-France, Martinique • Occupation — Writer, director, producer • Style — Documentary • Website — https: patrickbaucelin.com/

Baucelin enrolled in the photography club at Ernest Renan secondary school, discovering a fascination for image making. On the day of his Baccalauréat, Patrick Baucelin was recruited by a production team to be a set photographer on the set of a promotional film in the Caribbean. He walked out of the examination room into his first professional job. After this first experience in the film industry, he took several photography, film and video courses to develop his skills. During military service, he worked in the photo-cinema office, and in 1979, was awarded the SIRPA Grand Medal (Service d'Information et de Relations Publiques de l'Armée) for his achievements.

In 1981, Patrick Baucelin set up a production studio, "Studio Pat". Initially specialising in photography, he soon became interested in cinema and bought his own camera in Paris, a professional standard Arriflex. For several years, the director worked on commission and made promotional, institutional, advertising and documentary films, also setting up a film library. Advertisements ranged from public information for the Regional Council of Martinique, such as "Le SAR", promoting the Schéma d'Aménagement Régional, guidelines for sustainable development on the island, to tourism promotion spots like "Sizzlin Summer Dayz in St. Lucia". Corporate films made for the RCM, such as "Pose des appuis parasismiques du lycée centre-sud" ("Laying earthquake-resistant support at center-south high school") record the practical realities of administrating Martinique. In 1987, at the 3rd International Medical Film and Book Festival in Paris, he received his first international award: the "Caducée d'Or" for his film Vè, ou konnet?, a documentary made for the departmental health and social action agency (the DDASS) to inform people on Martinique about worm prevention. A year later, he entered his first fictional work, La Nuit de la Saint Sylvestre, an 8-minute short film, to the Images Caraïbe festival competition in Martinique. The director then came up against an unexpected problem. He discovered that the laws governing French cinema do not apply to the French overseas departments and territories and that it was not possible to establish an audiovisual production company in the West Indies. He was the first to point out the inconsistency of the system. Despite the difficulties, particularly the problems of financing, he persisted in pursuing his film making career in Martinique.

At the beginning of the 1990s, anxious to work in the best possible conditions, the director created the "Espace PAT". He had a production studio built in Fort-de-France with a 110-seat cinema, a sound recording studio and a film set: a first in Martinique. ViàATV, formerly Antilles Télévision, was first established there in 1993. Patrick Baucelin produces documentaries on the theme of the history, culture and heritage of Martinique and, more broadly, of the Caribbean. Speaking about making At the Time of the Sugar Islands, he said: He has won a number of international awards, including a lifetime achievement award from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.