How St. Kitts and Nevis Is Turning Its Islands Into a Gateway for African and Caribbean Cinema

A small island federation in the Eastern Caribbean has just made a move that could reshape the region’s creative economy for generations. On March 23, 2026, the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis, through the Department of Creative Economy, signed a significant agreement with internationally recognized Nollywood Filmmaker and Director, and Founder of Natives Filmworks, Mr. Steve Gukas, during Day One of the Afri-Caribbean Investment Summit in Abuja, Nigeria. The deal, formalized in Nigeria’s capital city, is far more than a single film production contract — it is a strategic blueprint for embedding St. Kitts and Nevis at the center of a new Africa-Caribbean storytelling movement. And crucially, it does not arrive in a vacuum. It builds directly on institutional groundwork already laid on the island of Nevis, where Film Commissioner Pamela Martin has been quietly constructing the infrastructure to make it all possible.

A Deal Rooted in Diplomacy and Cultural Vision

The agreement was signed by Hon. Samal Duggins, marking a major step forward in advancing the Federation’s creative industries and strengthening cultural and economic ties between Africa and the Caribbean. The signing did not happen without context. This strategic partnership stems from recent engagements and visits to Nigeria, where initial discussions were held and relationships formed, ultimately leading to this groundbreaking collaboration.

Minister Duggins framed his ambitions as extending well beyond the borders of his own twin-island nation. Speaking at the signing ceremony, he described a pan-Caribbean dimension to the initiative: “And I thought this would be a great opportunity, not just for Saint Kitts and Nevis, but for the region, if we can develop twelve films across the region that looks at global Africa from our perspective.”

This is not diplomatic rhetoric for its own sake. The Caribbean’s African diaspora heritage is one of the most underrepresented narratives in mainstream global cinema, and both parties understand the commercial and cultural opportunity that gap represents.

Importantly, the signing establishes a collaborative framework between the Government and key partners, including Natives Filmworks Limited, Michel-Angelo Productions, and Aquarian Consult Limited. And a diverse delegation from Saint Kitts and Nevis — comprising creatives, cultural practitioners, and industry stakeholders — was present at the summit, underscoring the Government’s commitment to ensuring that such partnerships deliver tangible benefits for the wider creative sector.

Pamela Martin: Building the Foundation at Home

While the cameras were pointed at Abuja, some of the most important work for this moment has been happening quietly. In a bid to position itself as a premier destination for international film and television production, the island formally launched its new Film Commission on June 22, 2025, at the Nevis Performing Arts Center (NEPAC), with remarks from Nevis Premier Mark Brantley and newly appointed Film Commissioner Pamela Martin, both outlining how the Film Commission aims to make the island more accessible to filmmakers and producers from around the globe.

Martin was direct about what the Commission represents in practical terms. “The launch of the Film Commission reflects Nevis’ readiness to support high-quality productions,” said Nevis Film Commissioner Pamela Martin. “We’ve created a foundation that will support filmmakers from production to post, while also generating jobs, skills training, and economic impact for the people of Nevis.”

In an interview following the launch, Martin emphasized that the Commission isn’t just a symbolic gesture — it’s a practical support arm for productions looking to film on the island, offering a centralized contact point, logistical help, and local incentive programs. Her stated goal was clear: make it easy for filmmakers to choose Nevis. The Nollywood agreement signed in Abuja nine months later suggests the strategy is working.

Nevis has quietly emerged as a Caribbean filming hub in recent years, with titles like A Week in Paradise (distributed by Lionsgate) and Christmas in the Caribbean (starring Elizabeth Hurley) already putting the island on the production map, with releases on major platforms like Amazon Prime. Martin’s Film Commission is designed to build on that momentum with a structured, incentive-friendly approach that attracts serious production investment rather than one-off location scouting.

The significance of this institutional readiness cannot be overstated. The Abuja agreement calls for a major film to go into production in Saint Kitts and Nevis by June 2026 — an aggressive timeline that would be impossible without the logistical and administrative infrastructure Martin has been building. Her work effectively makes the Federation a credible production partner, not just a scenic backdrop.

Steve Gukas and the Nollywood Connection

To fully appreciate the weight of this agreement, one must understand who Steve Gukas is within the African film landscape. Nevis has recently garnered attention in the international film scene, serving as the backdrop for productions available on major platforms like Amazon Prime — and Gukas brings that same global streaming ambition to his own pipeline. His résumé is studded with landmark African cinema milestones, including a 2016 drama that dramatized Nigeria’s successful containment of the Ebola outbreak, demonstrating his rare ability to craft globally resonant stories from African experiences.

This initiative is expected to create meaningful opportunities for visual artists, filmmakers, and content creators in St. Kitts and Nevis, providing access to new markets, partnerships, and platforms for growth. Minister Duggins reinforced this, emphasizing the importance of moving beyond traditional expressions of culture toward building sustainable industries driven by innovation and collaboration.

What the Agreement Actually Covers

The MOU is structured around three interlocking pillars: production, training, and regional expansion.

On the production side, the agreement will facilitate the production of a major film project in Saint Kitts and Nevis, scheduled for June 2026, while also establishing a broader framework for training, mentorship, and collaboration across the global African creative community.

On training, the collaboration will include a structured programme for training and developing filmmakers, providing opportunities for emerging creatives from Saint Kitts and Nevis and across the Caribbean to gain hands-on experience in film production, storytelling, and global distribution platforms. This complements the skills-development mandate that Pamela Martin embedded into the Nevis Film Commission from day one, creating a seamless pipeline from local training to international production.

The Broader Cultural Stakes

Minister Duggins was careful to frame the project as a matter of cultural identity and historical reclamation alongside economic development. “Our perspective is not just insular to each island, but our perspective as a Caribbean region or the Western Hemisphere on a whole, looking at all the different cultures that exist because there are nuances… and those nuances we want to inject into these films and make sure that we see global Africa for what it truly is today.”

This framing places the initiative within a much larger global conversation about who gets to tell African and Afro-diasporic stories — and where. For decades, narratives about Black Atlantic communities have been filtered predominantly through Hollywood or European production houses. A creative pipeline that runs directly from Abuja to Basseterre — backed by institutional structures like the Nevis Film Commission — challenges that dynamic in a concrete and commercially viable way.

Two Agreements, One Strategy

What emerges from the full picture is a coordinated, two-track creative economy strategy for St. Kitts and Nevis. On the diplomatic front, Minister Duggins is forging supply-side relationships — bringing in internationally credible production partners, streaming distribution ambitions, and a flagship slate of twelve films representing the global African diaspora. On the institutional front, Pamela Martin is building the demand-side infrastructure — the film commission, the incentive frameworks, the local logistical support systems — that transform those agreements from paper into actual production days.

The signing of the Memorandum of Intent represents a strategic step in positioning St. Kitts and Nevis as an emerging contributor to the global creative economy, while strengthening ties with partners across Africa. With Martin’s Film Commission providing the on-island machinery and Gukas’s Nollywood network providing the creative and commercial firepower, the Federation has assembled a formidable combination. The June 2026 production timeline is aggressive — but the foundation, on both islands, has clearly been laid.

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