Documenting History: The Story of Bahamian Director Travolta Cooper

DOCUMENTING HISTORY:

The Story of Bahamian Director Travolta Cooper

By Nikia Wells Photographs Courtesy Of Andrew Bowe, Renee Cesar and Jeff Mackey

When director Travolta Cooper began capturing the story of the late Sir Lynden Pindling, he didn’t fully comprehend the eventual reach and impact the documentary would have. The Up and Away team recently caught up with Travolta on his way to shoot another film project, in Africa. He shares the story behind the creation of “Black Moses” and his journey as a Bahamian filmmaker.

Up and Away: Tell us a little bit about your journey as a director and the creative process.

My journey… (Travolta pauses, with a laugh). Filmmaking is just something that I’ve always wanted to do. I grew up in the north-western Bahamas – Abaco, Freeport and Bimini. Most people that know me will tell you that I was just that kid who loved creating skits in my grandmother’s home, in the yard, or for school or church. I was always the little island performer. Before I even knew myself, my mother said that she had a dream that she would have a son and that he would be a part of movies.

Up and Away: Were you named after the actor or was this all by chance?

She was a fan of John Travolta and I was born at the height of his career. That’s where my name came from. Who knew that I would actually pursue some of the same passions. I don’t recall ever wanting anything else. And I finally got the chance when I got a scholarship to go to a liberal arts college in Miami. I worked in reality television for a bit and did a small stint in LA. I then came back to Nassau around the late 2000s because I could sense something special was happening in The Bahamas, at the time.

Up and Away: In terms of your filmmaking career, who were some of your inspirations as a young artist?

Easy. Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and, when I got to film school, I really got into Quentin Tarantino. It’s interesting because, as a young Bahamian, we didn’t have many Bahamian filmmakers or Caribbean filmmakers to sort of pattern our careers after and look up to. Interestingly, The Tribune featured our show “Where’s Wally” and they called us ‘pioneers’. That was humbling because you think you’re just doing your own thing and living your life, but you don’t realize that you’re setting the groundwork for others. I get emails from college kids all the time asking about my work and asking me to come to speak to students, and I never expected anyone to be impacted by my work.

Up and Away: Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like creating Black Moses—not only telling the story of the late Sir Linden Pindling, but The Bahamas’ journey to independence as a whole? What was that like for you?

Life-changing. I think I had a career before Black Moses, and a career after. That project changed my life. The irony is that it wasn’t supposed to be what it was. I had initially gotten a small grant from the Cable Cares Foundation, and it

Filmmaker Travolta Cooper On Set

was really going to be this smaller movie. I had just done the Sir Stafford Sands documentary; that was really successful and did really well. It was just natural for me to then do something on Sir Lynden Pindling. I was super curious about him as a man. I grew up with the mythology, and his image was polar opposites depending on where you were in the country. I grew up with a lot of ambiguity about him, so when I became a filmmaker, I was actually able to do my own research. While doing research, I discovered that he was called Black Moses by a lot of his followers and that was interesting to me because I’m naturally a folklorist. I think I’m naturally a pathologist. I love peeling away the layers of the mythology of the man to get to know who he truly was.

Up and Away: How did the project expand from your original vision?

Once we started filming, I started getting opportunities to go overseas because people wanted to talk about Sir Lynden.

We went to Atlanta to talk to Andrew Young, and then he was like, ‘Oh, you have to go to Canada and talk about him being on the money.’ Then, we got the chance to go to South Africa and talk to Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. And something special happened when I went to Africa. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport. The taxi driver wanted to know why I was there. I said, ‘Oh, I’m here to talk to Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki for this film that I’m doing.’ He then looks at me, and he goes, ‘Oh yes, Mandela – our Black Moses.’

The more research on this “Black Moses” phenomenon that I did, the more I discovered that it wasn’t unique to The Bahamas. It was something that was happening in a lot of post-colonial countries – they all had these strong leaders that led them to some form of independence, and they were called Black Moses. Sir Lynden Pindling was ours.

Up and Away: Were you surprised by how much momentum the film garnered?

It just kept getting bigger and bigger to the point where it was changing my life, changing the life of my crew, changing the life of the film and, inevitably, changing the life of Bahamian cinema. Travolta Cooper With Cameraman Jackson Petit

Up and Away: You mentioned that you are currently travelling to work on a documentary about the life of the late Dr. Myles Munroe. Can you tell me a little bit about that project and how it came to be?

Dr. Munroe is in Black Moses. He’s one of our commentators and, again, that wasn’t something we initially planned for. This man was just like an international star, and I was just blown away by being in South Africa and seeing his books on shelves and seeing people talk about him. He was super busy at the time, and then finally it happened where he was in Nassau, I was in Nassau, and we did the interview. I spent 45 minutes with Dr. Munroe. We did this interview and, to this day, we’re still getting comments and emails about it. I can’t think of a bigger Bahamian icon than Myles Munroe. I can go into countries where people don’t even know where The Bahamas is, but they know who Myles Munroe is.” UA