Bankie Banx: King of the Dune celebrates the colorful life and music of the Anguillian singer-songwriter known by many as “the Bob Dylan of the Caribbean.” WCFF spoke to the film’s director Nara Garber
Tell us about you and Bankie Banx: King of the Dune
My name is Nara Garber, and I’m a 55-year-old filmmaker from Brooklyn, NY who usually specializes in social issue documentaries. Bankie Banx: King of the Dune might appear to be a departure since it’s a biopic about the Anguillan singer-songwriter and larger-than-life personality Bankie Banx, but through Bankie’s life and music, we’re able to touch upon so many important issues from colonialism to the fickle nature of the music industry to the environment.
Ultimately, the film is about an artist who remains unwaveringly true to himself in spite of external pressures and obstacles, and the fact that Bankie ultimately achieves success on his own terms will hopefully serve as an inspiration to others.
What message do you hope the audience takes away?
There’s a moment we experienced while filming that cuts to the essence of who Bankie is. We went out sailing with Bankie on March 12, 2020, the night before the 30th anniversary of his music festival, Moonsplash. Bankie had been so busy preparing for the festival up to that point that he hadn’t fully grasped the threat posed by the coronavirus, and it wasn’t until his friends who operated the sailboat told him that all their bookings for the rest of the year had been cancelled that he took stock of the situation.
As we returned to shore he said (more to himself than to us), “I have beans. I have rice. I have coconuts. I’ll be okay.” Bankie had weathered enough storms, literal and figurative, by that point to know what he needed to survive. Conversely, Bankie knows how little he needs to be happy: the time and space to be creative without constraints near the ocean and beneath the big blue sky. The chorus of his autobiographical song “Island Boy” goes: “I remember some things my mama said. She was standing there by the flower bed. She said, ‘Happiness is peace of mind. All the rest ain’t worth a dime.'” It’s a simple but valuable message for our materialistic times.
What was the most challenging part of making this film?
The greatest challenge we faced was definitely the pandemic. Covid shut us down during only our second shoot, and Anguilla’s protocols were so strict that once we left, we weren’t able to return for a year and a half. When we finally made it back on island, many of the people we had hoped to film hadn’t yet come back. As a result, we filmed in fits and starts for three years. The silver lining is that we had originally intended to make a short film that skimmed the surface of Bankie’s story. Our extended production schedule resulted in a much deeper dive into both Bankie and Anguilla, and we can’t imagine how many stones we would have left unturned – or not seen at all – if we had stuck with Plan A.
What’s your favourite Caribbean dish or cultural tradition?
I love and admire the Caribbean tradition of jollification, which many Anguillans think of as having an especially strong association with their own historically under-resourced island. Coming together as a community to perform a major task and afterwards celebrating with food and drink might not be as common as it once was, but every major artistic endeavour of Bankie’s fits this mould. I often say that as government systems fail, society will rely more and more on mutual aid, and jollification provides a great model.
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
My own social media presence is pretty political, and I do not speak for Bankie or anyone else involved with the film, so I would like to keep that entirely separate. But please do follow the film!
What’s next for you?
The political situation in America right now is both stranger and scarier than fiction. I’m writing a dark comedy to explore some of the issues contributing to the ripping apart of our social fabric that I hope to shoot in late summer.
Catch Bankie Banx: King of the Dune and other films at the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival, running from 14 to 29 June 2025 and sign up to the newsletter at https://bit.ly/WCFFNews.
