Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said he “wasn’t even aware” a solicitation was issued by the V.I. Property and Procurement Department two weeks ago seeking proposals for a documentary crew to tell the story of his life and tenure in office but that he was aware of the project, which he called “very important work.”
“I know I joke around a lot, but the reality of it is: I am the ninth governor of the Virgin Islands, and I don’t think we tell our stories enough,” he said. “I go to schools and different celebrations, I talk to children all the time and tell them that this grown man was a little boy in Savan in the Virgin Islands who ain’t really come from nothing.”
Bryan implied that the documentary would chronicle his life from those beginnings through his campaign and the major events of his governorship. A request for proposals, first reported by the Virgin Islands Daily News last week, sought a production company to create a feature-length documentary interweaving behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with colleagues and family and archival material to “serve both as a historical record and as a compelling narrative that connects the Governor’s personal story with the challenges and triumphs of the Virgin Islands over the past decade.”
Speaking to the Source last week, Government House communications director Richard Motta Jr. said the proposal also requires that raw footage and unedited interviews be preserved as part of a Government House archive.
“Those archives don’t exist now,” he said. “Retrospectives are usually made years later, based on memory. This would document events while they’re happening.”
On Monday, Bryan repeatedly suggested that the institutions already documenting events while they’re happening — local media outlets — aren’t interested in telling Virgin Islanders’ stories or letting them tell their own stories.
“It needs to be documented so every young Virgin Islander knows that they have an opportunity to contribute on whatever level they want to contribute, regardless of the muck the media puts out every day — telling us we are nobody, discrediting us as a people, discrediting our government, and most, most importantly, telling them that they don’t have a place here when they do,” he said.
Local headlines at the time of Bryan’s media criticism included: an expo by the St. John Board of Realtors; a haunted house and fundraiser on St. Croix; a virtual energy summit curated by the V.I. Water and Power Authority; the reopening of the queen conch harvest season; a meeting between Waste Management leader and Garden Street residents; a story highlighting the absence of local mental health facilities; at least two instances of Liberty Day ceremony coverage; weather coverage; and arrest reports largely informed by V.I. Police Department press releases.
Regardless, Bryan peppered Monday’s briefing — during which he announced the issuance of food assistance checks to more than 10,000 local SNAP recipients and the nomination of Magistrate Judge Veletia Harvey Velazquez to the V.I. Superior Court — with digs at coverage of recent events, including a recent meeting with the Christiansted Retail and Restaurant Association. In defending the documentary proposal, Bryan said his administration’s accomplishments need to be documented “because the media will tell them it’s impossible.”
“And if we work together … nothing is impossible for the people of the Virgin Islands,” he said. “Our incredible resiliency through three to four hurricanes — we still here. The shutdown of Hess — we still here. COVID — we still here. We still here and we’re still thriving and doing well, regardless of our challenges.”
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