Dwayne Robinson didn’t really think about violence until a good friend was killed. Malcolm Outerbridge, 18, was stabbed to death by another teenager in 2011.

“I knew some people at school who were involved in [youth violence] through gangs, but I always thought they’d brought their problems on themselves,” said Mr Robinson, 21.

“His death was when I really started to pay close attention to the violence happening in Bermuda.

“I was a pallbearer at his funeral. At his grave, I didn’t have the strength to lower him down. It hit me that he was gone.”

Four years later, Mr Robinson still thinks about his friend, and the deeper social issues that led to his death.

It’s part of the reason he decided to make Confession: The Power of Birth. The film is about a young man who is shot because he is trying to get out of the gang lifestyle.

“At the funeral I was really struck by how Malcolm’s mother managed to hold things together despite being devastated,” said Mr Robinson, an English major at Bermuda College.

“I started thinking about the impact of these events on families.”

Confession is his first film. He got help from his friend Marq Rodriguez whose film, The Last I Heard Your Voice, screened at Bermuda International Film Festival in March.

“I really hope that by showing hard-hitting topics, I can allow people to see that things aren’t as black and white as they think,” Mr Robinson said.

“Sometimes we tend to distance ourselves from problems instead of finding solutions. You hear people saying, ‘Just lock them up’. We need to show some of these young men a different path.

“A lot of people don’t appreciate the stresses that some young men go through.”

The film’s script was based on two poems by Raushan Darrell, 20, who started writing poetry in middle school to help to cope with bullying.

“When Dwayne came to me and asked me to write poetry for the script, I had actually closed that chapter on my life,” he said.

“I am studying biology at the Bermuda College. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reopen that again. Now, I’m really glad I said yes.”

India Muhammad helped Mr Darrell with the script and played the lead role alongside him. “The main challenge was the fact that we were amateurs,” Mr Robinson said.

Before Confession, he had only taken a few film workshops at Bermuda College. His dream now is to go abroad to study film.

“Confession was a collaborative effort between young people,” Mr Rodriguez said. “We weren’t told to do it; it came from the authority of our hearts. We really want to see change in this country.”

With most of the crew members employed, finding time to film was difficult. “The film takes place at night and is very dark,” Mr Rodriguez said.

“For the scene where the main character is walking down a road at night and gets shot, we chose a Southampton neighbourhood at random and filmed there at 2am.”

Mr Robinson added: “We had to put Marq on the back of my girlfriend’s bike so he could film the main character running.

“Nobody in the neighbourhood seemed to notice. We were actually pretty quiet — except for the bike.”

The experience taught him that filming can be tedious. “We had to retake and retake,” he said.

The film was first posted on the Raleigh International website — Mr Robinson was a member of the group with his late friend.

“They ate it up,” Mr Robinson said. “We had a very positive response.”

Confession has had more than 600 views since it was posted on YouTube. Mr Robinson hopes to screen it at the Bermuda International Film Festival next year.

“We are still deciding on what topic we will do next,” he said.

n You can watch Confession: The Power of Birth on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrc2RG3k45U