Bermuda may be a tiny Island, but it has had a major impact on American history.

This is the idea behind Bermudian filmmaker Lucinda Spurling's latest documentary, 'The Lion and the Mouse'.

It explores the complex historical relationship between Bermuda and the United States.

It will be released in March 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the wreck of the Sea Venture in 1609.

Afflare Films Ltd., run by Miss Spurling, has produced two other documentaries about Bermuda, 'Rare Bird' in 2006 and 'St. David's An Island Near Bermuda' in 2004.

"'The Lion and the Mouse' is the epic tale of two countries, The United States of America, the Lion, and the tiny Island nation, Bermuda, the mouse," said Miss Spurling. "This film will chart landmark moments, relationships, conflicts and characters, that all played a part in the first four centuries of settlement in America and Bermuda. It will be told through the historic perspective of Bermuda's people and their direct role in the birth of America and its development as a nation. Bermudians embodied the necessary reinvention and adaptability to prosper in a changing Atlantic World."

Miss Spurling said she chose this topic of 'The Lion and the Mouse' out of personal interest. Her mother is American and her father is Bermudian.

"I grew up in St. George's and I found the history of how St. George's related to the United States – with the Tucker family, Blockade Running and the Gun Powder Plot – quite fascinating," she said. "I thought 2009 would be a good time to celebrate that heritage locally as well as internationally."

Unfortunately, she said finding funding for this film has proven more difficult than it was for 'Rare Bird'.

"Possibly, it is because there is so much stuff going on for 2009," she said.

Her title sponsor is the Bank of Bermuda Foundation. She has a tiered, three-year grant from them. "Therefore, to reach our matching target and raise remaining funds needed to complete the film, we need to raise a remaining $100,000 from the community this year," said Miss Spurling.

She hoped that the film would provide a permanent commemoration of the Sea Venture wreck anniversary and increase awareness, education and pride in our Island legacy.

"Once it is finished I am not sure what will happen internationally," she said. "But 'Rare Bird' has done really well in film festivals. It has been all over the world, including New Zealand, and eight cities in India, which is really exciting. Obviously, I want the same thing to happen with this film, and hopefully it will."

She said it is different making 'The Lion and the Mouse' because it is more historical and involves much more research.

"With my last film I spent a lot of time filming, and waiting for the birds to do their thing, whereas this time it is more regimented," she said. "The film is made of interviews, archival footage, stills, documents and also recreations. So there are those different elements.

"And the recreations, I am writing, so there is a bit more of a fictional or dramatised bit to it. I don't want it to be a film that has been done before. I don't want it to be a staid historical film like so many others. That is why a big part of it is recreation."

'The Lion and the Mouse' will have two character narrators who will perform during the different time periods.

"I want to think of history as a continuum which is why I am using the same actors," she said.

Miss Spurling said people today often underestimate how important Bermuda has been in terms of American history.

"My favourite quote is from American president William Howard Taft," she said. "He said 'no nation so small has ever played such a large role in world history'. I think that really sums it up. I don't think we think of ourselves that way. Certainly, when people are writing the great American histories they don't think of Bermuda that way.

"That is why I like the allegory of 'the Lion and the Mouse' because you have this little country which is the mouse which you wouldn't think could actually help the lion, but does."

She said in Bermuda's early history it was often a centre for spy activity.

"With the Gun Powder Plot, and in the Second World War, the imperial censorship that was in Bermuda caught several spy rings," she said.

"Through the 1800s and earlier there were spies sent here from the United States to look into invading and capturing Bermuda.

"There are maps that exist of St. George's from this. Bermuda was definitely on people's horizons as being a profitable place to own, because of our geography. We were very important strategically in the Second World War and in the Cold War.

"In colonial times it was a bolt hole to defend the new world. Bermuda was the much stronger colony in the beginning and was very valuable to the Virginia Company in the beginning. Obviously, that is not true so much today."

She said today technology makes geography unimportant, but in the past, Bermuda's close distance to the United States made it very important.

The film includes interviews with several overseas historians, including James P.P. Horn author of 'A Land As God Made It', and Michael Jarvis who is the expert on the first few centuries of Bermuda history.

'The Lion and the Mouse' will be edited in such a way that it is divisible into independent sections.

"This will give it more flexibility and more possibility to be utilised by more community groups and educational groups," said Miss Spurling.

"For instance, in the pilot Jemmy Darrell celebration they can use the section about pilot Darrell. I might show the Sea Venture bit at conference in March."

There are also plans to produce a website to go with the film, and DVDs of 'The Lion and the Mouse' will be given to local schools.

"The point is for it to be used locally in education, as well as abroad," she said. "A lot of people have asked me why do all of that time period, but it gives you a sense of how Bermuda's development, and how much we have changed through the generations and how certain things remain true such as Bermuda adaptivity."

Miss Spurling will be filming recreations at the end of June and will be holding casting sessions on April 3, 4 and 5.

"We are looking for people of all ages," she said. "You don't necessarily have to have acting experience. There are two major roles that we want people with acting experience, but there are a lot of extras. So we are looking for all sorts of people who will have a flexible schedule at the end of June. We will have roles in the colonial period, up to the Second World War."

Miss Spurling is working with Jargan Enterprises to produce the recreations. Anyone interested in auditioning, can contact Shelly Burgess at Jargan at 504-5247 or by e-mailing her at jargantheatre@playful.com.

For more information about the film, e-mail Miss Spurling at afflarefilms@mac.com or telephone her at 297-5451.