NASSAU, Bahamas -- Among the Hollywood style glitz and glamour of the 2009 Bahamas International Film Festival's opening night gala reception, Bahamian songbird Ithalia Johnson will be taking centre stage as part of the night's first class entertainment.

Following the opening night film 'Children of God' on December 11th, the party moves to Atlantis Royal Towers, “The Great Halls of Water” at 10pm for the gala reception.

Ithalia Johnson was born in Nassau Bahamas over the hill, on Blue Hill Road. At the age of thirteen her family moved to Harbour Island, where she resides now. At the age of twelve Ithalia started writing stories. She would sit listening to her mother and writing stories. Those early days lit the fire for writing and made clear the fact that writing brings clarity and helps with communicating.
 
In the middle of Nursing School in Brattleboro Vermont Ithalia became a singer. Writing music was the perfect environment to nourish a storyteller. Ithalia taught herself to play guitar and became a prolific songwriter. She wrote herself into several production deals, including one with Eric Foster White (Hi-Five, Whitney Houston) and Lost Highway Records (Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams).

Ithalia has lived and played extensively in London, Florida, Boulder Colorado and New York City. Ithalia has written five volumes of poetry, many albums and is currently finishing a novel that is based in the Bahamas.

This past summer, Christian scored the original soundtrack for the television series "Majority Rules" for Teletoon and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This exciting new young adult series features live action and animation technologies that promise to draw viewers of all ages. In the summer of 2008, Christian scored his first full length feature film "Carver" which was released late in 2008 and hopes to make a broader move into the world of music for feature films over the years to come. In 2007 Christian won a "Best Cinema in Flight" Moebius Award for the global Aids awareness campaign "A Time to Deliver" which was broadcast worldwide from the Sky Dome in Toronto.

Christian has received critical acclaim from NOW magazine as somebody to watch out for.
 
Composing accomplishments aside, as a recording artist, Christian has worked with internationally acclaimed, award winning vocalist "Celine Dion", Platinum recording artist "Edwin" formerly lead singer of the rock band "I Mother Earth", and Platinum recording artist and inspirational native Canadian first peoples spokesperson "Susan Aglukark".

Diamond and Platinum awarded record sales and an association with Sony Music Canada have elevated Christians profile to were it is today and although playing live seems to be somewhat of a luxury for him these days due to long hours behind a recording desk, he is very excited to have the honor of performing alongside Ithalia Johnson at the Bahamas International Film Festival this year.
 
Christian is also an accomplished instructor of music. Eli Kassner of the Toronto Guitar Academy and the "at the time" Headmaster of the University of Toronto's Music Department is his long time mentor and after his studies through the University in both Classical Guitar Performance and Composition and Harmony he began teaching at the Guitar Academy where he was endorsed by the Guitar Society of Toronto.
 
For more information on tickets please call 356-5939.

www.bintlfilmfest.com
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December 10-17, 2009