Marina Bland at Ragged Island
A Journey to Rebuild an Island
Global Resiliency, co-founded by Community Development Specialist Marina Bland, set out to reimagine what a small Bahamian island could become. C&I Studios traveled to Ragged Island to capture their journey: Marina’s vision to build a sustainable resort that would serve the community, create opportunity, and honor the culture already rooted there.
Ragged Island has long been a haven for fishermen: quiet, remote, and rich with potential. We documented the work as Marina and her team partnered with the people who call it home, working to revitalize the island while preserving the traditions, the craft, and the way of life that make it singular.
Marina Bland at Ragged Island
A Journey to Rebuild an Island
Global Resiliency, co-founded by Community Development Specialist Marina Bland, set out to reimagine what a small Bahamian island could become. C&I Studios traveled to Ragged Island to capture their journey: Marina’s vision to build a sustainable resort that would serve the community, create opportunity, and honor the culture already rooted there.
Ragged Island has long been a haven for fishermen: quiet, remote, and rich with potential. We documented the work as Marina and her team partnered with the people who call it home, working to revitalize the island while preserving the traditions, the craft, and the way of life that make it singular.
A Vision Takes Root
Marina Bland arrived on Ragged Island with a clear purpose: to build something lasting alongside the community, not on top of it. Our cameras followed her first days on the island, capturing the conversations, the introductions, and the early groundwork of a project designed to grow with the people it serves.
For Marina, the work started with listening. Before a single plan was drawn, she spent time with the fishermen, the families, and the elders who know the island best, learning what Ragged Island needed and what it wanted to preserve. That foundation shaped everything that followed, and our team was there to capture it as it happened.
A Haven for Fishermen
Life on Ragged Island moves with the water. Generations have made their living from the sea, and that rhythm shapes everything here. We filmed the fishermen at work and the families who process the day’s catch, grounding the story of the project in the culture it set out to protect.
The island sits at the southern edge of the Bahamas, remote enough that the waters around it remain some of the richest fishing grounds in the region. For the people who live here, the sea is not a backdrop. It is the economy, the tradition, and the reason the community has held on through storms and hard seasons alike.
Marina treated that connection as the foundation to build on, never something to work around. Every part of the plan was measured against a simple question: does this protect the way of life that makes Ragged Island what it is? Our footage follows that thread, the boats coming in and the quiet moments back on shore.
Building With the Community
Every step of the project was a partnership. Marina and the Global Resiliency team worked directly with residents, listening first and building second. We captured those moments of collaboration: the planning, the labor, and the shared belief that the island’s future should belong to the people who live there.
From the salinas to the shoreline, our team documented the scale of the work and the spirit behind it, creating a visual record that honors both the ambition of the project and the community at its center.
Building With the Community
Every step of the project was a partnership. Marina and the Global Resiliency team worked directly with residents, listening first and building second. We captured those moments of collaboration: the planning, the labor, and the shared belief that the island’s future should belong to the people who live there.
From the salinas to the shoreline, our team documented the scale of the work and the spirit behind it, creating a visual record that honors both the ambition of the project and the community at its center.
A Future Made Together
The aim was never to remake Ragged Island, only to strengthen it. Marina and the Global Resiliency team worked shoulder to shoulder with residents, turning a shared vision into something the community could carry forward. We captured that momentum, proof that thoughtful growth and local culture can rise together.
A sustainable resort is only sustainable if the people around it benefit. That meant local hiring, local materials wherever possible, and a design that respects the island rather than imposing on it. The project was built to create opportunity that stays on Ragged Island instead of leaving with the tide.
What emerges on screen is more than a construction story. It is a portrait of a community shaping its own future, with a partner who came to listen first. C&I Studios was there to document every step, and to give that story the telling it deserves.