JAFTA ‘blocks’ Carifesta
Published:Sunday | September 1, 2019 | 12:26 AM
This year, Jamaican films were in the spotlight at the Trinidad and Tobago film festival (TTFF). This year, in order to be part of Carifesta, the Caribbean Festival of the Arts, TTFF had an earlier than usual start. At this film festival within a festival (reportedly the largest cultural and artistic event ever staged in the Caribbean), Jamaica Film and Television Association secured its own ‘block’, mounting special screenings of six independently produced shorts by film-makers from Jamaica and the diaspora. More importantly, three of the projects featured in the block are being developed to take on further cinematic life.
JAFTA’s block featured Unspoken, directed by Danae Grandison and produced by Carleene Samuels; Girl on the Run, directed by Pierce McLean and produced by Tiffany Lewis; Learning to Swim, directed and produced by Krystal Dawkins; Jerk, directed by Raine Allen-Miller and produced by Ellie Fry; Sea People, directed by Stacey-Ann Sutherland and produced by S’alfrico Watson-Grant; and Haven, directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall.
“These films demonstrate not only creative talent and social activism through film-making, but the diaspora element is an example of existing and potential avenues for collaborations that can only expand and improve the local and regional film industry. This also aligns with the unifying and regional integration theme of Carifesta,” JAFTA president, Analisa Chapman, stated.
Unspoken, a short film adaptation of a book centred on infidelity and social classism ( The Bed Head by Jennifer Grahame), is currently being developed into a feature film screenplay. Sea People, which focuses on an autistic young boy, is also being developed into a feature. Finally, Girl on the Run, set in Jamaica in the 1800s, has plans to develop into an episodic series.
Though the other shorts have no expansion plans at the moment, their stories contributed to the general seriousness, emotion, and depth discovered in this collection.
Learning to Swim addresses issues surrounding co-parenting and homosexuality. Haven explores what happens when one’s biggest fears become reality, while Jerk, starring the late Count Prince Miller, stories a Jamaican man battling depression and disillusionment. “It was definitely viewed as a darker block of films, but audience members were appreciative of it and commented that the issues raised resonated with them,” Chapman added.
In addition to the JAFTA Block, TTFF featured screenings of other projects from local film-makers.
Among them were Sugar Cane, a documentary directed by Franklyn St Juste; Last Street (a Dudus documentary), directed by Spanish film-maker Amanda Sans and produced by Tammy Hart; and Ms. Sugga, an animated film, directed by Mary Wells and produced by Dr Patricia Northover.
Ghett’a Life – a Chris Browne feature – was also screened under a “classic” segment. Two of the film’s stars, Kadeem Wilson and Christopher McFarlane, were also in Trinidad and Tobago as part of the Jamaican Carifesta delegation.