Skylark Film Festival – Bigger and better than before
Published:Saturday | October 14, 2023 | 12:08 AMDamian Levy/Gleaner Writer
For many, the Negril sunset is a beauty to behold, but this past weekend, the main attraction came after the sun went down.
In its fourth iteration, the Skylark Film Festival has grown bigger than ever before. This time delivering the most content, with a selection of 14 shorts, a feature length film, and a workshop hosted by Bradford Young. Young’s work includes the Oscar-winning film Arrival, on which he served as a director of photography, and the Emmy-winning When They See Us, on which he was a cinematographer.
The festival was curated by Gareth Cobran who expressed his satisfaction with this year’s staging. “This is the most films we have ever shown and having Bradford Young here doing the workshop, last year we had a seminar which was very informative. It was a panel with both local and foreign filmmakers. With Bradford here I feel like it was a bit of a step up. It was like one of the university workshops. Very in-depth.” Cobran told The Gleaner.
Such a display of entertainment, combined with firsthand technical know how, you’d expect a hefty price tag. Instead, the Skylark Film Festival was free of charge, with audience members only required to bring an appetite for local filmmaking.
The line-up included Joshua Paul’s most recent short film Key Love, a 2023 GATFFEST nominee, which shows the life of a pianist and single father struggling to support his child as he battles a gambling addiction. Whether it was the horror themed Lightning Bird by the distinguished Natalie Thompson, which tells a localised vampire tale, or Gemmar McFarlane’s Time To Go, which gives the audience the unique perspective of a woman living with dementia, the Skylark Film Festival catered to a myriad of tastes.
Notable at the event was also a significant presence for Jamaica’s national heroes. Just days away from National Heroes Day Black Girl In The Ring directed by Saeed Thomas told the origin story of a young Nanny of the Maroons, and Mosiah directed by Jirard, gives a powerful portrayal of Marcus Garvey.
Curating the festival was no easy feat. “The challenge is finding the local content, right? Because, you know, we only make so much of it. So I have to sift through things that have been produced long ago, things that have just been produced, but I try to curate it to how I feel my audience is going to best perceive it,” said Cobran.
The Skylark Film Festival is one of a few events of its kind that have emerged from within the film community. Like others, it has involved filmmakers becoming event organisers, which can be a challenge. “We showed Sprinter here one year and it was great. I don’t always make it every year, but I try. I was involved in a festival called Flashpoint, but to be honest it’s hard to maintain a festival in Jamaica. This is great, but we could do much more, but it can’t just be the filmmakers that are involved. Making a film itself is so time consuming, so we need support to give the work a platform,” said Director Storm Saulter, who attended the event.
With the festival reaching new heights in 2023, the question of what comes next was put to the organisers. For Cobran, the next step is not only logical, but imperative. “It has to be at least a five-day festival. Five days of films, but then a mixture of, music seminars and workshops throughout the time, and multiple spaces as well. So not just the beach, but I would love to do something at Rockhouse.”
Cobran is intent on making Skylark Film Festival not just one enjoyed by locals, but one that creates interest to the world at large. “That’s my ultimate dream, to be an international event, an annual event where people are going to come from all over.”
The festival’s closing film was Franco Rosso’s Babylon, the 1980 film which was banned at the New York Film Festival for fear of inciting racial tension. The film tells the story of young Jamaicans trying to exist in a community that doesn’t want them. If not for the Skylark Film Festival, many would never have laid eyes on it.
The Skylark Film Festival took place over the course of two days from October 6 to October 7, and was staged at the Skylark Negril Beach Resort.