Film-makers shining the spotlight on consent
Published:Thursday | November 23, 2023 | 12:08 AM
The short film project We Need to Talk About Consent (WNTTAC), written by local film-maker and Vice-President of Women in Film and Television – Jamaica, Mezan Ayoka, has emerged as one of the two official selections of Spotlight Shorts Jamaica initiative.
The Spotlight Initiative is a global multi-year initiative of the European Union and the United Nations focused on eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls, and moving the issue into the spotlight and centring efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.
As a result, the United Nations Children’s Fund will fund and collaborate with Jamaica Film and Television Association via the Spotlight Initiative.
Jamaican film-makers were invited to submit treatments and other items for short film projects that focused on the themes of gender-based family violence, such as child abuse or intimate-partner violence.
WNTTAC and A Sister’s Will, written by Neisha-Yen Jones, were the two 5- to 10-minute short film projects selected to be developed through the initiative, with a grant of up to J$1.5 million per project.
Ayoka, who also serves as director for WNTTAC, said the film focuses on female protagonist Rose, whose mental unravelling as it relates to consent is explored during her therapy sessions, as she seeks to come to terms with difficult past experiences that occurred at each developmental stage of her life.
“I’m thrilled to bring this project to life. I’m passionate about stories about women and through the Spotlight Shorts JA Initiative, we have the opportunity to tell Rose’s story. It is a difficult story, but a necessary and impactful one,” Ayoka shared.
This is so as the initiative encourages the inclusion of concepts that focus on either the female survivor experience or the male perspective on the issue of violence against women and girls (either as perpetrator or supporter of female survivor).
“I want to tell Rose’s story to help empower women. To help them know that it’s okay if they’ve been people pleasers, and it’s okay to change. It’s okay to choose themselves and find their inner strength to say ‘no’ loudly, proudly, and mean it every time,” she added.
Producer for the short film, Brianne Stewart, added that “as creatives, our pieces must bring to life the stories that, as a people, we think about but never dare speak”.
She said that the intention is to challenge and depict the various issues, such as Rose’s dilemma, through an artistic lens.
WTTNAC is currently in production through Ayoka’s media production company Ayzha Productions, which aims to produce and distribute films and TV shows that showcase a different side of Jamaican life.