Black River Film Festival début makes way for aspiring filmmakers
Published:Thursday | July 4, 2024 | 12:06 AMDamian Levy/Gleaner Writer
When it comes to film festivals in Jamaica, you’re likely to find them held in the usual spaces. Kingston is the place to be for JAFTA’s The Shot List, and for the annual staging of GATFFEST. On the west coast you can find film fanatics at the Skylark Film Festival, with this year’s event taking place in September. Simply put, unless it’s a tourist hotspot or a dense population centre, your chances of celebrating film with fellow enthusiasts and artists are slim. That is until this year’s inaugural staging of the Black River Film Festival.
It all began with a dream. Festival Director Dr Ava Brown, tired of travelling back and forth to various festivals to showcase her projects, sought to create an outlet in her own hometown. “Black River is such a historic storytelling place. The first to get electricity in this part of the world even before New York. So much has happened historically in Black River. And so I thought why not Black River? Because it also needs reviving. For somewhere so historically opulent I thought, well I’m a writer, I’m from St Elizabeth, and along my travels I’ve met some amazing people, so I called them up and said, ‘let’s do this’,” Brown told The Gleaner.
With determination and help from a few friends, the three-day event showcased films, filmmakers, and industry insiders, including film producer Justine Henzell; film commissioner Jackie Jackson; content creator Juliet ‘Julie Mango’ Bodley; actress and producer Sundra Oakley; comedian Angie Le Mar; Game of Thrones actor Marcos James; Commonwealth book prize winner Kwame McPherson; Bob Marley: One Love actor Cornelius Grant; poet and feminist Staceyann Chin; President of the St Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce, Black River Chapter, Kaydian Myers-Brown, and Member of Parliament Floyd Green.
When asked why the setting of the festival was so important, Jackie Jackson said, “You’re asking a girl who was born in Manchester, went to school in St Elizabeth and Manchester, and who didn’t have any representation growing up of the creative industry in the country, or a showcasing of Jamaican creatives and their work. [This festival provides that much-needed platform].”
Whether attending Marcos James’ masterclass or the ‘Women in Film’ panel discussion, the event offered diverse segments for all, with a special focus on young attendees.
The first day of the festival, held at St Elizabeth Technical High School, featured discussions like ‘No Gatekeeping: Gen Z’s Path to Film through Social Media’. The information was not only relevant, but made accessible for students who were able to attend the day’s events free of charge. Most film festivals provide ample material aimed towards the development of budding creatives, but the Black River Film Festival took things a step further, creating emphasis on how a person of any age can take their passion and turn it into a profit.
A segment of the show was dedicated to Youth Film submissions, where young filmmakers showcased their work. Often, the Jamaican film industry leans toward violent themes, but the short films by these young entrants broke the norm. They told stories of time travel, a love of nature, and, in the case of first-place winner Bryce-Anthony Wynter, a heroism tale with his film Carnapped, made entirely with toy cars and action figures, and without a word of dialogue.
With funding an ever-discussed issue among creatives, the film commissioner spoke about how she intends to bridge the gap between imagination and industry. “So what I’m learning from this is what the gaps are. Now I’m going to be collaborating with JAFTA a little closer because I now know we need workshops, along with JIPO, about intellectual property, how do you get a chain of title ready, what is a chain of title, and why it’s important for financing. We can’t be disingenuous, because the ecosystem has never been there to teach our creatives how to be business people,” Jackson said.
At Cloggy’s on the Beach, the festival illuminated the path to a vibrant and accessible local filmmaking industry. It also celebrated successful filmmakers, offering them a platform to showcase their stories and work. Awards were presented to the submitted films, with The Book of Love, directed by Anderson West – a tale of romance through shared literature – winning Best Film and Best Screenplay. A Shade of Indigo, directed by Hanif James and drawing inspiration from the Oscar-winning film Moonlight, received the award for Best Cinematography.
Through it all, a feel-good energy permeated the festival, even during its most challenging moments. At one point, when technical difficulties caused a lull, Julie Mango spontaneously led an impromptu ‘dance’, accompanied by hype man Cornelius Grant. Panellists and speakers, who had initially appeared formal and poised, joined them on stage, revealing their fun side in a lively freestyle session.
When asked about the next staging of the festival, Brown said, “We have to respect what came before, and so every year that Calabash is not on, we will be, because we don’t want to take away from what was here before us.”
Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.