‘Bob Marley: One Love’ cast performs at Skylark Film Festival

On any given day, strolling down the 7 Mile Beach in Negril reveals the usual beach bars and jerk grills. But once a year, tourists and locals enjoy an exclusive selection of films at the Skylark Film Festival. Hosted for the fifth year at Skylark Negril Beach Resort, Max Glazer and Gareth Cobran serve as host and curator, offering the event free of cost.

“The idea was to make it feel more spectacular. We have a lot more props in the space to give you a more visual representation of the festival itself. Everything is very intentional and on theme toward the festival,” Cobran told The Gleaner.

This year, the event ran for two days, beginning on Friday, September 27, and ending on Saturday, September 28. While last year’s staging spread its selection throughout the festival, the short films were limited to day one and covered a variety of subjects.

Origins, written and directed by Kurt Wright, featured figures of Jamaican folklore like Annie Palmer in a fantasy adventure spanning time and space. Jenna In Law directed by Jesane Jackson comically chronicled a young woman’s desperate attempts to make ends meet. Ignorance Is A Lifestyle directed by Third World Cop director Chris Browne, demonstrated the limitations of a life of crime. The feature film closing the first night was Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s When Morning Comes, taking viewers on the emotional journey of a young boy leaving behind all he knows for the unfamiliar wilds of Canada.

While the other shorts had been screened elsewhere, Stinky Mango, directed by Ina Sotirova, premiered at the Skylark Film Festival. The film portrays a widower struggling with grief, leading to a strained relationship with his only child. Director Sotirova and lead actor Sheldon Shepherd engaged the audience in a brief Q&A, sharing their process of bringing the story to life. The film serves as a starting point for the director’s feature-length project, Mango Magic.

A standout feature for all the films was the cinema grade quality of each short. The stories being projected by the seaside were in high definition, with crisp sound and video, that maintained their effectiveness despite occasional moments of technical difficulties.

Speaking on the selection, Cobran stated that cultural relevance and quality were paramount in curation. “The process of selecting the films is difficult because there’s a balance to strike. You want to tell stories that properly represent the culture, but not all are done in the best way. You have to decide what the standard is and what’s the balance between how good it is and how best it represents the culture.”

FILMMAKING AS A BUSINESS

The emphasis was on inspiration for creatives, but for the second day of the event, the festival also made space for filmmaking as a business.

For the grand finale, Bob Marley: One Love was screened, followed by an engaging Q&A with cast members Sheldon Shepherd, Sevana, Naomi Cowan, Alexx A-Game, and Quan Dajai – who portrayed Neville Garrick, Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, Peter Tosh, and young Bob Marley, respectively – as they shared behind-the-scenes insights.

Filmmaker Nadean Rawlins threw out the first question to Cowan, regarding her experience acting with British-Jamaican actress Lashana Lynch. “Lashana was a gem. I would say working with her taught me so much about the beauty and strength and power of being comfortable in your own skin. I wish there was more behind the scenes footage published because the amount of laugh we laugh in between takes,” Cowan shared.

At one point, Alexx A-Game was asked about his reduced role as Peter Tosh, and how he felt as the scenes he performed did not make it into the final cut of the film. “Being a part of this film, it has been an amazing experience from start to this point. Including the chopping. The moment you enter into a situation, the blessing comes, but you don’t get to decide how it comes ... I got to work with some of the most amazing people in film. I got to embody a role and a character that I’ve dreamt of without even knowing that it was coming.”

Following the session, the panellists took the stage for an electrifying concert led by frontman Sheldon Shepherd, backed by the Roots Outlaw Band. Their powerful performances captivated the audience and brought the festival to a thrilling close.

When asked about next year’s staging, Cobran said: “We already have plans for next year. One is to go into a third day because we want to do documentaries. We’re also trying to have more seminars, and more panels. Definitely would love to give a presence to animation. We’d love to show the whole gamut of the film industry in Jamaica and show people what’s possible.”

Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com