Reggae Film Festival ends with high honours

The third annual Reggae Film Festival ended last Saturday at the Hilton Kingston hotel with the presentation of Honour Awards in 14 categories by Jamaica Film Academy (JFA) pioneer, actor Carl Bradshaw. These included four Special Honour Awards in the new Jamaican Cinema category to animator Coretta Singer; directors Allan 'Endless' Tennant, Kurt Fuller, Amaziyah The Great and Diana Ogilvie; and to actress/dancehall artiste Macka Diamond.

The Honour Award for International Documentary was presented to director Shizuo E.C. Ishii for
Ruff 'n' Tuff: Founders of the Immortal Riddim
, a film honouring musical greats Gladdy Anderson, Lynn Taitt, Bob Andy, Leroy Sibbles and many other members of Jamaica's musical history.
Dimaggio: The Last Don
, directed by Peter Dean Rickards, received the Jamaican Documentary Honour Award.

Honour Awards were presented to each of two entries in the 'Make A Film In 24 Hours' competition by film and TV director Rick Elgood, who commended them on their adventurous spirit as filmmakers to take up the challenge and produce interesting five-minute films in such a short time. Team one, led by Dr Noel Howell with filmmaker Jay Will, received the award for
At The Supermar-ket
, wheras team two, led by Amaziah The Great, was honoured for the entry
Ghetto Life
.

Actress Melissa Fearon was honoured for her roles in two films featured during the festival:
Not To Me
, directed by Ras Kassa, and
At The Supermarket
. Macka Diamond was acknowledged for her role in
Redemption Of Paradise
, as well as Nancy Alvarez-Pellegrini, lead actress in
A Dance For Grace
. Orville Matherson was the Honoured actor for his role in
A Dance For Grace
. Other notable mentions were DJ Singy Singy in
Concrete Jungle
,
Kingston 12
and Mark Gibbs in
Wah Do Dem
.

The J-American feature film,
A Dance for Grace
, received the Jamaican Feature Film Honour Award.

The American feature
Wah Do Dem
won the International Feature Film Honour Award.

The Honour Award for Caribbean Culture was presented to Dr Howell for his entry,
Redemption of Paradise
, which was filmed in Antigua. An Honour Award for International Culture was presented to Musical Circus Productions of Hawaii for its entry,
11 Miles To Paradise
.

Marcia Forbes, CEO of Phase 3 film and television production company, was inducted as a new pioneer member of the Jamaica Film Academy. In accepting the presentation from fellow pioneer Carl Bradshaw, Forbes pledged her commitment to achieving the JFA objectives to support and improve the Jamaican film industry.

25 films screened

Twenty-five films were screened over four nightly programmes of features, documentaries, music videos, animation and an afternoon children's programme. For the first time in its three-year history, the Reggae Film Festival entries included 10 films by Jamaican filmmakers.

The festival also included a seminar on the development of the Jamaican film industry. Among the speakers were Barbara Blake Hannah, executive director of the JFA, and Dr Michael Barnett from the University of the West Indies' Department of Culture.

'A Dance For Grace' received the Jamaican Feature Film Honour Award at the Reggae Film Festival last weekend at the Hilton Kingston. Representing the film, from left, are actor/co-producer Orville Matherson, executive producer Joan Edwards and Junior Powell, screenwriter/director.

For the first time in its three-year history, the Reggae Film Festival entries included 10 films by Jamaican filmmakers.