Jamaica’s ‘Reggae Films’ – A New Genre
“Whether they love Roots&Culture, Reggae, Ska, Dub, Rockers, Dancehall or Lovers Rock, music lovers around the world welcome the works of film makers who have used Jamaica’s music in a variety of ways that pay homage to the strength and endearing quality of its creation. Long may this trend continue.”
The enormous potential income to be made from films depicting aspects of Jamaican culture must be considered at a time when Jamaicans are being emboldened by the easy access and use of digital film making equipment to become film makers. Almost overnight Reggae Films featuring Jamaica’s music and culture have been recognized as a new and exciting new genre and film festivals around the world have begun scheduling Reggae films as special features of their event’s programme. Jamaica joins Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood as centers of a unique film genre and Jamaican film makers now have ample opportunities to make and distribute their films to a global audience hungry for cinematic views of the unique culture.
This all did not happen overnight. Perry Henzell’s 1972 movie THE HARDER THEY COME became popular because it was the world’s first look at the Rasta Reggae culture in which the film was set. THTC started an indigenous Jamaican film industry when it was made. Several attempts were made in the 70s to follow Henzell’s lead but it took two or three more decades for that objective to be achieved, and it happened slowly and almost invisibly. Ted Bafaloukas’ ROCKERS – the tale of ghetto reggae musicians turned Robin Hoods–was the next Reggae Film, while Dickie Jobson’s COUNTRYMAN tapped into the image of Jamaica as an exotic haven of ganja, guns and tourists. Failures like Calvin Lockhart’s EVERY N*GGER IS A STAR, and THE MARIJUANA AFFAIR with National Security Minister Dudley Thompson playing a police chief, did not deter the efforts.
FILMS MEAN MONEY
Films mean money, so people kept making films, hoping to make money. Before becoming a successful politician,lawyer Laurie Broderick tried his hand at film production with KLA$H starring Black American stars Jasmine Guy and Giancarlo Esposito, with Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw.Having tasted success with his HARDER THEY COME music partnership, record mogul Chris Blackwell established Palm Pictures thatproduced3 Jamaican films including THE LUNATIC, DANCE HALL QUEEN and THIRD WORLD COP — the most financially successful and longest-running Jamaican film ever. But somehow the efforts attracted little international attention or distribution.
Film making was not restricted to Jamaicans. The plum film making prize for many Jamaicans was a job on a foreign feature film, beginning with productions in the 1960s including DOCTOR NO (1962) with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, and A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA (1964) starring Anthony Quinn and James Coburn. In the 80s a flock of foreign films used Jamaica as a scenic backdrop, including CLUB PARADISE with Robin Williams, Peter O’Toole and Jimmy Cliff, COCKTAIL with Tom Cruise, CLARA’S HEART with Whoopie Goldberg and THE MIGHTY QUINN starring Denzel Washington. Impressive names, and a lot of good work done promoting Jamaica’s vacation paradise, but nothing that gave a feeling of full pride in describing a ‘Jamaican film industry’.
MUSIC VIDEOS
Then everything seemed to change positively in an instant, due to several important facts. Firstly, the need for music videos to promote the prolific reggae music industry, led to the development of a small cadre of music videographers led by RasKassa, Jay Will and Nordia Rose whose works could be classified as award-worthy mini-movies displaying creativity and competence.
Then English-Jamaican film writer/producer Paul Bucknor moved to Jamaica with the fortune he made from British blockbuster THE FULL MONTY and started Firefly Films to finance the careers of three young Jamaican film geniuses: the Saulter brothers Storm and Nile, and Joel Burke. This produced two exciting new films: THE CANDY STORE and BETTA MUS’ COME, each of which showed a fresh approach to storytelling and film making. Inspired by them, a new breed of young film makers armed with digital cameras and computer editing suites emerged onto the film landscape.
REGGAE FILM FESTIVAL
Then came the catalyst, when Peter Gittins – a young Englishman with a deep love of reggae music – started collecting all the films he could find that featured reggae in some way, whether as soundtrack or as documentary subject. He found there were scores of films, mostly made by non-Jamaican lovers of reggae and including several feature films and excellent documentaries. By collecting the best of these and showing the potential, he persuaded me to use my film festival organizing skills to produce a festival of reggae-themed films. Under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture’s first Reggae Month and with the help of several sponsors, the first Reggae Film Festival took place at Emancipation Park under a full moon eclipse on February 22, 2008.
The impact of the Reggae Film Festival went beyond the event’s success and the good vibe it generated in the local film industry. News of the Festival travelled to all the countries whose films were represented. These included Germany’s endearing feature film ALMOST HEAVEN; the amusing Rasta road trip ROOTS TIME from Argentinia; JepJorba of Spain’s reggae biography of RICO RODRIQUES – THE LEGEND; the USA/JA collaborations of KLA$H with Bill Parker and ERIE RANGLIN: ROOTS OF REGGAE from Arthur Gorson, and films from Canada and the UK as well as the Jamaican films COUNTRYMAN and STEPPING RAZOR – RED X by Dickie and Wayne Jobson. Blogs, websites and magazines on reggae picked up the story, many publishing articles about the films and film makers, generating interest in Jamaican film making.
ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF REGGAE FILMS
Almost overnight, the world has woken up to the fact that Jamaica’s reggae music has inspired a new genre of films that have earned their own classification. The film makers may have been born here or there, but what has inspired them has been the heartbeat music of Jamaica’s reggae. In the years since the first Reggae Film Festival, several Reggae films have been completed or are in production, including Antigua’s PASSION IN PARADISE starring Macka Diamond. Also worthy of mention is film maker Rick Elgood’s successful documentary TV series THE JOLLY BOYS that has been welcomed by the Reggae film circuit.
While we all hope for a flourishing of Jamaican creative art in film, especially films for the Jamaican Diaspora, the global trend for Rasta Reggae culture provides a sure means of accessing the pockets of film makers in countries around the world.
Whether they love Roots&Culture Reggae, Ska, Dub, Rockers, Dancehall or Lovers Rock, music lovers around the world welcome the works of film makers who have used Jamaica’s music in a variety of ways that pay homage to the strength and endearing quality of its creation. Long may this trend continue.
Clearly, things can only get better for the Jamaican film industry.
Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah – Director: Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival
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