Owning Our Future- Haitian Perspective films accepted into Jamaican film festival

June 22, 2015

Owning Our Future films ‘Ghetto Green, Ghetto Clean,’ ‘Threading the Needle’ & ‘Brave The World’ accepted into this year’s GATFFEST Film Festival, June 25-28, Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica.  

GATFFEST 2015

On Friday, the Centre for Tourism and Policy Research of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, launched the Greater August Town Film Festival (GATFFEST) 2015 at its Western Jamaica Campus (WJC) in Montego Bay, St James. The film festival is to be held from June 25-28 jointly in Montego Bay and Kingston.

Dubbed “the biggest community film festival in the Caribbean” GATFFEST, which was initiated in 2012 in August Town, St Andrew, serves as a platform to showcase films produced by underserved communities participating in the UWI’s Community Film Project.

Activities during the four-day event include film workshops and screening of local, regional and international short films, along with an awards ceremony. June 26 is slated as Film Day in Montego Bay.

Diverse Cultures

Ian Boxill, professor of management studies and director, Centre for Tourism and Policy Research, indicated that 72 film submissions have been received so far from inside and outside Jamaica. The entries reflect not only the diverse cultures of and entertainment fare from those countries, but their way of life.

“We have a wide cross sections of films from drama to animation, comedy, sci-fi, documentaries … . It is really diverse. Films have been submitted from all continents except Africa , so we have a good variety,” said Professor Boxill.

He expressed optimism that just over 20 students from western Jamaica will be trained in filmmaking at the WJC in the upcoming school year.

Kadeem Wilson, GATFFEST brand ambassador and who plays a central role in the feature film Ghett-a-Life , said while persons such as Usain Bolt and Tessanne Chin have helped the world to be in tune with Brand Jamaica, the principals in the filmmaking industry keep “missing the boat”.

“There are so many projects, film projects, that we have missed the boat so many times in getting it to be shot on Jamaican soil. For example Home Again, which is an entirely Jamaican script and entirely Jamaican, but it was not shot here. It was shot in Trinidad and Tobago. So you understand the concern, the concern is that so many times you have a major project that is authentically Jamaican, it is not being shot here, ” said Wilson.

He said local film industry stakeholders need to bring in experts from overseas to give them insight on how to develop the Hollywood look, improving the cinematography and audio. Wilson said that GATFFEST is a move in the right direction.

“I am very proud of GATTFEST and very happy to be a part of this initiative. It has really shown us that we need to come together and hold our industry in our hand and walk with it and get everyone engaged and involved,” said Wilson.

Acting director of UWI, WJC, Patrick Prendergast, said the community film project has provided the campus with another opportunity to develop the region’s intellectual capacity and empower the youth.

“We are always very delighted to be part of these events. Certainly it helps us to move closer and deeper into these communities,” he said.

Related Posts:

War is a Racket! by The Department of Homeland Inspiration – featuring the Art Ranger and Michael Sheridan

War is a Racket! by The Department of Homeland Inspiration – featuring the Art Ranger and Michael Sheridan

Art Ranger, along with her colleague Michael Sheridan, review “War is a Racket” by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. This highly decorated war hero becomes dogged activist and tours the country giving speeches about how he was in effect, a bully for the corporations, then quit.  Art Ranger and Sheridan share excerpts of the text as well as a piece of their minds. Sonic textures provided by our back up band, The Dirty Pens.

ON THE MEDIA | Disrupting Journalism: How Platforms Have Upended the News, Columbia Journalism Review

ON THE MEDIA | Disrupting Journalism: How Platforms Have Upended the News, Columbia Journalism Review

After decades of shrinking revenues, and an increasing expectation among consumers that journalism should be free, the global media industry has reached a crisis point. As legacy news outlets shut down or lay off staff, misinformation and conspiracy theories run rampant, blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Trust in our institutions of governance continues to decline, fueling an alarming rise in extremism and political violence across previously stable democracies. In the Global South, the impact of journalism’s decline has been even more striking, with the rise of a new generation of autocrats skilled in manipulating the online conversation to suit their consolidation of power.

ON THE MEDIA | Meet the Next Generation of Mexican Filmmakers, Global Press Journal

ON THE MEDIA | Meet the Next Generation of Mexican Filmmakers, Global Press Journal

After the 1994 [Zapatista] uprising, a boom in documentary films focused on indigenous themes and communities — but the overwhelming majority, Sojob says, were made by people from outside the state. Her own interest in storytelling began when, using a camera that her father gave her, she recorded an ongoing land conflict between the people of Chenalhó and the neighboring town of Chalchihuitán. Unless there was some sort of testimony, she realized, no one would know what was happening, “that it was us, ourselves, who had to get out everything that was happening within, from our own context, from our community.”

0 Comments