Film is a Living, Breathing Thing: The Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival, June 2 – 6, 2015

I recently took tea with Barbara Blake Hannah, cultural activist and consultant, filmmaker, writer, former Senator, blogger, mother, devout Rastafarian. Yes, all of the above!

Barbara speaks in a low voice. She sips her tea. We commiserate with each over our lingering “chik v” pains. She has an air of quiet dignity, but just under the surface is a dry sense of humor, a sharp intellect. Once she starts talking about her life and career in film (all kinds of famous names falling from her lips) she becomes animated. The words flow swiftly. I scribble in my notebook, barely able to keep up.

Taking tea with Barbara at Tea Tree Creperie… and our initials in chocolate! (Photo: C. Quizz Sigurdson)

But we were sitting in Kingston’s Tea Tree Creperie to talk about the Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival, to take place from June 2 – 6 in Ocho Rios. The Jamaica Film Academy which is organizer of the Festival, is now inviting entries (see details below). 

The Island Village is a comfortable and relaxed shopping and entertainment space in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. (Photo: Barbara Blake Hannah/Facebook)

The venue for the 2015 Festival is the Island Village Shopping and Entertainment Mall in the heart of the resort town of Ocho Rios. It is home to the Reggae Xplosion interactive tech exhibition of Jamaica’s reggae music history, and the nine-foot statue of Bob Marley by Jamaican artist Christopher González. I personally love this statue. The shops, boutiques, restaurants and bars of Island Village surround a broad lawn and a wide stage on which the festival films are screened, as well as an indoor cinema. The Festival is expected to enhance and promote more visitors to the parish of St. Ann – a lovely area.

Just a little historical note: Barbara co-founded the very first film festival in Jamaica in August 1974. It was a concept she developed with the glamorous African American film star Vonetta McGee, whom Barbara calls the “Halle Berry of the ‘blaxploitation’ era.” 

The lovely Vonetta McGee provided major support for Jamaica’s first film festival in 1974.

This was just two years after the release of the iconic “The Harder They Come.”  Then Prime Minister Michael Manley and his wife Beverley were enthusiastic patrons. The festival opening at the Carib in Kingston was truly a “who’s who” of black Hollywood stars of the seventies, including Jim Brown (a former football player turned successful actor, who starred in a number of action movies); Gloria Hendry (the first African American to become romantically involved with 007!); Sam Greenlee (author of “The Spook Who Sat By the Door,” which later became a cult movie of that era of African American movies); singer/actress Rosalind Cash, who later had a successful career in television; and many more, including Jamaica’s biggest film star at the time Esther Anderson, who had just co-starred in “A Warm December” with Sidney Poitier. It was a fascinating period in Hollywood, and the start of something great in Jamaica, too. The following year, the State Cinema in Cross Roads was packed, Barbara tells me. Success followed on success.

The Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival was re-launched in Kingston’s Emancipation Park in February 2008 – during the first Reggae Month established by the Jamaican Ministry of Culture. Twenty films were screened over three days; six Jamaican film pioneers were honored. The Festival has grown each year, with entries from Jamaica, the USA, Canada, England, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Italy, Austria, Brazil, Israel and Hawaii. This year’s Festival will include live music presentations, seminars, a book fair, a student film training program and awards in several categories. There will be the usual powerful mix of feature, documentary and animated films showcasing Jamaica’s culture and history; films from the black diaspora; and special international entries.

In 2013 the Reggae Film Festival paid special tribute to Jamaican actress Madge Sinclair, among other women in film.

There have been many innovative features of the Festival in the past few years. In 2013 there was a special focus on Jamaican Women in Film. In 2010 the Make a Film in 24 Hours competition was introduced, allowing new filmmakers to test their skills. And this year’s Festival has much to offer. It will celebrate the “James Bond connection.” The first Bond film, “Dr. No” was filmed in Jamaica and so were two other Bond movies; author Ian Fleming wrote “Dr. No” and many of his other novels at Goldeneye in Oracabessa, just down the road from the Film Festival. There have also been three Jamaican “Bond girls” (Grace Jones, Marguerite Lewars and Martine Beswick – do you know which films they appeared in, I wonder?)

“Dr. No,” the first James Bond film starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, was filmed in Jamaica.

And there is always the reggae connection, flowing through the Festival’s activities. In honor of Bob Marley’s seventieth birthday this year, there will be a teaser for the Festival in February (his birth month and Reggae Month) with a screening of award-winning films in the “Best of the Fest” – a spinoff from the Festival which has screened overseas in previous years. Details to follow soon.

An important feature of the Festival this year is a new collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI) through its Community Film Project. The Greater August Town Film Festival, spearheaded by Professor Ian Boxill, encourages creative filmmaking in the St. Andrew community. There will be a program of activities, including seminars and film projects in Ocho Rios. For more details on the August Town project, see their website at http://gatffest.com/

Jamaica-born filmmaker Roy T. Anderson capturing footage for his film, ‘Akwantu – The Journey’, on location at the Peace Cave in Accompong, St Elizabeth. The film was screened at the 2013 Reggae Film Festival in Ocho Rios. (Photo: Paul Williams/Gleaner)

The UWI/August Town connection is important because Barbara is convinced that film is about and for the people. It is not something to be put away in a museum; she worries about the condition of Jamaica’s film archives, which are stored downtown “below sea level.” Despite the Festival’s challenges – and there have been many – she believes in what she is doing. She knows, from experience, that once the right people are put together, the artistic energy generated helps directors, actors, audience achieve that special bond. This is what takes place in creative spaces. And let’s face it, Jamaicans are so good at it.

“Film is a living, breathing thing,” Barbara says. Even in the digital age, it is as much about people as it ever was.

Are you an aspiring or established filmmaker, whether in Jamaica or overseas? Entry forms for the Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival  are available on submission of a trailer, synopsis and director’s biography to the festival email address: reggaefilmfestival@gmail.com. More details at http://jamediapro8.wix.com/reggae-film-festival. You can also find updates on the Reggae Film Festival Facebook page and contact them at (876) 587-3800 and at P.O. Box 727, Kingston 6, Jamaica.