By : Sadeke Brooks
Source : http://jamaica-gleaner.com
Category : Film School Online
After years of giving filmmakers an outlet to show their work, some of the top films will be shown at the Best of the Reggae Film Festival.
Although the Reggae Film Festival started in February, it has changed to other months over the years for various reasons. With Reggae Month being celebrated in February, Barbara Blake Hannah, director of the festival, said a decision was made to host an event highlighting some of the best films that have been shown at the festival over the years.
In addition, "a lot of people want to see some of the good films we showed last year. We have so many films. We are trying to do this one to let everybody know what we did," Blake Hannah said, in reference to the event that will be held at Redbones Blues Café on February 18 between 7 p.m. and midnight.
Some of the films that will be shown at the event are Rocksteady - the Movie, the Rasta-reggae documentary Holding On To JAH and Dutty Bwoy.
The show, Blake Hannah said will heighten anticipation for the Reggae Film Festival that will be held from April 17 to 21.
"I think it will help a lot 'cause it will show that we are raring to go and we have good products. It has inspired the local film industry because they have somewhere to show their films," she told The Sunday Gleaner.
"You have to start somewhere and here, at last, is an opportunity. Reggae Film Festival is about film and it's about reggae. You no longer have to have a movie that opens at Carib. Reggae Film Festival has given Jamaican filmmakers a chance to make films."
better festival expected this year
Blake Hannah also said this year's film festival promises to be better. At this April's staging, she said a big-name Hollywood actor would be showing his first major feature-length production. She said there will also be a special Jamaica 50 Programme that will feature retrospective screenings of early Jamaican films, including the classic The Harder They Come, Life and Debt and short films from Chris Browne, director of Ghett'a Life and Third World Cop.
"It's really grown. We are going to Toronto and London because we have been invited. Everybody is doing it because we did," she said, boasting that there are numerous entries from Jamaican filmmakers.
"We finally get the respect due after all these years. We haven't gained a penny out of it. The film festival is something I can give to Jamaica."
But in its fifth year, Blake Hannah is really hoping for sponsorship and support, especially from the Jamaica Tourist Board.
"We are hoping that this year we are finally going to be honoured with an endorsement by the Jamaica Tourist Board. That's all we have been asking for for five years," she lamented.
Source : http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120205/ent/ent4.html
