Jamaican films head to T&T Film Festival

Four Jamaican flims were to premiere at the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival (TTFF) on Friday. The short films were completed under Jamaica Film and Television Association’s (JAFTA) Propella initiative with JAMPRO.

The third cohort includes Kia Moses ( Flight), Ina Sotirova ( Agwe), Kaiel Eytle ( Safe Harbour), and Mezan Morrison ( Going Down), and were set to premiere during an hour dedicated to the project at TTFF.

 The Jamaican delegation will also participate in business meetings and capitalise on networking opportunities that may lead to international distribution and exhibition of their respective films, according to a JAMPRO release.

The TTFF participation is part of the final stage of JAFTA Propella 2018, which included capacity building workshops and industry building activities to prepare the film-makers for the international market.

The programme, which began in 2016, has resulted in 10 new investment-ready Jamaican films created and eight international film festivals inviting the film-makers to exhibit their content.

To date, one project has received full funding for production, and another was selected as a finalist for the Cannes Golden Plume screenwriting contest.

 President of JAFTA Analisa Chapman said that her organisation was excited to see the films from the third instalment of JAFTA Propella-screened at this year’s staging of the TTFF, where diverse Caribbean content, including works from other JAFTA members, will be shown.

Chapman said, “Since its creation in 2016, JAFTA Propella has been a developmental short-film initiative to not only encourage and showcase strong cultural content and local talent, but to develop and hone various skill-sets, such as writing and directing, to improve the quality of the local productions not just for our programme, but for future projects. The continued and crucial support of JAMPRO and the CHASE Fund, as well as our relationship and collaboration with TTFF, will only help the programme and the development of Jamaican content grow from strength to strength.”

Film Commissioner Renee Robinson said JAMPRO is thrilled to continue its multi-year support of JAFTA Propella. She said, “Once again, the programme has outdone itself in delivering high calibre local content that demonstrates investment-readiness and exhibition viability. This initiative has resulted in a local catalogue, and has generated significant international leads through market attendance. The local content ecosystem and the demand to see our cinema are both growing. The next step is to solidify the pipeline for seeing local content on local screens by local audiences.”

Source: Jamaica Observer

Published Date: September 23rd, 2018