Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
AT THE heart of every great film is a good story. And sometimes a good story can lay battered, beaten and bruised at the heart of a bad film. We watch movies, cartoons and serials because of the stories involved, whether they suck us in with their inanity, dazzle us with brilliance or simply compel us with the mysteries they delve into.
So, at the core of filmmaking is great storytelling. "One has to start by writing a story that is worth being watched," said writer/director, Chris Browne, and anyone who has spent time watching a film that felt as though it had been devised by the devil as a rare kind of punishment, would agree with him. Browne made this statement on the eve of his winning the 2006 Hartley-Merrill International Scriptwriting Prize with Ghett'a Life last week.
Indeed, by earning this award Browne once again finds himself in a position to turn international attention toward the Jamaican film industry as it attempts to evolve from its zygotic state, grow legs and dream of wings.
His first came when he defended Third World Cop, which had been screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 1999. Third World Cop was Browne's first feature film and it had been preceded by a string of short films, including the adaptation of Olive Senior's Country of the One Eyed God and Entry Denied.
"I would have thought that with the success of Third World Cop we would have had more films being made," Browne said. He is not the only one looking at the dust of the dust of those dreams which arose in the late 1990s when the Jamaican film industry seemed to finally be coming into its own.
FINANCIAL CAP
As Browne explained, the industry's growth has been significantly hampered by what he describes as the "financial cap" which governs movie-making attempts in Jamaica. Interestingly, he also pointed to a lack of scriptwriters as another of these ills. So Browne's win points more to a weakness rather than strength of the Jamaican film industry.
Production manager, Natalie Thompson, of Cinecom Productions Limited, was one of the local judges for the Hartley-Merrill competition, as entrants have to be judged locally before being sent to the international panel. She explained that fewer than 10 complete scripts were submitted. "What it shows is that we're very weak in the writing area and that is where an industry is born," she said. It is an indictment that has been made before.
As Thompson pointed out, scripts have a set format and those which veer from the conventions are very rarely considered. Indeed, the Hartley-Merrill competition insists on entrants sticking with this format. Thompson noted that Trevor Rhone is Jamaica's only consistent scriptwriter. She argued that a lack of discipline and ignorance about scriptwriting conventions are a part of what is keeping us back.
GET A LIFE
But for some, Ghett'a Life might have too familiar a ring to it. The film's name plays on its focus on life in the ghetto and the desire to 'get a life'. So Ghett'a Life plays with the images that have so far been most successful in Jamaican film, gritty portrayals of life in Kingston's inner city. Since The Harder They Come the magnetic pull of ghetto tale has continued to hold sway and has manifested in Dancehall Queen, Third World Cop, Shottas and Rude Boy. Thompson explained, though, that Ghett'a Life is a very positive film which explores the "stupidness" of living in a politically divided world.
The Hartley-Merrill prize is currently in its 16th year, having been endowed in 1989 by RKO chairman and CEO, Ted Hartley, and vice-chairman, Dina Merrill. Last year, the prize was won by Brian O'Malley and Terry McMahon of Ireland with their screenplay, Sisk. In addition to the joy of earning accolades, the win is important because it increases a film's chances of being made.
Indeed, Browne expressed the hope that winning would not only increase the chances of his film seeing the dazzling light of big screen, but would also encourage other persons to try their hand at writing interesting stories and getting them made into movies.
NO WRITERS
Tanya Davies, who is coordinating a scriptwriting summer course at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, argued that Jamaica's problem is not merely that there are no writers. "It's not that there are no writers; it's just not a supportive environment," she said. Davies explained that in the First World fellowships and grants are created to allow writers the space to engage with their craft, but that does not exist here.
Browne took this argument even further and pointed out that the Jamaican environment, though it makes a beautiful backdrop for foreign films, has not attempted to nurture the growth of an indigenous industry. "I don't think there's any kind of fostering of the film industry," he said.
Interestingly, filmmakers remain positive about the possibilities for the Jamaican film industry. Though Third World Cop found itself heavily pirated, Browne believes that there are ways to minimise the impact of piracy. He noted that Third World Cop repeated Dancehall Queen's mistake by opening in Jamaica months before making it to the Caribbean diaspora markets. He noted that this gave DVD privateers significant room to distribute their bootleg versions to the United States and England. "It's how you market it before the pirates get to it," he said.
Thompson also believes that the industry is ready to move to a bigger league. "We are ready and it (the opportunity) may pass us and leave us," she said. "If we don't do it now and get involved it will pass us and the younger generation will not have learnt," Thompson continued.
She noted that the biggest hurdle was still convincing investors that film is not as risky a venture as it seems. Hopefully, they too will catch on to the lure of the video light and more writers will creep from the woodwork, ask Jack Mandora's pardon and let their tales be heard.
