4 months ago
27
Tastefully written and touchingly acted, Sugar Dumplin is a short Jamaican film about a sensitive subject, dementia. It deserves to win an award or two at some of the film festivals its producers are aiming for.
Having premièred the film at the Pan African Film & Arts Festival earlier this month in Los Angeles, the producers – Mid-Career Productions, Humanity Ova Vanity and C. Camille Entertainment – had two screenings in Jamaica over the weekend. One was on Friday in the Bob Marley Museum Theatre on Hope Road and the other at Sunken Gardens, Hope Gardens. The film is also being submitted to the Sundance, Cannes, ABFF and Essence film festivals, among others.
At Friday’s special showing for the press and sponsors, writer-director Tristan Barrocks had high praise for the film’s best known star, Oliver Samuels. He usually plays comic roles and after several decades in theatre has earned the title ‘Jamaica’s King of Comedy’. However, in Sugar Dumplin, he shows his versatility and poignantly portrays an ailing 71-year-old.
“We were fans of Oliver,” Barrocks told The Gleaner, referring to his production team, which included his wife, Natanya Barrocks, of Mid-Career Productions, “but we became family.” The bonding took place during the week the group spent together in Canada, part of it in preparatory work, part of it in the actual shooting of the film.
“We want the world to see Oliver,” Barrocks continued, adding, “This is a moment when things are opening up for Jamaica’s film industry,” because of the many stories that are being generated in the Jamaican diaspora.
The film, he said, was written to capture “the essence of what it means to find connection through shared memories and cultural traditions.” Those doing the sharing are the dementia patient and his daughter, Ebony, played by Chantel Riley, an executive producer of the movie.
Totally convincing in her role as the always-loving but often frustrated daughter – because the memory of her increasingly irascible father comes and goes – she is an actress to watch. As a relative newcomer, she doubtlessly learned much from working alongside the veteran Samuels, for she calls it “a transformative experience”.
She adds, “I hope this story resonates with everyone who has ever longed to connect with their roots.” This is what Ebony does in the film. We learn that the father and daughter were apart for much of her life and it is when he develops dementia that she comes to visit him in a nursing home.
Claiming that the food he is served is bad-tasting, he has not been eating, and it is through Jamaican food (curry goat and white rice) and Jamaican-style cooking that the two emotionally re-connect. One of the film’s most powerful, even mouth-watering scenes shows the two preparing a chicken dinner.
Writer Barrocks told me that he intended the film to be “a tool for meaningful conversations” on dementia, and after the screening of the 20-minute work, a much longer discussion took place with the audience and the sponsors. The latter are the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Blue Mahoe Capital, Yaadbridge Entertainment and Grace Foods.
For about an hour after the screening, health professionals in both mental and physical ailments exchanged information on the complex aspects of dementia. The experts included Dr. Denise Eldemire-Shearer, executive director of Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre at The University of the West Indies, and Dr Kemisha Shaw-Kelly, programme development officer, Family Health Unit.
English (US) ·