13 hours ago
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In its fourth year, The Shot List is bigger than ever. A joint effort by JAFTA, We Are Parable, and the British Council has expanded the line-up to include selections from India and St Vincent and the Grenadines, enhancing the event’s diverse programming. The festival also included a dedicated animation block and a segment on music video creation.
The screenings opened with films by recent JCDC Fi Wi short film competition awardees: Joel Miller for Hairport and Blackbird, and Sabrina Thomas, for her film Shattered. Among the audience was George Malcolm Walker, cinematographer for Hairport and Blackbird, who said, “It was a lot of work, a lot of late nights but in the end, it was worth it. It’s always great to see the audience reaction.”
The event continued with a brief 10-minute animation segment. Blink and you might miss the work, but what the films lack in length, they make up for in style.
Highlights included Yaad, Kymani Gayle’s vivid depiction of Jamaican life; I Am Bot, Chloe Campbell’s stunning futuristic creation; Riva Muma by Renee Ross and Jheodalie Wilkie, retelling folklore; Mother Finch, Joseph Fenton’s stop-motion story of aviary motherhood; and, reinforcing animation’s community roots, Lover’s Leap by Listenmi Caribbean and Dream Chasers by The Dream Dust Coalition.
In a panel discussion moderated by animator and director Kevin Jackson, Ross quoted her lecturer, saying, “If you don’t tell your own stories, people that don’t come from your country will tell those stories for you, and you might not like it. We wanted to change the narrative on what the Riva Muma is”.
The intention behind the camera also extended to Campbell who said “We’ve seen this story many times, but I have never seen it in a Jamaican setting. I really wanted a female character because most times when it’s technology or robots it’s typically a male, so I wanted to implement a young Jamaican girl in that setting.”
Next came the St Vincent and the Grenadines selection, featuring two documentaries: I Am Garifuna by Dante Ollviere, which follows a young woman’s effort to connect with her indigenous roots; and Views From The Middle by Aiko Roudette, which contemplates Canouan Island’s transformation amid massive tourism. The selection also included one narrative piece, Cartman by Grace Peters-Clarke, about a young man following in his late father’s footsteps.
FILM ABOUT THE GRENADINES
Shane Slater, programming director for the Hairouna Film Festival, said, “We wanted to give a variety, so we had a film about the Grenadines [and] we had a narrative short about something specific to St Vincent Cartman, which was the winner of our Film Lab, so we wanted to showcase that one that we nurtured from script to film.”
He further explained that I Am Garifuna was chosen to honour the indigenous Garifuna culture, reflecting the festival’s commitment to embracing indigenous heritage, as echoed in the name of the Hairouna Film Festival.
From India came What’s The Film About by Poorva Bhat, a documentary short capturing tough conversations with her young children; Ek Bangla Bane Nyara by Aryan Sheth, a comedy about a dysfunctional family; Praan Pratishta by Pankaj Sonawane, centred on preparations for a consecration ceremony; and Lakshmi by Abhijit Purohit, in which an elderly woman speaks with a deity. The shorts offered a consistent blend of humour, heart, and humanity.
The UK segment featured The Last Dance by Hayden Mclean, showing a Jamaican family on the verge of losing their family-owned bar, Space(s) by Luke ‘Frsh’ Fannin, chronicling the plight of a young black boy trying to find space in a predominantly white country, and Run Like We, a comedy about a Jamaican boy growing up with his track and field obsessed father.
The panel, moderated by Anthony and Teanne Andrews of We Are Parable, featured Joan Iyiola, who shared the inspiration behind Mango, a chilling portrayal of a woman denied proper medical care for fibroids.
“I had fibroids myself. My largest [one] was the size of a mango ... I felt that the best way to articulate the rage I had about how this condition is treated was through art,” Iyiola said.
The penultimate presentation featured music videos directed by Gabrielle Blackwood, Sasha Bling, and Donisha Prendergast. The latter two were present for a panel discussion presented by WIFTJA titled ‘ Women in Rhythm and Frame’.
EXPERIENCE AS A MOM
Following the panel discussion, Sasha Bling spoke to The Gleaner about her experience as a mother to a young and budding producer. “First things first I feel great that I have a little creative genius on my hands, but I teach her to respect the process, so we had her produce. One of her first projects is Opportunist with I-Octane and Shane O; everybody nowadays can go on YouTube or Tiktok and be a celebrity; I don’t want a quick fix for her, I want her to have longevity, and dive deep in her creativity,” she explained.
Closing out the evening was the long-awaited Jamaica block. There was the deeply introspective Dead Weh by Chinelle Miller; the psychological thriller In Foreign by Didi Beck; the satirical crime comedy Ignorance Is A Lifestyle by Chris Browne; the rom-com with a twist ending Shawt Shorts by Brianne Stewart, the queer romantic drama Paradise by Rebecca Becx Williams, and the exceptionally shot family drama Saint Andrews by Erin Ramirez.
The filmmakers discussed an intention to go against convention with their work with Rebecca ‘Becx’ Williams saying “ Paradise being a queer romance is obviously going to break some stereotypes in Jamaican culture and what we think of as a couple in a falling in love story”.
The sentiment was mirrored by Chris Browne who said “I wanted to flip the narrative a little bit by having the characters feel like someone you’d meet talking about how they can solve the problems of Jamaica, only to discover that they actually are the problems of Jamaica.”
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