We're Great Storytellers' Festival Brings Top Producers to Boost Jamaican Film Industry

A film festival has brought US, European and African producers and directors to Jamaica to explore collaborations with local filmmakers, who are due to benefit from several million US dollars' worth of government investment to boost the domestic industry.

- Natricia Duncan

Held on a beach in Black River, in Jamaica's south-western parish of St Elizabeth, the Black River film festival over the weekend gave Jamaican actors and filmmakers a rare opportunity to screen their films to experienced movie makers such as the Netflix producer and director Samad Davis, the Atlanta-based executive movie producer Dolapo Erinkitola, and Cédric Pierre-Louis, the programming director of Nollywood TV, ROK and Zacu TV (Canal+).

On a large screen set against the expanse of the Caribbean Sea, documentaries, features and shorts inspired by the distinct experience of Jamaicans came to life. The festival, in its second year, also attracted films from other parts of the world, including the UK, Canada and Serbia, with Sofian Francis, a British actor, stunt performer and filmmaker with Caribbean heritage, taking home five awards for his film Dante's Inferno - The Ascension.