Use Film Making to Develop East Portland
Some Jamaicans may have access to a local film sector but not an industry with the proper infrastructure and incentives. The Parish of Portland and particularly Eastern Portland has the natural habitat for such an industry to be developed.
A film industry needs constant economic activity that will satisfy the demand for making, marketing and distributing films.
There have been many films and music videos shot on location in Portland over the years. Historically actors like Errol Flynn whose family still owns much of the real estate in Portland and most recently, Nick Canon, Damian Marley and Rihanna all shot their films and videos on location in Eastern Portland. Additionally, there are young artists and actors in Portland who would love to join in the process of film making, and others with the production of goods (or services) associated with film making.
Intellectual capital and imagination is what most Portlanders possess who wish to enter this field due to evident social restraints in rural Jamaica. There are no factory style equivalent infrastructures in place to support the intellect and imagination of the film practitioners in Portland as would be the case for football or track and field.
There are no schools and the distribution channels in place for films such as the Palace Amusement Company and the creative unit led by the JAMPRO film commissioner are concerned with the final production of films and not the developmental process. Their value is as good as uploading to YouTube.
JAMPRO, the government’s only mandated film entity is to sell Brand Jamaica. Altogether there are not sufficient quality films for sale with brand Jamaica due to national underdevelopment in the sector’s resources.
Although many appreciated breaks were given in the recent budget debates by the finance minister in Jamaica, nothing was mentioned for the development of the film industry. A sector that is marked by its yearly visits to film festivals in Toronto and Trinidad and the occasional Yardie style Jamaican film in Palace Amusement Theaters.
We all can agree that the selling of films coming from Jamaica is dependent on the quality of the films. The quality of the films are dependent on imaginative directors and producers accessing the tools and infrastructure necessary to create films.
Neither the government, Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, who are currently running a bi-election in Eastern Portland, nor private sector interests have seen the need to develop Portland using film making. Much of the arguments for that bi-election are around farming. A profession not many young people are interested in.
Portland is a location with a historical connection with Hollywood.
But other than film crews coming to Jamaica from Hollywood to capture the best pictures, Portlanders are capable of telling their stories through films, museums and tours. There is much to showcase through film tourism with stops on the location of top films such as Tom Cruise’s Knight and Day, King of the Dancehall, and Navy Island.
The Navy Island that was once running with Hollywood guestS weekly should be urgently considered for a movie studio. It is now a derelict island going to waste and supervised by the Port Authority.
A politician with some vision can rekindle Portland’s natural environs into a functioning attraction to benefit the entire Portland across industries. Revamping Navy Island would make way for new restaurants and hotels. An extended runway at the Ken Jones airport would also be convenient to the new visitors to the Eastern part of the island daily.
Portland is not all goat herders and farmers, there are practicing and aspiring film makers in Portland. They can get to the top of their profession if there is proper infrastructure with master training facilities, and a place to work on their craft in the same way Jamaican athletes and artistes do at the studio and on the track.
The role of government?
Currently if an overseas film maker imports his/her equipment in pursuit of a film project here, as long as he leaves with the equipment there are no custom duties, but a Jamaican film maker who imports and will keep his equipment here to pursue his dreams of making films will have to pay a high custom duties at the borders. I could not make that up if I tried.
Therein lies the problem. If it is more difficult to practice film making in Portland, if you are a Jamaican, than the foreigners, and if you wish to go abroad you have to prove yourself to be a master film maker to the embassies, then the Jamaican film maker is at a competitive disadvantage.
Mastery requires practice, so I call on the government of the day to help film makers in Portland to create a film industry. Film making is a business that can benefit the entire country but we need fair access to the tools without the exorbitant custom duties. Jamaicans who practice films have been making well to do with what they have against all odds, but the lack of assistance has prevented the fledging sector from competing with the overseas market.
The government can stimulate the film industry with an ease of the custom duties for practitioners who live here with the job title “Film director” in their Jamaican passports. Film making is a collective art so one film hires many people and more investors will be attracted to local talent if hiring that talent gives them an incentive. If we are not able to compete with the concessions given by other countries and cities then there is no possibility of an industry.
If Portland is designated the film capital of Jamaica and the Caribbean with incentives for making films a la Atlanta Georgia , then I believe over time the development of Navy Island for Film Making will pay for itself.
Portland People are proud and our stories have contributed to the development of the arts and sciences that as marked the progress of this country.
If in the next couple of years we can see an increase in film development in Portland , the country will be able to see images that reflect the human condition of a wider Jamaica. If more directors and producers come from Portland who own content, and if the creative unit can also assist us in getting into the gaming market (which is a US$135 billion industry) we would have seen changes in Portland like never before.
Donovan Watkis is a Film Director and TV Host from Portland. Feedback JR Watkis
