The Skylark Negril Beach Resort is excited to announce its 4th staging of THE SKYLARK FILM FESTIVAL this upcoming weekend. The event will showcase a host of films made in Jamaica by Jamaicans with collaborations from overseas creators. A "Cinematography Workshop" will be held on Saturday, October 7th at 4:00pm with speical guest speaker, Oscar Nominated Cinematographer, Bradford Young discussing the insight of pshychology of filmmaking through the eye of the lens. The film screenings will be held on October 6th - 7th on the beach of the Skylark property, starting at 7:00pm.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6th at 7:00pm
SHORT FILMS
Once Upon River – Directed by Joshua Paul
Alexandra Griffiths, 70, carries her grandchildren on a trip to a river, where she glimpses her husband who passed away years prior.
Code – Directed by Sarah Manley
This film is about the struggle between the old ways of Rastafari livity and modern day technology. It is also about a boy who defies a father he loves and respects to prove his manhood.
Burnt Milk – Directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst
The film is about an isolated young Jamaican woman, Una, who has been sent to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. As Una takes a moment of solace to make her traditional condensed milk pudding, 'Burnt Milk', she is flooded with spiritual imagery that takes her back to Jamaica. There is an ominous undertone to the past and present colliding, a sinister power to the strong pull of the island and an intensity to the rituals that summon her back in. While she continues to make her simple sweet dish, there is a complex darkness and hypnotic beauty to the duality of the worlds presented.
Summon – Directed by Nile Saulter
A dancer embarks on a spiritual journey to his homeland of Jamaica to reconnect with his Maroon ancestry.
Cool Breeze – Directed by George Malcolm
After 7 years in the Cayman Islands, Frankie is now moving back home to Jamaica to start a new life and furnish the new house he's been financing in the country; He gets one surprise after another as things are not how they seemed.
Sink Or Swim – Directed by Natalie Thompson
After his fisherman father drowns, a taciturn young boy must learn to talk to his mother.
Time To Go – Directed by Gemmar McFarlane
A story about how a young woman's reality begins to unravel when a young woman claiming to be her daughter arrives on her wedding anniversary.
FEATURED SHORT FILMS
Raw Materials – Directed by Sosiessia Nixon
A coming-of-age drama in which an impoverished fashion prodigy navigates the struggles of his abusive community.
Mosiah – Directed by Jirard
The first-ever narrative film about Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the Jamaican-born Civil Rights leader of the largest black nationalist movement in history, takes a stand against 1920s racism and white supremacy as he defends himself in a court trial that threatens to unravel all that he has fought to achieve.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7th at 4:00pm
CINEMATOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Special guest speaker:
OSCAR® NOMINATED CINEMATOGRAPHER
BRADFORD YOUNG
An insight into the psychology of filmmaking through the eye of the lens.
Skydeck at Skylark - Negril Beach Resort
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7th at 7:00pm
SHORT FILMS
Lightning Bird – Directed by Natalie Thompson
The distraught mother of a terminally ill son will do anything to save his life, even if life means being undead.
Key Love – Directed by Joshua Paul
A film about Giovanni, a high-school music teacher, struggles with raising his son while battling a gambling addiction•
Parolytic – Directed by Nadean Rawlins
Exiled and desperate after being beaten and thrown out of her house, a masculine representing lesbian finds refuge in a familiar drinking saloon. What ensues is a visceral depiction of her fears, real and imagined caused by the effects of psychological trauma homophobia and misogyny— this is Parolytic.
Black Girl in the Ring – Directed by Saeed Thomas
A film about a teenage Nanny of the Maroons, pushed to her limit by racial discrimination plots her escape from a slave plantation with her brothers.
From Yard – Directed by Leland Benford
An exciting urban drama based on true events detailed in the autobiographical novel
“Yardie” by Jamaican immigrant David G. Heron.
FEATURE FILM
Babylon - Unreleased for 40 years in the U.S. for fear of inciting riots.
Babylon is a 1980 drama film directed by Franco Rosso, written by Franco Rosso and Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia), and shot by two-time Academy Award winner Chris Menges (The Killing Fields). The story centers on Jamaican sound system culture in Brixton, London in the 1970's and is an incendiary portrait of police brutality, racism, poverty, and disillusionment with lack of opportunities. Babylon was banned in America and for almost 40 years as it was deemed “too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension” until it premiered right before COVID in late 2019 in Brooklyn.
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