Cables & Cameras celebrates the 60th anniversary of Jamaican independence

Dance, cricket and music feature in a trio of films selected for a weekend celebration of the 60th anniversary of Jamaican independence at the Watershed from August 5-8. It’s been organised by Cables & Cameras, the hub for black and POC filmmakers and creatives in Bristol. Each film will be introduced by DET Entertainment’s Trace Mulzac.

First up on August 5 is a rare screening of Don Letts and Rick Elgood’s punchy, authentic 1997 crime drama Dancehall Queen. This puts a distinctive spin on the Cinderella story with Audrey Reid giving a great performance as Marcia, a single mother Kingston street vendor who struggles to make ends meet. Dodgy, gun-toting ‘Uncle’ Larry (Carl Davis) helps out, but demands sexual favours from Marcia’s tearaway teenage daughter Tanya (reggae and dancehall star Cherine Anderson) in return. To make maters worse, a thug named Priest (Paul Campbell) attempts to kick Marcia out of her stall. Enterprisingly, she disguises herself as ‘Mystery Lady’ and enters a dancehall contest with a aim of winning a cash prize and pitting her tormentors against one another through the medium of booty-shaking. Dancehall Queen proved such a success that Letts, Elgood and Anderson teamed up again for One Love six years later.

No celebration of Jamaican culture is complete without Bob Marley. Saturday 6 August brings a 10th anniversary screening of Oscar winning One Day in September and Touching the Void director Kevin Macdonald’s definitive documentary, Marley. If that gets you in the mood for skanking, it’s followed by a Marley-inspired DJ set from DJ Style in the café/bar.

A scene from ‘Playing Away’

Finally, on Sunday 7 August there’s the welcome return of Horace Ové 1986 TV movie Playing Away, scripted by Caryl Phillips. The pioneering Ové has a place in the Guinness Book of Records for becoming the first black director of a feature film in the UK. That was the hard-hitting 1976 drama Pressure. Playing Away is a very different film, being a gentle and subtle culture clash comedy of manners in which a cricket team from Brixton are invited to the fictional English village of Sneddington for a match to commemorate ‘African Famine Week’.

If all that whets your appetite for Jamaican film, you’ll be delighted to learn that the Watershed also has a week-long run of  the first – and, arguably, best – feature to come out of Jamaica. Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come (1972) casts Jimmy Cliff as a country boy who gets mixed up in the ganja trade while trying to become a reggae star in Kingston. Soon he’s on the run after killing a corrupt cop. Renowned as much for its soundtrack as its cinematic qualities the film offers a vivid depiction of shanty-town life, its somewhat hackneyed storyline being based on a folk tale from the 50s.

Buy a ticket for any of the Cables & Cameras Jamaica 60 events and you’ll get a voucher for £1 off any screening of The Harder They Come. Go here for more details and ticket information.

All images supplied by Watershed.

Read more: Archive interview: Kevin Macdonald on Bob Marley