Just in time to help celebrate Labor Day’s
Brooklyn West Indian Carnival Parade, BAMcinematek presents Caribbean
Diaspora Films, a collection of five films chosen to represent
different aspects of various island nations.
While there are no new films in the series (the region doesn’t
boast a huge film industry), a number of them deserve a second
look.
The most recent film of the bunch is "Third World Cop,"
a reggae-flavored shoot ’em-up produced in 1998. The highest-grossing
film to date in Jamaica, the story focuses on Capone (Paul Campbell),
a renegade cop who’s worked his way up from the wrong side of
the street to law enforcement. Problem is, he has his own set
of rules, so he drives his superiors, as well as his partner,
crazy.
When a gunrunning case leaves a trail that goes back to his old
’hood, Capone is caught between the law and his friends. His
biggest battle, which is a war of wills as much as a war of arms,
will be with Ratty (Mark Danvers), a member of a gang and an
old pal.
The cast is all local talent, and most acquit themselves well
enough. The problem is that there’s really not a lot of originality
in co-writer and director Chris Browne’s story. There are the
requisite sex scenes and many moments when the action just stops
while someone relates a character’s history or some other back-story.
The action is typical as well. There is so much gunplay – too
much – that it begins to seem that the movie is an excuse for
someone to use up lots of gun props. The action sequences are
victims of low-budget filming; many scenes of Capone rolling
out of the line of fire (and there are lots of them), while he
gets off shots of his own, appear stiff and slow.
Many things do work here, however. In terms of the script, the
gunrunning subplot does have one or two interesting twists. And
the music is great. Many Jamaican musicians, famous and up-and-coming,
have contributed wonderful songs. Many of the songs are used
as background music, which works very well. (So many other films
use music poorly.) There is also a concert scene, where the music
is the star, but the scene also presents some rare realistic
views of the film’s characters.
"Third World Cop" will be screened Aug. 30.
On Sunday, Aug. 31, the classic 1964 film "I Am Cuba"
will be screened. This film is a stunning combination of propaganda
and agit-prop cinema – and that is meant in the most respectful
way! There’s no denying that Mikhail Kalatozov’s Soviet Union-funded
film was meant to celebrate Castro’s revolution and his victory
over capitalism and the Batista regime just a few years earlier.
It is indeed a beautiful film of that ilk.
The beginning seems a bit hackneyed in terms of story – the Americans
who romance beautiful Cuban girls are quite one-dimensional.
But that was the purpose of those characters, meant to show the
decay of Cuba brought on by American industry. The peasants,
students and guerrillas, however, are captivating figures. The
magnificent deep-focus black-and-white cinematography gives a
lush texture to the story.
And there is a story, or a number of stories that culminate in
the reason for the revolution. After we witness the stereotypically
dastardly Americans and decadent Cuban upper classes, we also
get a view of farmers, including one who would rather burn his
crop than give it to the United Fruit Company. Students get into
the act as well, as they clash with police. Finally, a once neutral
peasant, after government forces burn his home, joins up with
the guerrillas.
"I am Cuba" is must-see viewing for anyone interested
in all aspects of filmmaking.
Another classic film is Euzhan Palcy’s "Sugar Cane Alley,"
from Martinique. This year marks the 20th anniversary of this
graceful film, which was groundbreaking when it first gained
attention in the United States.
Palcy narrates this sensitive story of Jose (Garry Cadenat),
a young boy with academic potential and Amantine (Darling Legitimus),
his grandmother, who tries her best to keep him from a life working
in the sugar cane fields, which was all that most children had
to look forward to in that French colony in the 1930s.
The children cast in the film are perfection, and the adult actors
all give rich portrayals. The characters run the gamut, from
the mystical old cane cutter Medouze (Douta Seck), who keeps
Jose connected to the spirit of his parents as well as his African
roots, to uncaring managers and overseers (black but trying to
ingratiate themselves with the white bosses), to Jose’s teachers,
who are strict, but can reach down and find compassion.
Even the rich, French plantation owner, who lives with the black
woman who has borne his son, will not give the boy his name as
he lays dying. It’s not because he’s evil, but because it would
defy social mores.
There is a wonderful sensitivity to all of Palcy’s characters,
and the film is sweet and disarming. An elegant yet simple film
with a truly human view of history, "Sugar Cane Alley"
screens on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1.
The last two films in the series also deal with history, legend
and mysticism. In Fritz Baumann’s 1992 film "The Journey
of the Lion," Brother Howie, a Rastafarian, leaves his children
in Jamaica while he visits his sister, who long ago moved to
London. While there, he hooks up with a young man who’s also
on the road. Together they travel to Africa. Brother Howie’s
trip becomes a journey to his past, and this uncomplicated man,
not versed in the ways of the world, has deep and incisive ruminations
on the dangers of the globalization of capitalism, which include
the inability to search for one’s roots.
This film is one of those interesting hybrids, a docu-drama.
Howie is a real person, played by himself (Howard Anthony Trott),
and many of his relatives appear in the film. But many situations
are "set up" for him, so that he can muse on the need
for a spiritual life, and the need for a cultural identity. This
film screens on Sept. 2.
Finally, Felix DeRooy’s 1986 film from Curaçao, "Almacita,
Soul of Desolato," was given the Paul Robeson Prize for
best Diaspora film by the International Federation of Critics
in 1991. It tells the mythical story of Solem (Marian Rolle),
a mute woman in a small village at the end of the 19th century.
She discovers a mysterious man hiding in a cave and befriends
him. Turns out he may be not-quite human, and more of a god or
demon.
In any event, Solem becomes pregnant by him, and is only helped
by Lucio, a young boy from the same village. Meanwhile Solem’s
village has a bigger problem – protecting them from that demon.
As it turns out, he may be the spirit of the evil, white landowners.
Believing Solem’s baby may be their undoing, Solem and Lucio
are forced to escape from the village to barren lands where the
film boasts a visually spectacular ending, with more demons and
goddesses in full force to try to separate mother and child.
This sweeping, lyrical film will end the series on Sept. 4.
While some films work better than others, the series shows the
depth and variety of films from the Caribbean – films that have
a broad reach beyond the islands.
Marian Masone is the associate
director of programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center
and chief curator of the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center.
Caribbean Diaspora Films will screen,
Aug. 30-Sept. 4, at BAMcinematek (30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland
Place in Fort Greene). Tickets are $10, $6 seniors and children
12 and younger. For more information, go to the Web site at www.bam.org
or call (718) 636-4100.
