Shereita Grizzle, Gleaner Writer
Published:Wednesday | February 19, 2014
Mary Wells’ feature film, Kingston Paradise has earned the
2014 Festival Programmer’s Award for Narrative Feature at the 22nd
annual Pan-African Film Festival (PAFF) held on Saturday at the PAFF
Filmmaker’s Lounge in Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw Plaza, California.
The film was earning its second award in a matter of months as it
also won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2013 CaribbeanTales
Film Festival in Toronto last September.
On Saturday, Kingston Paradise beat films from South Africa and the United States to cop the award for narrative feature.
Wells, an independent director, writer and producer wrote and
directed the film which highlights a couple’s struggle to escape the
harsh realities of the ghetto.
The film epitomises creativity as it follows the lives of Rocksy
(played by Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley), a small-time hustler, and his
girlfriend Rosie (Camille Small), masterminds behind a plot to steal a
sports car.
US debut
Their plan to start life anew with the money earned from selling the
lavish vehicle goes awry and they are left to face the consequences of
their actions.
The 83-minute film made its United States debut on Valentine’s Day,
screening at the Rave Cinema in Los Angeles over the weekend, with the
final showing taking place on Monday.
Daley told The Gleaner he was blessed to be part of Kingston Paradise.
“I really enjoyed the approximately six weeks of shooting. It was not
at all easy having to deal with all that can occur while shooting on
the border of Southside and Tel Aviv downtown, but it has paid off
tremendously,” he said.
He went on to thank the organisers of the PAFF for accepting and
rewarding the film and gave high praises to its director, Mary Wells,
for overcoming major financial obstacles to see the success of the film.
“Mary deserves a lot of praise for fighting for this film despite all
of the challenges, the biggest, of course, being funding, a challenge
she still has. But I must say how very proud I am of this little but
talawah project.”
Following the announcement, fans took to the film’s official Facebook
page to offer congratulatory comments with many expressing their
support for Wells and her latest effort to put Jamaica’s film industry
in the international spotlight.
One commenter posted, “CONGRATS Mary it’s so deserving. I can’t wait to see Kingston Paradise.”
The Kingston Paradise team also took to the Facebook page yesterday to express gratitude to all their supporters.
“We did it!! Kingston Paradise won at #PAFF2014 Festival
Programmer’s Award – Narrative Feature. It was a wonderful festival,
much thanks to everyone involved,” ran a post from the team.
The Pan African Film Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious black film festivals in the United States.
It was founded in 1992 by award-winning Hollywood actor, Danny Glover.
Article Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140219/ent/ent3.html
