Published:Friday | June 3, 2016
The film, Kingston Paradise, will be shown on June 15 at Palace Amusement cinemas. Ahead of the big-screen release, director Mary Wells gives a peek into the making of the feature film.
Every day he drives his route taxi, hustling on the bustling, unforgiving streets of Kingston. It’s his constant – a hustle among hustles that pays the basics … barely.
If you hitch a ride, it’s tight, hot and imposing as he also peddles condoms and phone cards in his car in between shared oxygen, perspiration, street fumes, car horns, cell calls, music, and loud chatter, “Rough Rider and phone card, yuh nuh people! What oonuh seh?” says the driver.
In this scene, Rocksy (‘the driver’) learns from a passenger who is on a call more about a snazzy new sports car he wants to ‘liberate’. Who says life is easy, but who says we have no choices? As the taxi rides through Kingston at dusk, it becomes a charming moonlit night and the film continues to move and groove.
Kingston Paradise stars Chris ‘Johnny’ Daley, Camille Small, Greggory Nelson, Paul Shoucair, Munair Zacca and Peter Abrikian. Directed and written by Mary Wells, it is produced by Frances-Anne Solomon, Mary Wells, and Sajoya Alcott.
Executive producers are CaribbeanTales and California Pictures. The co-executive producer is Caribbean Creativity, and principal technical equipment and support services come from the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC). With a strong Jamaican cast and a local and international crew, much support for this film also came from the CHASE Fund.
Article Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20160603/rocksy-drives-and-hustles-kingston-paradise
