KINGSTON PARADISE MOVIE, COMING SOON.
" Mirror, Mirror on the wall your choices matter first of all"
The Kingston Paradise film is a new, début feature by award winning Jamaican/US filmmaker, Mary Wells. It follows a young man in a whirlwind of survival and robbery. It's a quirky film for the World Cinema lover and it reflects on the choices that we make, while telling the ongoing story of the broken dreams and aspirations of our youth and how they're linked to an island's persistent rising crime and violence because of its social inequalities. The basic needs and aspirations of the people have not been met and in the hopelessness that prevails, a fantasy world permeates as the urban youth of contemporary Jamaica no longer care, like Urban youth anywhere. So what's new?
The Kingston Paradise movie is an off beat action crime drama that brings a very different view of life in the capital city, Kingston, where every character fails 'gangster 101' and isn't quite the cliché. A rich layered story, its a powerful journey that promises to leave audiences deeply moved as it takes us through the chaotic violent lives of disenfranchised youth in Jamaica. It follows the familiar, yet starkly different and precarious journey of small time hustler Rocksy, who yearns for quick bucks as his immediate dream steals a fancy car to sell its profitable parts, but fails to secure an order to collect the prize. While his prostitute lady friend Rosie, dreams to 'get out' and to find a peaceful life and its only from viewing a watercolour painting that she manages to mentally escape. When the crime is committed the journey is a senseless bad to worse that changes both their lives dramatically, forever.
It's played among a cast and crew of wonderful young people with many first timers but The lead, a Chris Daley, is a well known and very talented local actor from Jamaica's theatre community. Both Written, Directed and Produced by the filmmaker, who has made films for over twenty years, such as documentaries and short dramas mostly for the Caribbean she says, "Kingston Paradise is a very important story and is a very important film from an artistic point of view. It has also been extremely important from a personal learning experience. To date, its been quite a journey. Although the editing is now complete, I'm still raising funds for its professional finish. For a black international niche film, it's not only viable, its set for something truly special."
The film hopes to grab Caribbean audiences, but most importantly the large crossover international audiences, both young and older adults, particularly in urban centres that appreciate the gritty images of the real Caribbean. And who too, may have to weigh their options and consider changes in their individual lives and not reinforce a rotten social system. We as human beings have a strength of spirit; we have it within us to dream, to hope and to do better. Kingston Paradise shows the ongoing struggles and humiliation of a people and is A WICKED REMINDER of who we really are. In a colourful take, it's a gut wrenching off-beat film, COMING SOON.
