Fresh off of their breakout screening of Damian Marcano’s feature film
“God Loves the Fighter,” the Caribbean Film Series returns to Brooklyn’s
BAMcinématek on September 30th for their second edition with the hit
Jamaican film “Better Mus’ Come.”
The Caribbean Film Series is co-presented by the Caribbean Film Academy
(CaFA), BAMcinématek and the Brooklyn Cinema Collective.
While “Better Mus’ Come,” director Storm Saulter’s
historically-inspired ‘gangs versus government’ drama meets love story was
released in theaters in 2013 via the African-American Film
Releasing Movement (AFFRM), this will be the first showing of the film
on the big screen in Brooklyn, home to the largest enclave of Caribbean people
outside of the West Indies. According to CaFA’s Justen Blaize, a big screen focus of
the film in Brooklyn, “provides local audiences, especially
Caribbean ones, an opportunity to experience the film for the first time.” Romola Lucas of CaFA continues that, “Older Jamaican films have a storied history. Our aim
is to build films like “Better
Mus’ Come” and filmmakers like Storm Saulter into the collective memory
of diasporic Caribbean audiences and general cinema lovers alike. Screening the film at BAM we hope will
do just that and help make the film a part of Brooklyn’s Caribbean and film culture.”
“Better Mus’ Come” is inspired by events surrounding Jamaica’s turbulent
politics during late 1970’s, specifically the 1978 Green Bay Massacre. At the time, the
People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labor Party enlisted the support of
gangs to enforce their policies and advance their agendas. Community leader and
widowed father, Young Ricky (Sheldon Shepherd), leads one such wayward gang,
whose members regularly scavenge and steal to survive. Amid the chaos, he meets Kamala (Nicole
Sky Grey, Restless City), who belongs
to a community controlled by the other party. While they instantly connect despite the dangers of being
together, Ricky fights to make their love and newfound emotional freedom triumph
over the ferocious forces of the day.
A stirring cameo by Roger Guenveur Smith (Malcolm X, Do the
Right Thing), as the Prime Minister, provides the focus for this
fictionalized dramatization of events.
Director Storm Saulter will be in attendance for a Q&A
following “Better Mus’ Come,” which
is preceded by Bajan
writer, producer, and star Sean Field’s short film “Egress” (2014).
The Caribbean Film Series takes place at 7:30pm on
Wednesday, September 30th.
For tickets and more information, go to http://www.bam.org/film/2015/better-mus-come.
For overall information about the Caribbean Film Series and the Caribbean Film
Academy contact Romola Lucas, at romola@caribbeanfilm.org
or Brooklyn Cinema Collective’s Curtis Caesar John, at curtis.john@gmail.com
