It was a great night for lovers of Caribbean cinema when the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF) teamed up with Reel Trini to show the Jamaican movie Better Mus' Come, at Trevor's Edge, St Augustine. The free screening attracted scores of movie buffs. They packed themselves into the cosy bar, while others watched on a screen set up in the outside area. Trevor's Edge is known as a haven for culture in east Trinidad, hosting many live events featuring calypso, blues, pan, poetry and more. The Reel Trini series, which shows local movies and is led by filmmaker Yao Ramesar, also calls the Edge home. The TTFF, which continues until next week Tuesday, chose the venue for one of its Community Screenings.
Better Mus' Come, set in the 1970s, is based on events surrounding the Green Bay massacre. It uses gritty realism to tell the story of a young man living in the ghetto, who, despite his involvement in politically-motivated crime, dreams of a better life for himself those he loves. The film depicts an underclass being used as tools of the powerful, and trapped in a cycle of violence. Afterward, the film's director, Storm Saulter, spoke with the audience, who congratulated him on the piece and asked many questions.
Cycle of violence
He said it was his intention to examine the reasons for the violent reality lived by so many in Jamaica, including political forces coming out of the Cold War. "These people are not just bad because they are bad," he said, adding that there were always other factors "fueling the fight." "People were employed by those at the highest levels of society," to engage in political violence, he said, resulting in a state of emergency situation, where those in power "took away people's rights and freedom of movement."
He said when the film was first shown in Jamaica last year, the country was again under a curfew, amid the Dudus Coke conflict. He said it was interesting, in light of its screening during the current state of emergency in T&T, how "a film finds its own relevance in the context in which it's shown."
Saulter stressed the importance of production design, of paying attention to costumes, clothing, hair, sets, etc. "We had to create a whole world." He noted, however, an odd advantage: "Ghettoes are timeless because they are broken-down communities. They look the same now as in the 70s, as there is no development. That's a sad reality, but as a film-maker you had to use it to make the film work."
Less is more
The film featured some really engaging acting performances, more remarkable because it was the first time onscreen for almost all of them. The only experienced actor was US movie star Roger Guenveur Smith, who had a minor role. There was also a cameo by Carl Bradshaw, who acted in the iconic Jamaican film, The Harder They Come. Saulter said he worked with the cast for two months before filming, to get them to understand "less is more," when it comes to movie acting. He said he wanted them "to be very subtle, to not overact." As part of their preparation, the director actually had his actors actually live in a ghetto for a month. The characters spoke in colourful Jamaican "patois," adding to the authentic feel of the production.
Asked whether the actors improvised dialogue, he said, "I made sure they knew the script, so they could throw it away. I told them, 'say it how you would say it', so there was a lot of improv." He said the free, creative process added "magic moments you couldn't script" to the film. The movie, done in a High Definition digital format, was "based on real events. You hear these stories," said Saulter, when you deal with these communities. "Art imitates life. A lot of things happened on and off set that were really wild."
Saulter said he himself did not come from uptown. "I am a country boy, I went to public school."
Asked whether he felt the movie perpetuated negative stereotypes about Jamaica, Saulter confessed that he tried to include more diverse aspects of the society in the story, but decided it didn't work-about 30 per cent of what was shot "ended up on the floor." Saulter hailed some of his cinematic influences, including Hong Kong's Wong Kar-wa, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubric and Michael Winterbottom. He said he admired films like City of God from Brazil and Y Tu Mama También from Mexico.