Jerel Ramsey sought to bring a Caribbean twist to the theme of environmental justice, so he wrote and directed Bois — a short film doing just that. It was recently screened at the Film and Folklore Festival, and audiences couldn’t get enough of it.
The story follows a group of friends who go on a hike after a J’Ouvert party. But, as the synopsis reads, “their disregard for the forest awakens something ancient they didn’t anticipate, leading to a harrowing battle of survival against supernatural forces that demand respect for the land.”
Ramsey, 31, told Guardian Media that while this was the third short film he has done, this one was different. It was his first full-narrative short film. It was screened in St Ann’s from April 2 to 5.
“I’ve always wanted to do film since I was a child,” he admitted. Since he is also a singer and songwriter under the sobriquet Sarkastik Ambassador, he previously created short-film-style music videos for his songs “Siren” and “Proximity”. The former won best T&T film at the Green Screen Film Festival in 2024. “I think music videos can be very boring sometimes because we do the same thing over and over. I wanted to make it a little more interesting,” he added.
But Bois was Ramsey’s first time writing a story “from scratch” with the intention of it becoming a film. Since the video for “Siren” had themes of folklore, he knew he wanted to explore that further.
“I started in January 2024. It took me about six months to write it out, really, because it was just mostly me doing research on the topics that I wanted to talk about; the story I wanted to tell.”
He expressed gratitude for being able to call on friends and colleagues to make up the cast and crew. But since many of them are professional actors and/or entertainment industry practitioners, scheduling was a bit tricky. But they got it done.
He also worked on the film’s score with producer Aaron “Track7” Peters over the course of three weeks. So overall, the entire film was created and completed in two years.
“One of the things I love about film is that the entire industry runs around collaboration. The quality of what comes out will be much better by working with a bunch of people who are literally tasked to bring this to life.”
He added that his friends who had a lot of experience in the industry were not afraid to give him constructive feedback. “And from what I gather, I did pretty well on writing and directing.”
Ramsey wanted to ensure the story was anchored in folklore and heritage, while being set against the backdrop of local Carnival culture.
“The film emerged as I began to deepen my understanding of Caribbean folklore and my own indigenous ancestry,” he elaborated in his director’s statement. “In my life, my relationship to land and ecology has never been abstract. I understand nature not as a setting, but as a presence one must move in relation to. That understanding shaped Bois at every level, from its narrative economy to its use of sound and silence.”
He said seeing people’s reactions at the screenings was wonderful, and many people told him they wanted more. With a run time of 11 minutes and 31 seconds, he laughingly said people felt it was too short.
“It felt good seeing something that you spent so long putting together, come together. And sure, there’s a few things that I actually am going to change in it (post-screening) because right now what I have is the first cut, but it was great.”
The 31-year-old added that he wanted it to be grounded in relational ethics and knowledge instead of just instruction and explanation. “Bois does not seek to translate itself for viewers but instead, asks the audience to listen and to sit with discomfort.”
At its core, he said Bois reflects on humans’ “precarious relationship” with the environment.
“How we work against it and what happens when human disregard exceeds natural limits... The film imagines land not as passive terrain but as an active force, personified through folklore, capable of response.”
Asked what he learned from stepping into this new territory of filmmaking, Ramsey said there are a lot “more moving parts” than music videos.
“I think with film, everybody is just ready all the time. and prepared. I think the difference with that is that you have a lot more lowtime in between music videos. You don’t really have that with film as much because you don’t want to waste people’s style,” he said. “I think with that comes learning more about scheduling and stuff like that as well.”
Before Bois is entirely released and accessible to the general public, he is aiming to get it accepted into more upcoming film festivals.
So if you are interested in where it may be screened next, you can follow Ramsey across his social media platforms.
