St Elizabeth stages movie premiere

Roll film, cut, that's a wrap! While those words are synonymous with Hollywood sets, they are also becoming commonplace in rural Jamaica.

Hated 2 Death is the latest Collywood production based in St Elizabeth.

Last year, there were a number of movie premieres produced in the Corporate Area, a trend that has all but dominated the local movie scene.

Anybody who wanted to make movies would gravitate towards the capital city where the energy and the creative vibe would be sought. Foreign movie producers and film companies from Hollywood would aim their productions at Kingston as well, highlighting the inner-city areas where drugs and violence are reputed to be rampant.

Jamaican movies have always been centred on drugs and violence which to most of the past and present film-makers is the USP (Unique selling point) for their movies.

Times are changing, and Collywood Productions have shown its intention to lead that change.

Collywood is much like Bollywood or Nollywood movies.

After dubbing his company Collywood Jamaica, the Jamaican Hollywood, Junior Hart made his way back to Jamaica two years ago and has not stopped filming since.

Hart has now completed five epic feature movies in those two years and has added a new soap series which will be licensed to terrestrial and cable TV around the world.

Hated 2 Death is the first of the five creations to be released by Collywood and is due to be premiered on July 2 at Everglades, Parrottee, Black River, St Elizabeth. The event will mark the first-ever movie to come from the parish.

The movie consists of three stories based on true life events.

Creating employment

One of the stories speaks to the murder of two lesbians, Phoebe Myrie and Candice Williams. The two were brutally murdered in 2006.

The entire cast is from St Elizabeth and were all unemployed before the movie.

"We are looking to sign more people to Collywood as time goes on, and provide them with ongoing employment," said Hart.

The movie producer also said the potential for successful cinema was what drove his decision to return to Jamaica. He identified a global billion-dollar industry in Jamaican culture and yearned to reproduce and package it properly.

"Just take a walk into any market in Jamaica - or any Caribbean island - and you will see the abundance of pirated African movies. Jamaicans have been buying into the African movies for years because Jamaicans can relate to them. Now imagine when Jamaicans can see their own movies. I think they will lap them up big time," said Hart. "I have always looked at Jamaica and thought that if we had a genuine movie industry we could harness the creative energies and talent of the people from our communities who have a natural vibe, and provide them with ongoing employment."

Collywood will be giving away free DVDs of the movie. Hated 2 Death's trailer is available at www.collywoodcinemas.com. Tickets to the premiere can also be reserved through the website.