JTB lacks vision for Reggae Film Festival

By Barbara Blake Hanna, Guest Columnist

Last week was not a good week for my hopes to present another Reggae Film Festival (RFF) in Jamaica. The previous week had ended with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) informing that, if the Reggae Film Festival actually takes place, it will pay $250,000 of the cost of preparing advertising and promotional materials - AFTER the event ends.

The agency that has funded literary, food and music festivals for sums up to J$8 million said this was all it was willing to give for Jamaica to present a film festival as a tourism attraction.

Tired of the five-year effort to present the Reggae Film Festival, I decided it was time to call it a day and stop trying to make it happen. I also considered moving the festival to another country, especially one of the countries already building on the growing interest in Jamaica-themed films generated by our event, which was the first to categorise these as 'reggae films'. I am confident that finding a sponsor outside Jamaica is very likely, but my Jamaican patriotism forced me to hold out hope for a change of mind by Government.

But if that was not a disappointing end to my week, more was in store. Late Friday, my mailbox contained an invitation to filmmakers to attend an event on 'Exporting Creativity', sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, JAMPRO and the University of the West Indies at which the presenter will be Ziggi Golding, the Englishwoman who last year tried to promote a Reggae Film Festival-style concept and presented it as part of a London Olympics event, over our protests and objections. (Her effort was a dismal flop, by the way.)

This blow was even harder, as JAMPRO has never assisted the Reggae Film Festival in its five years of existence! I could only reflect sadly on how experienced Ziggi Golding is at exporting other people's creativity and how willingly the Government is supporting her - but not the home-grown Reggae Film Festival!

SEND THE FOOL A LITTLE FURTHER

I have been negotiating for government support for the RFF since last December through written, emailed and personal presentations to several persons in the government tourism and entertainment departments. My modest budget is for cash sponsorship of J$2 million to handle the planning and pay staff to put the event in place.

Realising that receiving $250,000 after the event is not going to help present the festival, on Wednesday I appealed to the JTB to reconsider its decision. After having dealt with six different persons in the tourism agencies - from directors, to PR persons - to members of the Ministry's Entertainment Division and the fund to enhance tourism (TEF), I was told to write to yet another person: Jason Hall, deputy director of tourism with final responsibility for special events.

He replied: "Although we recognise the potential value that a well-staged international film festival would contribute to the destination ... the presentation did not show a clearly defined value proposition nor how the event met standard JTB criteria for support, namely:

1. Potential to attract incremental visitors to the island,

2. Potential to generate positive media exposure in international media; and

3. Potential to generate positive economic impact.

ANSWERING MR HALL

I replied that the Reggae Film Festival's potential to attract visitors to the island was illustrated by our extensive social media contacts already outlined to them in our documents, which showed that in 2012 the RFF blog received 200,000 hits from 160 countries.

The success of this outreach was clearly revealed by the fact that in December, Eurochannel, a Europe-based TV channel and website reaching 11 million viewers worldwide, asked the Reggae Film Festival to partner with it. The deal offers 300 thirty-second TV advertisements across their global channel reach in the month before the festival, website presence, plus 6 full-page ads in the Eurochannel TV magazine published in seven languages around the world. This is a very valuable promotional link!

We have also been asked to partner with the Hollywood Scriptwriter magazine and the magazine of the Universal Film Festival Union, with free advertising in both magazines and websites. This shows the Reggae Film Festival's potential to generate positive media exposure in international media, on top of exposure already received in Billboard (USA) and riddim (Germany) magazines, as well as the extensive blog outreach.

The Reggae Film Festival's potential to generate positive economic impact is clear, and if we were to be assisted by the JTB to prepare travel packages using JTB resources and finance, we could easily reach and capture the audience already awaiting the Reggae Film Festival.

Barbara Blake Hannah is director of Jamaica Film Academy/Reggae Film Festival. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and reggaefilmfestival@gmail.com.