From left: Sage, Sheldon Shepherd, Evraldo Creary and Ricardo Orgill, cast members of the locally produced 'Better Mus Come' film, shown at the Flash Point Film Festival in Port Royal, last year. - file

If scriptwriter and film director Paul O. Beale has his way, in late July, the Green Gables Theatre on Cargill Avenue, near Half-Way Tree in St Andrew will host a 'unique' festival.

Beale says that for the inaugural Jamaican Film and Video Festival "I want to encourage people in the industry to bring forward the kind of film that will sell in the world but has never been done in Jamaica".

To this end, he will be indicating the direction of the entries to the potential participants, as he said "I am going to send a terms of reference", in his quest for new work done specifically for the festival.

Telling a lot of stories

He would like to see issues that have not been addressed as much as he believes they should be given prominence. So Beale asks, "we have been telling a lot of stories about AIDS; what about breast cancer? What about what has been happening to the kids, abduction and so on?"

The 2009 Jamaica Film and Video Festival is planned for three days and Beale says he is going for a lot of short films running five to 20 minutes, with a feature length film on each day. He said he will be providing two features. Desperate Decisions, which he directed, premiered at the RedBones Blues Café, New Kingston, last Saturday and will be shown there again this Saturday.

He does not see the festival as competing with the Flashpoint Film Festival, which was moved to Port Royal, last year, after starting out in Negril, Westmoreland. "I think that we can accommodate up to six or seven festivals in this country, provided that they are at different times and locations," Beale said.

Beale also pointed to some shortcomings, saying that the biggest film festival Jamaica has had was the Jamerican Film Festival, which was held in Montego Bay, but "it died".

And he says that getting films will not be a problem, as "if people see an outlet for them they will produce". Neither will an audience pose difficulty, as "if I have to give away every ticket for people to come in I will".

Still, he said, "I don't want the festival to be all about Paul Beale. If I am not around it must go on".