Rosie (Camille Small) and The Man (Peter Abrikian) in a sexually charged scene from 'Kingston Paradise'. - Contributed photos

Last Wednesday night, a stolen car saga came to an end in downtown Kingston. This one, however, did not make the news.

It made the movies.

Mary Wells, writer and director of Kingston Paradise, lists a number of firsts for the 90-minute feature film. It is her first feature-length direction of a narrative, it is the first feature-length film for the director of photography, Quarry Bastfield, and it is the first film of any kind for quite a few of the actors and actresses.

This includes female lead Rosie (Camille Small), Wells saying that male lead taxi driver and part-time pimp Rocksy (Christopher Daley) and Munair Zacca (who has a minor role) are the only well-known faces in Kingston Paradise.

Wells describes Small as "an emerging young talent from Rollington Town. Her experience is in community theatre. She is very talented and very natural". Also in the film are Paul Shoucair, who plays a Lebanese businessman, and emerging DJ 'Malt' (Gregory Nelson).

Wells describes Kingston Paradise as a "funky, off-beat story, a serious action drama" - although it does have its funny moments. And the moral of the tale which surrounds a stolen sports car (provided for the movie by Motor Sales) and links the lives of the three main characters is that "you have to find your own paradise, your own peace in life".

a nice twist

"It is sort of a philosophical story, but it has a nice twist to it and it is very upbeat, actually," Wells tells The Sunday Gleaner. The project is meant to inspire young people.

She points out that there is hardly any shooting or cursing and Kingston Paradise has in a lot of original words. Still, "it is not goodie goodie. I just wanted to do something different".

Doing 'something different' meant having to coax the actors into delivering those made-up words.

"I am hoping it will work. When I am editing it, it is a different stage," Wells says.

She points out that "everybody who came on board for the project really did so out of love. Some wanted to do something different, some wanted experience, something to put on their résumé". Shooting started six weeks ago and the exacting post-production process will now begin.

She describes the Creative Production and Training Centre as "an incredible co-production partner".

Wells says there was financial support from the CHASE Fund and a Dutch NGO, with sponsorship from Lucozade, Burger King and Motor Sales. The Kingston and St Andrew Action Forum was the gateway into Southside, Kingston, where much of Kingston Paradise was shot.

Christopher Daley plays Rocksy in 'Kingston Paradise'.