The Director of Better Mus Come Talks New Caribbean Cinema
After apprenticing with Lil X and attending film school in Los Angeles, Storm Saulter returned to Jamaica to jump-start a movement that he calls “New Caribbean Cinema.” His first feature length film, Better Mus Come, is a gritty period piece is set within the politically charged turf wars of 1970s, when Kingston, Jamaica was on the front lines of the Cold War and poor ghetto dwellers were manipulated like pawns on a much larger chess board. The film tells the story of a young father who must choose between turning his back on the gangster life and making a better life for his five-year old son. It’s also a story of forbidden love that entices a boy and a girl to tempt fate and cross over the borderlines that crisscross the streets of Kingston. Loosely based on real events, the film courageously breaks an unwritten code of silence about depicting controversial events like the Green Bay Massacre—a landmark event in Jamaica’s political history during which government forces ambushed and shot to death a group of gunmen aligned with the opposition political party. This do not go unnoticed by the powers that be in Jamaica, who closely monitored the production and even sent spies to the set.
But all the drama was well worth it. After a successful run in Jamaica, Better Mus Come went on to win the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at both the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and the Bahamas International Film Festivals. It’s been screened at the Toronto international film festival, L.A.’s Pan-African film festival and at Lincoln Center in New York. Tomorrow Better Mus Come will be seen for the first time in the UK at the British Film Institute. (The following day BFI will host the world premiere of Ring Di Alarm, a compilation of seven short films that Storm calls “a true experiment in guerilla film making in the Caribbean.”) Reshma B caught up with Storm to talk about his first film and how the movement is coming along. (more…)
