Krista Henry and Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writers
The voices of Jamaican children have long been silenced on local programming, replaced with foreign images and lifestyles of cultures far different from their own. When it comes to programming in films, television and animation, it is clear that the focus is not on the children.
With the recent furore surrounding the Broadcasting Commission's ban on daggerin' songs and songs with edits - which later extended outside the dancehall to soca, rap and popular music; the debate left a gaping hole in discussions as to what should be viewed by the nation's children. With the ban having taken effect on February 6, and with children having been evicted from the rampin' shop, it would appear that outside of quiz-related events, children are being grown on foreign, often American-based programming.
Jamaican children are limited to watching the fur-filled excitement of Sesame Street and the magical halls of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft in the Harry Potter series or listening to the thick Spanish accent of Dora the Explorer, among other shows. Hearing and seeing Jamaican culture are foreign to local children.
Filmmaker Natalie Thompson recently pointed out the lack of children's programming at the launch of the second Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase at the Trafalgar Road, New Kingston offices of Jamaica Trade and Invest earlier this month.
Caribbean films
During the Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase, 23 countries from the region showcased a variety of Caribbean films by Caribbean filmmakers from 15 countries, subtitled in the languages of the region: English, Spanish, French and, significantly, Haitian Creole. Movies by Caribbean filmmakers were shown across the island, free of cost, in the age groups of five to eight-year-olds, eight to 12-year-olds and over 12. Black Soul (Haiti), The Owner (Cuba) and High Grade (Jamaica) were screened at the launch.
However, a banner behind Taj (Andrew Clarke) in one of the later
scenes of High Grade dated the feature-length film at 2004. And even before the screenings, Thompson spoke to the lack of Jamaican-made films for children.
She said, in sourcing films for the showcase, "it was near impossible to find one film in Jamaica made in the last two years geared towards children and adolescents. I was ashamed. In a country where professional cameras outnumber cameramen and we are so proud of our cultural heritage".
"We produce wonderful music videos, but we are missing out on a
large bit of just recording (our history) for the next generation," Thompson said, acknowledging the work of Mary Wells, who was at the launch. "We have to make a living, but we also have to see what we can do when the cameras are sitting there," Thompson said.
Five years ago, director and producer Mary Wells saw what she could do with her camera when she dabbled into the arena of children shows with a series of 10 programmes titled Scribbles A Story. Organised and funded by UNESCO and the Creative Production and Training Centre, the ideas for the programme were written by the children and focused on the different aspects of their lives.
Amazing experience
While it was years ago, for Wells, it was an experience that she fondly reflected upon as she spoke with The Sunday Gleaner recently. She explained, "part of the experience was travelling to different schools, inner cities and it was just so amazing. As a producer of films doing a programme made for children, it opened my eyes."
For Wells, the revelation of
working with the children came in seeing how talented the youngsters were and how much they invested in their 'performance culture' - a culture she fears has no opportunities in Jamaica. While she believes there is a huge outlet for the programming, funding is one of its major deterrents as not many corporate entities are willing to fund films for children as there is the belief that the profit will not be great.
In the United States, animated films are big bread-winners for small film companies and big studios alike. According to www.digitalmediafx.com, the top-three highest-grossing animated films are the The Lion King from Walt Disney, having earned a whopping US$312.8 million, Shrek, for PDI/DreamWorks, falls not far behind with US$267.6 million and Monsters Inc for Pixar pulling US$255.3 million.
Wells believes the market in the Caribbean can also be lucrative.
"There is a huge market in the Caribbean for it, but we have no confidence in things that we believe cannot be marketed abroad," said Wells. "New media and older media need to tell the stories of our children, their world. We need to take it more seriously and allow them to express themselves more. Maybe we wouldn't have this amount of violence. And it doesn't have to be goody-goody programmes because some of the stories of our children are so harsh and people just don't know what they are going through."
Local programming
Thompson said she too believes that the children are being silenced with most local programming being very adult.
"Even the cancellation of Calabash goes to show that we don't believe our culture is important enough. We do not place value to oral tradition and the written word," she said. Thompson further noted that the lack of children's programming stems from an absent tradition of short films, which works well with the shorter attention spans of children.
While Wells has no immediate plans to pursue more children-oriented shows, she said it was an area she definitely wanted to explore at length.
With Louise Bennett's Ring Ding programme safely vaulted away, tales of Jamaican culture appropriate for children are without a doubt fading with time.