Renowned music producer Mikey Bennett and his daughter Kimala, a film director. - Contributed

The second in our series on father-daughter relationships highlights music producer Mikey Bennett and his daughter Kimala.

Daddy does music, daughter does film, the pair meeting at the confluence of the two creative forms, the music video. And the streams of their output continue to criss-cross.

Kimala Bennett is a film director and owns the two-year-old Production Lab, which she tells The Gleaner "started right here". 'Right here' is Grafton Studios in Vineyard Town, St Andrew, owned by her father, renowned music producer Mikey Bennett and Production Lab still has an office there.

"We started out with music videos, which I guess was my contribution to the music industry, because I couldn't sing," she says, laughing. The video production started while she was still in college, doing mainly videos for the artistes her father produced for at the time.

Familiar environment

She also produces radio advertisements, which take her into the music studio. It is, naturally, a familiar environment as she says, "it's something I've been doing since high school without even knowing, because a lot of class projects that Daddy would produce and because the studio was here, I utilised it."

Father and daughter often collaborate on producing advertisements, especially when Kimala has to be away from the studio physically, though in touch on the telephone.

When she was growing up, Mikey Bennett did not foresee Kimala being involved in the creative industries, but tells The Gleaner "she is one of them goal-oriented people". (Case in point - in her first week at Holy Childhood High School, Kimala decided that she was going to be head girl. Eventually, she was). "The whole family got caught up in Kimala's projects," he said. Those included adopting the Musgrave Girls Home.

Organise people

"She has this ability, which I think she got from my mother and my grandmother as well, to organise people. I remember one time she was putting on a school project and when I came here the night ... top engineers, the place was just full, people were coming in on schedule. All the pieces were just dropping into place," Mikey Bennett said.

And this was without any input from him. Kimala was 14 years old.

There was a repeat of the driven high school journey at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, USA, but there was an addition to the script. Kimala went there because it has a top psychology programme and UCLA was the next step. But Mikey Bennett says, "She realised at that point, I think, the value of the culture. First of all, she was proud of the Jamaican culture and I think she realised then that she had an opportunity to use film to promote the culture." Kimala also got involved in promotion, staging events with persons such as Kanye West.

He points out that another crucial person in Kimala's life is Janet Davidson, who is a mentor to her. Davidson was involved in Madhouse Records at one point and she put Kimala to work. And he says Oprah is a huge role model for Kimala.

Kimala is also managing director of Grafton Studios (while Mikey Bennett is managing director of another company she owns, The Business Lab, which is producing a business set-up manual). And father lauds daughter's multi-tasking ability, which he does not have, while she credits her mother and father for always being supportive of what she does.

Fresh set of energy

The Gleaner asks if Kimala's role would not be expected more of a son than a daughter and Mikey Bennett says, "she was the first one and we've been on the road together for a long while. She just brought a level of maturity to the thing that none of the others did. They were not ready yet. Also she was bringing a fresh set of energy and organisation to the whole situation."

"I need it," he adds. "I ready to retire." Kimala interjects "he says he's ready to just drive me around" and he agrees enthusiastically. "Yeah! I'm prepared to be her driver. Trust me, I've done it all basically. My next thrill comes from just watching them and helping them accomplish anything that them doing."

Being the driver, though, means also giving direction and Kimala says, "If I'm very excited about something I will call Daddy and he will be very practical about it or he will take it to the next level."

'Turn a Page' project

Being practical has sometimes meant that she has been left out and Kimala reminds her father about the 'Turn a Page' project he did with the library. "I remember being so distraught because I was not chosen for one of the parts," she says and Mikey Bennett gives a hoot of surprise and amusement. This is news to him and it happened when she was about 12 years old.

"I couldn't sing," she concedes, "so I was in the chorus part."

"One of the things right now is watching Kimala become all the things we know she's gonna be. So sometimes I offer to drive her round just for the chance to be with her. So when I'm with her I listen a whole heap. We do meetings together, but I don't say a word," Mikey Bennett said.

Kimala does not exactly shrug off compliments, but says "to whom much is given much is required of".

And Mikey Bennett is confident his daughter is up to the requirements. "This is just probably where she's starting at. We have no idea where she's going to end up, but we know it is going to be something big and large and we just in it for the ride," he said.

POSITIVE Parenting