Film Series Will Explore The Modern Caribbean Experience

NEW HAVEN — This fall the Yale Center for British Art will present a selection of films to accompany the exhibition “Art & Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds.” The series, “The Harder They Come — The Modern Caribbean Experience,” showcases films that investigate the modern-day Caribbean experience, with particular focus on Jamaica.

Since the 1970s there has been an explosion of film-making related to Jamaica that speaks to the island’s vibrant culture of music, dance, and performance, as well as the harsh realities of everyday life in the post-independence era.

Opening with The Harder They Come on October 6, Perry Henzell’s seminal 1972 account of the emerging Jamaican music business inspired by the career of the reggae musician Jimmy Cliff, the series also includes Rockers (1978) on October 20, Ted Bafaloukos’s exploration of reggae at its heyday.

The cultural displacement experienced by Caribbeans living in Britain is explored in Horace Ove’s moving film Pressure (1978) on October 13, and Stephanie Black’s 2001 documentary, Life and Debt on November 10, a searing indictment of the United States and its economic policies, examines the deep poverty and social inequities that characterizes life for many Jamaicans in the 21st Century.

Also included in the series will be Sankofa (1993) on October 27, Queimada (1969) on November 15, and Shottas (2002) on November 17. All films will begin at 2 pm and admission is free.

Screenings will be in the lecture hall at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, except for the final film in the series (Shottas), which will be shown at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street.

Also in relation to the “Art & Emancipation” exhibition, YCBA will be screening the documentary Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind (2001), directed by Stanley Nelson. Using archival footage, interviews, and photographs, this documentary examines one of the most controversial figures in American history.

Marcus Garvey emigrated from Jamaica to New York City in 1914, bringing with him a message of black empowerment. With millions of followers worldwide, Garvey decried racial prejudice in the United States and built the largest black mass movement in world history.

Screenings will be at noon on October 12, 26, November 9, 16, and December 14.

For additional information call 203-432-2800 or visit www.yale.edu/ycba.