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Five years in, Skylark Film Festival founder Gareth Cobran is confidently in expansion mode.
With the curtains drawn last month on the Negril-based event’s successful 2024 iteration, the movie showcase ideator already has plans fermenting for next year’s festival.
“The most memorable takeaway this year was the concert [that featured the One Love movie cast members Sevana, Naomi Cowan, Alexx A-Game, Quan Dajai, and Sheldon Shepherd],” Cobran told The Sunday Gleaner during a mid-week sitdown in his St Andrew studio offices. “It was a good ending to an epic weekend of films. For the next festival, we will be retaining the musical element for sure and also looking to incorporate a culture market where we can invite different artisans to display their work. This will complete the Jamaican arts trinity and further build on the festival,” he explained of the collective span of film, music, and visual arts to come.
Post-festival in September, he disclosed that there is palpable buy-in from his creative peers further afield for next year’s staging. “We’ve had an influx of interest in participation and submissions from film-makers in other Caribbean islands and from the United States,” Cobran said.
THE BEGINNING
This is big for the festival, which was conceptualised in 2018 when Cobran, who had an abiding love for the titular Skylark Negril Beach resort, figured that a festival was tangible, having enjoyed multiple family vacations at the boutique property located along Negril’s iconic seven-mile stretch.
“I felt the overall layout on the beach and the vibe there was the perfect place to screen films,” he shared with The Sunday Gleaner about his creative springboard for the festival’s genesis. “I also wanted a space where local film-makers could showcase their work, and there was no event of its kind on this western side of Jamaica.”
He recalled that the first staging was a one-day event fraught with unexpected weather.
“My memory of that inaugural festival is of so much rain we had to move the entire setup from the beach to the indoor yoga deck. Despite the weather, we had a great turnout, [so much so] that there was standing room left. Paul Salmon and Max Glazer, the proprietors of Skylark, were integral in getting the festival off the ground,” reflected Cobran of year number one. “It wouldn’t have been possible then, and also now, without them and the Skylark staff.”
Subsequent stagings of the film festival expanded to two days, and educational workshops were added to deepen the know-how of breaking into the film industry. This year’s festival spotlighted six short films: Entry Denied and Ignorance, both by Chris Browne; Origins and Masterminds by Kurt Wright; Jenna In Law by Jesane Jackson; and Stinky Mango by Ina Sotirova.
There were also two feature-length films: When Morning Comes by Kelly Fyffe Marshall and Bob Marley: One Love by Reinaldo Marcus Green.
The just-wrapped iteration, he informed The Sunday Gleaner, is “the first time we approached corporate companies and Government and the response and interest has been positive. We hope we can further those relationships and create new ones with more sponsors to create a bigger event. Jamaica Tourist Board and Worthy Park came aboard this year.”
Looking ahead, Cobran, who maintains a day job as a much-called-upon director of photography here in Jamaica, maintains that the Skylark Film Festival can continue to eke out a critical presence in Jamaica’s cultural space. “Skylark has the potential to play a transformative role in the arts community, both locally and globally. It could serve as a major platform for showcasing Jamaican stories, giving voice to underrepresented perspectives, and strengthening the region’s cultural identity,” he posited.
The next staging of the Skylark Film Festival is tentatively set for October 2 to 4, 2025.
English (US) ·