Jamaican premiere for Born in Trench Town
THE documentary Born in Trench Town will have its Jamaican premiere at the Red Bones Blues Cafe in St Andrew next Wednesday, September 12.
Directed by visual and sound artist Greg Pond, who lives in Tennessee, USA, the documentary is said to examine the interwoven social, architectural, and political histories of Jamaica’s most famous neighbourhood.
The one-and-a-half-hour-long film comprises interviews and scenes of daily contemporary life in Trench Town. Many of the current residents have lived there since the beginning and have witnessed the entire history.
In a release, Pond states that the film traverses from First to Seventh Street through the maze of holes in the walls that separate the yards, created when it was too dangerous to walk on streets, stopping along the way to consider the conditions that created the Trench Town of today.
Junior Lee, a community leader and long-time resident, and Jamaican architect Christopher Whyms-Stone, who has done extensive research about the history of the architecture of Kingston 12, guide the journey through the streets and history of Trench Town.
This small area has had a large impact on Jamaica. The history of the place is told by its residents, with the intent to give them a voice in the national conversations in the 50th year of the country’s independence.
The film includes interviews with Michael Smith in London, who was the first president of the Trench Town Development Association.
Born in Trench Town had its world premiere at the One Love Reggae Festival in the United Kingdom on August 12, as part of Reggae Films’ program for the event. The documentary received the distinction of Best New Documentary at that festival.
