IT is uncertain whether the Reggae Film Festival will be staged in Jamaica this year, but the event is definitely down for southern California May 16-18.

Barbara Blake Hannah, executive director of the Jamaica Film Academy, says the festival takes place in San Diego at the World Beat Cultural Center.

Blake Hannah told the Sunday Observer that an invitation to stage the event there came from Makeda ‘Dread’ Makossa, executive director of the World Beat Center and organiser of the 30-year Tribute to Reggae Legends/Bob Marley Day Music Festival.

“I’m so glad that the film festival is recognised outside of Jamaica as a valuable entertainment event,” Blake Hannah said.

She added that Makossa’s gesture is a reflection of her love for Jamaican culture.

“I have known her from way back and she had wanted to bring a reggae film festival there for a long time.”

The World Beat Center is a non-profit multi-cultural arts organisation dedicated to promoting, presenting and preserving African and Indigenous cultures.

Among the films to be shown at the World Beat Center are Just Another Friday (Jamaica); Dear Jesus (England); and Hill and Gully (United States).

This year would mark the sixth anniversary of the Reggae Film Festival festival which was last held in August at the Island Village Shopping and Entertainment Mall.

Blake Hannah is in the dark about its future in Jamaica.

“I have no idea if there will be a Reggae Film Festival in Jamaica this year because I don’t see where the resources to present it will come from,” she said.

— Cecelia Campbell-Livingston