Rachel Moseley-Wood
Temporary Lecturer
Department of Literatures in English
UWI, Mona

Bad Man Fi Who?....Constructing Identity in Jamaican Film and Documentary

The paper will attempt to explore the impact of the cinema on Jamaican consciousness: the dynamics and implications of the Jamaican audience’s willingness to believe the make believe of the cinema (Warner) and the role that films have played in shaping identity, in particular, concepts and ideas about masculinity. The paper identifies the Western as occupying a particularly influential space within this framework and attempts to explore the referential relationship between this genre and the construction of identity with specific reference to the Jamaican film, Third World Cop, and the Andem Gang video “The Andem Warriors” which was recovered by the Jamaican police during a raid of the gang’s hideout and later broadcast on television.