The Department of Literatures in English and the Institute of Caribbean Studies, UWI, Mona will host a series of activities in March under the theme “March is Movie Month at Mona”. The activities will take the form of talks, discussions, guest lectures and film screenings every Friday at 6:00 pm at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1) throughout the month of March.
 
The Movie Month activities will focus on Jamaican film and will begin on March 2 with a guest lecture by filmmaker Barbara Blake Hannah on the topic “Harder and Betta: Fifty Years of Jamaican Cinema”. Ms Hannah has made six documentaries and two feature films for television and is the main driving force behind the Reggae Film Festival. She is also an author and music journalist.
 
On March 9, Director Chris Browne will be the featured presenter. Browne is the director of the recently released, highly acclaimed Ghett’A Life, a film about the divisive party politics of the 1970s. He also directed the very popular 1999 action movie Third World Cop..
 
On March 23, Dr. Esther Figueroa will talk about her work as an activist, independent filmmaker. Dr. Figueroa has been involved in making various types of films and media products over the past 25 years. Her work gives voice to those outside of mainstream media, and aims to counter the dominant values, information and world views portrayed in commercial media. One of her better known films is Jamaica For Sale, a 2008 documentary about tourism and unsustainable development.
 
The sessions on March 16 and March 30 will feature film screenings followed by discussion.
 
The activities are part of an initiative to raise awareness and create interest in film studies. The Department of Literatures in English expects to significantly increase its courses offerings in this area when it will offer, in collaboration with the Institute of Caribbean Studies, a Film Studies minor beginning September 2012. 
 
 
The public is invited to attend to attend these events. For more information interested persons may telephone 927-2217.