The Emergence of Caribbean Feature Films

Abstract

The Caribbean has been associated with films since the end of the nineteenth century, but is not generally known as a film-producing region. The only exception to this would be Cuba, which has developed its indigenous film industry following the triumph of the revolution in 1959. Despite the region’s involvement and fascination with film, its major role has been that of a consumer of foreign films and images. Initially, the Caribbean was forced to accept films from outside the region, since its colonial status made it difficult to finance and produce them, and, more importantly, to have them viewed as authentically Caribbean. Eventually, as the growing tide of national independence swept the region, there emerged a small corpus of feature films as part of what justifiably could be called Caribbean cinema. In fact, all classes of film production benefited from this nascent nationalism, but this study will concern itself mainly with full-length feature films, given their immense popularity throughout the region. What will be important is not so much the finished product as viewed by cinema-goers, but how that product came about, its agonizing birth and difficult childhood, and what these mean for the future of Caribbean cinema.