Toronto International Film Festival kicks off today. Yes, yes, it's in Toronto, not Hollywood - but I need to plug a very important film by some very nice filmmakers - No Place Like Home by Perry Henzell. I was fortunate to once meet Perry at a party. He is the man responsible for introducing the mainstream western world to reggae in his debut film The Harder They Come. Jimmy Cliff's soundtrack quickly became a chart-topper and a classic. The film's loving sensitivity to the Jamaican culture brought American audiences into Kingston's inequalities before Bob Marley recorded on U.S. shores.
Henzell only made one other film, incomplete for many years until now. No Place Like Home is a poetic companion film, and a collage of multiple trips to Jamaica, not to mention a reconstructed negative and decades between re-shoots. A familiar fish out of water tale takes deeper roots as the film follows a white woman's trip into rural Jamaica. Expect topless sunbathing, killer ganja and rock steady and expect to not see anything else like it. Grace Jones' first time on film is history making enough. The Toronto film festival recognizes it as a new film and a time capsule; the island of 1970s free love does not exist anymore. The journey in Henzell's films are fitting. His journey to get them financed and seen are definitely part of the bigger picture. Congratulations to all those involved. I'm so jealous I can't be in Canada this week.
Festival guide & full article.

Labels: film, reviews