The Independent Movie Flight Needs Support

From the little island of big dreams comes Kemar. An inner city youth from Kingston, Jamaica, with possibly the biggest dream of all. To fly to the moon. A story that explores dreams bigger than us, what fuels them, what stands in the way of them, their ability to transport us and those around us, if they take FLIGHT. 

Stories about violence are more common coming out of Jamaica. They are one truth. It was important to tell a different story, a different truth to our children and to the rest of the world. That Jamaica is a little island of big dreamers.

Through Jamaica Film & Television Association (JAFTA) Propella – a short film script-to-screen developmental initiative, funded by CHASE with promotional support by JAMPRO – Flight was chosen as one of the four 2018 winners to win funding  towards the production of our short film.

‘Flight’ has just started it’s film festival journey and has already gotten off to an amazing start, proudly representing Jamaican filmmakers and Jamaica overall.

Flight was nominated in 7 categories and won ‘Best Screenplay’, ‘Audience Award’ & ‘Best In Festival’ (the overall prize for the entire festival, winning a cash prize and a meeting with HBO) at the BWFN (Black Women Film Network) Film Festival In Atlanta on March 9th. To be chosen 1st out of 104 entries in our very first US film festival was a dream come true.
http://www.blackwomenfilm.org/

Flight then went on to win ‘Best Short Film’ & ‘People’s Choice Award’ 
at the Nouveaux Regards In Guadeloupe, 8 days later on March 17th in Guadeloupe! Another amazing achievement and in a french-speaking country this time! Jamaica dominated this festival with ‘Sprinter’ winning ‘Best Feature’ and ‘Flight’ winning ‘Best Short’. Another win for our country – like a Jamaican film Olympic team winning both long and short distances 🙂 We were very sad that we were not able to physically attend that festival due to finances as it was a great opportunity to have a physical presence, represent for Jamaica and make important contacts. https://www.nouveauxregardsff.com/

It is our hope to not have to miss any more film festivals that we are selected for. Especially in light of the fact that some film festivals take off points in judging if representatives from the film do not attend. Can you imagine the difference between winning and losing being able to afford to attend the festival.

Flight was also screened at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival in Massachusetts, USA & the Hairouna Film Festival in St. Vincent at the end of March (these however did not have awards sections).

Flight has now been officially selected for 
1. The PanAfrican International Film Festival Cannes
April 17th -21st
http://fifp.fr

2. To participate in a ‘Short Film Corner’ At Cannes Film Festival (May 14th – 25th) for ‘Underrepresented Groups’ which was very competitive.

3. Also awaiting to hear if Flight has been selected for Diversity In Cannes Film Festival

4. Flight was also just recently selected for a film festival in the USA (May 7th – 11th)  that pushes for INCLUSION in the american film industry. Official press release will announce to the public soon.

Just like our main character, Kemar dreams of flying to the moon which feels so far out of his reach – we too have big dreams that often feel out of our reach as filmmakers in Jamaica. We dream of attending, competing and winning film festivals for our country, for the 3 inner city children that star in this film and for every Jamaican with big dreams. We even dream of flying these three kids up to one of the future US festivals so they can experience it for themselves. With your help, we can shoot for the stars and TAKE FLIGHT.

Thank you for your time and help.

Sincerely,
The Flight Crew