Art Bytes

FILM - YOUNG JAMAICAN FILMMAKER WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

 

Jamaican director Isabella Issa’s short film Yellow Girl and Me has been racking up several awards at the Black Film Festival of New Orleans, getting Best Director, Best Writer, Best Film and Best Actress. The film has also been selected for the Toronto Black Film Festival and the feature length screenplay made it to the second round (of two) of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Development Lab and is getting interests from other producers.

 

Inspired by Issa’s real life friend, Nicole Robertson, the film tells the story of abuse of her and her older sister-guardian, and Nicole’s own battle with losing her hearing. Yellow Girl and Me was developed as a thesis project to complete Issa’s Master of Fine Arts in Directing at the American Film Conservatory and was then selected for production. It has since premiered in Los Angeles and recently in Kingston. Issa is working on her second feature script, a coming-of-age drama about Jamaican schoolgirls.  

 

Art Bytes

Jamaican teen Sule Kamu Thelwell has been chosen as one of 18 out of nearly 5,000 applicants to be accepted for the Bachelor of Arts in acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the

Jamaican Radcliffe (Ruddy) Roye has been named one of nine 2020-2021 National Geographic Storytelling Fellows.

British actor of Jamaican heritage Clint Dyer is set to direct an upcoming Bob Marley musical, Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Story.

Breakout Film Festival is currently accepting submissions for its July short film contest.

Deborah Anzinger has been chosen as a 2020 Soros Art Fellow.

Jamaican photographer Barry Harley is one of 120 winners of the 61st annual Communications Arts magazine photography competition.

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