Trevor Rhone and the Jamaican delegation at the Savoy Cinema

Trevor Rhone and the Jamaican delegation at the Savoy Cinema

Cork Film Festival, Savoy Cinema, Jamaica, Trevor Rhone, Perry Henzell

This is a black and white photo of the celebrated Jamaican playwright and film director Trevor Rhone and his colleagues at the Savoy Cinema in Cork. They are walking up the stone steps of the Savoy in the company of a lady identified as Dympna Warren. Warren is turned in conversation towards her companion, in sunglasses and a dark suit, who has his head lowered as he listens to her.  Behind them Trevor Rhone, wearing a light-coloured cheesecloth shirt, is heading up the steps in the company of his colleagues. We can just make out the day-time scene behind them at the doors of the cinema, where a small crowd can be seen milling around.

This photo is dated 1972 which was the year that Rhone’s successful film, co-written with Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972), was released. This gritty realist film, in which the Jamaican reggae singer Jimmy Cliff played a lead role, is credited for introducing reggae music and Jamaican culture to a global audience. It was Jamaica’s first homegrown film and arguably its greatest. When it premiered at the 1,500-seat cinema theatre in Kingston, Jamaica, in December 1972, 40,000 Jamaicans turned up.

Trevor Rhone (1940-2009) grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, the last child of twenty-three. He went to drama school in England on a scholarship and on his return to Jamaica would instigate a resurgence of interest in Jamaican theatre, in particular with his 1971 play, the comedy Smile Orange. During this time he teamed up with the Jamaican director Perry Henzell to write the now seminal screenplay for The Harder They Come.

Rhone made a significant impact on the literature and culture of Jamaica helping to bring it to an international audience. In 1972 he received his first award in Cork for the best-edited film (for The Harder They Come), before travelling to Brixton’s Classic Cinema in London, where he had to stand outside the cinema handing out leaflets in an attempt to woo an audience in. Rhone later made Smile Orange (1975), based on his 1971 play; while it didn’t have the same impact as his earlier film, it was well-received in the Caribbean and Jamaica and went on to win a gold medal at the Cork Film Festival in 1975.

(David Katz, ‘Trevor Rhone obituary’, The Guardian, 23.09.2009; B.Paddington and K.Q.Warner, ‘The Emergence of Caribbean Feature Films’, Black Camera, Winter 2009, pp 91-108.)

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, Bateman Photography

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

1972

Bateman Photography

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

English, eng

Cork, Ireland

Photo

241 x 192mm