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This is a Podcast of the Jamaica & Caribbean Weekly News Summary for the week ending June 23, 2023. The JAMAICA WEEKLY News Summary Podcast is brought to you by Jamaicans dot com. For past Jamaica & Caribbean Weekly News Podcasts please visit our archives.

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Dancehall’s Uptop Boss Timoy “Teejay” Jones is the latest Jamaican Dancehall artist to sign to Manhattan-based record label, Warner Music Group.

The signing, which took place in Manhattan, New York, was announced recently by Solid Agency, the local firm that currently manages the Dancehall artist.

L-R: Andrew Krents attorney, TeeJay, Manager Sharon Burke, Warner Chappell CEO Guy Moot

Drift Viral on Tik Tok

TeeJay is said to have the song of the summer – “Drift” which is viral on video sharing social media platform Tik Tok, with over 20 million views on song statistics and a myriad of dance challenges.

Drift also has huge numbers in London, New York, Atlanta and Africa.

In a release that details this new milestone in the artist’s career, Solid Agency notes, “with a major deal like this one and Warner Music machinery behind him, the artiste’s music will be exposed to sync rights, gaming and sky is the limit.”

Solid Agency Boss Sharon Burke chuckles that the deal was only two weeks in the making after sifting through myriad offers and finally feeling at home with Warner.

“TeeJay will do well because he is a good artiste who is committed to the music and the journey to the top.”

Warner’s History With Jamaican Music

Co Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music  Guy Moot says he is happy to see Dancehall music and another Jamaican artiste in this context and on the global rise. The co-chair has been influential with Jamaicans over two decades having worked with ‘Steelie and Cleevie’, ‘Steflon Don’ and having been integral in Stephen ‘the genius’ McGregor’s career.

Photo – Judith Bodley

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“Raised by Goats,” a Jamaican drama directed by Gibrey Allen will be screened at the 76th edition of the Locarno Festival in Locarno, Switzerland.

The festival was founded in 1946 and is held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. The 2023 event will  run from 2 August through 12 August 2023, screening films in both competitive and non-competitive sections that include feature-length narratives, documentaries, and shorts, in addition to avant-garde and retrospective programs.

Allen’s Second Feature Film

“Raised by Goats,” is a Jamaican drama and the second feature film by Gibrey Allen who was born in Jamaica and currently lives in New York.

He made the film following a meeting with its producer Nadean Rawlins at Locarno’s Open Doors in 2022, where he showed his first feature, “Right Near the Beach,” the story of the murder of a Jamaican sprinter that was filmed in Jamaica with a cast of local Jamaicans.

Featuring Caribbean and Latin American Films in Europe

For the second year in a row, the Locarno Film Festival has dedicated its Open Doors Program to films from the Caribbean and Latin America. The Open Doors Program is a co-production platform focusing on film projects from under-represented nations, and its lineup for 2023 includes eight feature films being developed in the featured regions. The films are competing to win the Open Doors Grant, which includes a $55,000 cash bursary, and several other awards.

Other Caribbean films to be showcased at the 2023 festival include:

“Three Bullets” by Génesis Valenzuela, who was born in the Dominican Republic in 1988. She earned a degree in filmmaking at the Altos de Chavón Film School, and her animated short film “Industrializado [Industrialized]” was one of the official 2018 selections for the Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. She also won first place in the Scriptwriting section of the National Film Competition, FONPROCINE, in 2018. “Three Bullets” is her first feature-length film.

“Milky Way”, the latest from director Paz Fábrega of Costa Rica, who has a master’s degree in filmmaking from the London Film School. Her film, “Cold Water of the Sea” was the winner of the 2010 Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, one of the most important awards presented to a Central American film.

“Pantasma,” an animated hybrid film by the exiled Nicaraguan director Gloria Carrión, who is best known for her film, “Heiress of the Wind,” the story of revolutionary Sandinistas fighting to liberate Nicaragua from dictatorship. Her short film, “Leaves of K.” was shown at Open Doors in 2022.

“LOA, Kill Your Masters,” an animated horror film from the writer and director Carlos Zerpa of Venezuela. He won the 2022 Open Doors Online Script Consultancy Award. His 2023 entry was co-written with his friend, Nana Rojas, and is an exploration of Haiti and the root of anti-colonial revolutions.

“Last of the Kings”, a vampire Western by Peruvian director Victor Checa. His debut feature film, “The Shape of Things to Come,” the story of an engineer and his son who are building a machine to produce rain, was shown at the 2021 Tallinn Black Nights Festival.

“Desidia” from director Leandro Grillo of Bolivia and “Libertines,” a drama by director Leslie Ortiz of El Salvador, are also slated for screening.

Photo – Official Instagram Page for Gibrey Allen

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The narrative of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:5-43) is one with which some of us are familiar.  For some, the event culminated with the woman leaving her waterpot “and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, ‘Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’” (vv. 28-29, KJV). However, the story does not end there. Following nine verses of discourse between Jesus and the disciples, John continues, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, ‘He told me all that ever I did’” (v. 39).

Let us not forget that the people in the town of Sychar knew this woman. According to Jewish tradition, those who wished to get wives went to the wells where young women were accustomed to coming and drawing water; and it is supposed that women of ill fame frequented such places also (Albert Clarke). She was the one who had five husbands and was with a man who was not her husband. She did not tell Jesus her story; He told it to her (vv. 16-18). It is no wonder she perceived Him to be a prophet (v. 19). After He made it known to her that He was not just a prophet but the Messiah (vv. 25-26), she immediately went into the city and testified of Him who had told her all she had done. “Come, see a man” were among the first words she uttered. The transformation must have been instantaneous because she, whose reputation was previously questionable, was now deemed credible. So much so that many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of her testimony (v. 39).

However, the best was yet to come for according to John, “So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world’” (vv. 40-42). I believe this latter group was the skeptics, those who came initially not because they believed but to see if what the woman said was true. After two days of listening to Jesus, after drinking the “living water” that was in them “a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” they confessed to believing not because of what the woman said, though that was what had brought them there, but because they had heard, and I would add, “tasted” of Him for themselves.

This came about all because of the power of one woman’s testimony: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” They heard, they came, they experienced for themselves, they believed, and they left knowing for sure that Jesus was the Christ. Len Jones was right when he said, “The Christian’s task is to make the Lord Jesus visible, intelligible, and desirable.” Has God done something truly amazing in your life? Have you thought about sharing your testimony? You just never know if someone hearing it might be encouraged to come, see, hear, experience, and come to know God for themselves.

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