As Jamaica’s beaches are increasingly captured by private and tourist interests, a movement fights to reclaim access to the island’s coastline, exposing how tourism displaces communities, disrupts livelihoods, and degrades environments.

Beach Inna Bondage: The Fight for Jamaica’s Coastline is a documentary by Kingston-based Dutch filmmaking duo Emiel Martens and Elsie Vermeer in collaboration with JaBBEM and Keznamdi exploring the growing struggle for beach access in Jamaica. Since the 1950s, public access to the island’s beaches has steadily declined, leaving less than one percent of the coastline publicly accessible for Jamaicans. Over the decades, most of Jamaica’s beaches have been captured by private and tourist interests, and particularly since the 2000s large-scale hotel developments have limited beach access for Jamaicans.

This film follows the grassroots movement resisting the privatization of Jamaican beaches by zooming in on three frontline struggles: Bob Marley Beach near Kingston, the Blue Lagoon in the parish of Portland, and Mammee Bay Beach on the island’s North Coast. The interviewees, all Jamaicans, reveal how the 1956 Beach Control Act, which is still in effect today, vests ownership of the foreshore in the Jamaican state (and actually the British Crown) and traces how this colonial-era law, combined with the island’s all-inclusive tourism model, has displaced communities, disrupted livelihoods, and degraded environments. Interwoven with archival footage, news clips, and recordings of protest rallies and court cases, the interviewees situate today’s beach access struggles within Jamaica’s troubled history of land ownership following emancipation and independence. They argue that the island’s tourism industry replicates plantation logic by monopolizing land, concentrating wealth, exporting profits, and, ultimately, marginalizing the people.

Beach Inna Bondage shows that beach access, which is not only an issue in Jamaica but across the Caribbean and beyond, is an urgent matter of historical, economic, social, cultural and environmental justice, raising the question of who the tropical paradise of sun, sand, and sea truly serves, and at what cost…

Caribbean Creativity serves as the producer of this documentary.

Dir: Emiel Martens and Elsie Vermeer | 2026 | 29′ | Jamaica and the Netherlands | Documentary | Instagram | IMDb | FilmFreeway | Press Release

Film Location Jamaica is an upcoming documentary series mapping the history of Jamaica as a film location for both overseas and homegrown filmmakers.

Caribbean Creativity serves as the producer of this documentary, which is planned to be completed by the end of the year.

Dir: Emiel Martens | 2024 | The Netherlands and Jamaica | Documentary series

Blipster Chronicles is a feature-length documentary showing the lives and times of Afro creatives in the Netherlands. Blipsterism is a state of mind of black youngsters between their twenties and thirties who are alternative, independent, creative and love art and artistic expression. This subculture originated as a counter-voice to mainstream art. Blipsters are more or less the dandies of the 2000s, people who see art as a necessity to express who they are. Blipsters, literally Black Hipsters, have become increasingly visible in Dutch society. In Blipster Chronicles, director Noami Wills powerfully captures their stories; stories that are key to change the outsider representation of black people and celebrate the strength of the black creative community.

Caribbean Creativity works as a story editor on Blipster Chronicles, which is expected to receive its premiere in 2022.

Dir: Naomi Wills | 2022 | Nederland | Documentary

Interview about Blipster Chronicles  |  Facebook Page Blipster Chronicles

Studio Drummie One and the History of Rock Steady Music is a feature-length documentary on the development of rocksteady, the predecessor of reggae, in Jamaica in the 1960s, with a specific focus on the role of the famous Studio One in Kingston. Join Joe Isaacs (aka Drummie One), and the other remaining original members of the Kingston, Jamaica Studio One (1965-1968) rhythm section ‘The Soul Vendors’ (aka Sound Dimension, aka Soul Brothers): Brian Atkinson (bass player), and Hux Brown (guitarist) as they tell the story of how Rock Steady began in 1966 at Studio One. Also starring Bunny Wailer, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Stranger Cole, Lester Sterling, Otis Gayle, The Heptones, Jack Radics, Sly Dunbar, Ken Boothe, The Melodians, Willi Williams, and more. This film introduces the last living original creators of a genre of music that has spread around the globe over the last 50 years and spawned multiple record empires using the Soul Vendors beats without recognition.

Caribbean Creativity served as the story editor of Studio Drummie One. We also organized the Dutch premiere of the film at Reggae Vibrations on January 18, 2019.

Dir: Guy Ragosta | 2018-2019 | Jamaica / United States | Documentary | 77 min.

Watch the full film 

Welcome to the Smiling Coast is a feature-length documentary that offers a rare insight into the daily lives of fifteen youngsters who are struggling to make ends meet in the margins of the Gambian tourism industry. Although the smallest country on mainland Africa, the Gambia has become a popular holiday destination for European tourists, including among older white women. Since 2005 the country typically receives over 100.000 foreign visitors every year, earning its reputation for being Africa’s Costa del Sol. Just a 5-hour flight away, the all-inclusive hotels give them the perfect package for the ‘triple-s’ African adventure of sun, sea and sex.

Ironically, many Gambians, particularly youngsters, reside in poor neighborhoods only a few steps away from the tourist hotels and beaches. With this lure of a better future just around the corner, the dangerous ‘back way’, the illegal crossing across deserts and high seas to Europe, is always lingering in their minds. Do they eventually try their luck abroad or find their peace at home?

Taking a light (and musical) but critical tone, Welcome to the Smiling Coast shows the varied and creative alternative strategies Gambian youngsters employ to secure their livelihood. Capturing their struggles, hopes and dreams, the documentary puts a human and positive face on the informal economy that lies behind the glitter of the Smiling Coast of Africa.

Emiel Martens, founding director of Caribbean Creativity, served as producer and story editor of Welcome to the Smiling Coast, which received its world premiere at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2016, and has since been shown at 50+ film festivals and other  events around the world. Since 2021, we are offering the film for rent at our streaming platform YardVibes.

Dir: Bas Ackermann | 2016 | The Gambia / The Netherlands | documentary | 72 min.

Website Welcome to the Smiling Coast  | Facebook Welcome to the Smiling Coast  |  Watch Welcome to the Smiling Coast

Onbekend Onbemind (Unknown Unloved, 2015) is a 40-minute documentary on the Surinamese LGBT community in both Suriname and the Netherlands. Homosexuality and other alternative forms of sexuality are still often considered taboo in the (Dutch) Surinamese community. In an attempt to break their silence, this upcoming documentary provides a platform for members of the Surinamese LGBT community to share their personal stories about the difficulties they experience because of their sexuality.

The documentary is an initiative of a group of young filmmakers from Suriname and the Netherlands, including Sabrina Sugiarto (director) and Quincy Lisse (camera and editor). With their film they hope to foster a space for engagement and dialogue around sexual diversity and discrimination of LGBT people in Suriname and the Netherlands.

Caribbean Creativity served as one of the official supporters of Onbekend Onbemind.

Dir: Sabrina Sugiarto | 2015 | The Netherlands / Suriname | Short documentary

Facebook Page Onbekend Onbemind 

Art Connect (2014) is a feature-length documentary that reveals the powerful process of creative intervention in the Success Laventille Secondary School in Trinidad and Tobago.  Levantille is one of the most crime-laden and violent communities in Trinidad and Tobago. But co-existing with the high crime rate and poverty is a thriving arts movement. The Success Levantille Secondary School sponsors the Art Connect Program. This program offers students from high-risk environments a chance to learn ways to express themselves and communicate outside the culture of violence and fear. Partnering with urban artist Wendell McShine, the Freetown Collective, and London’s Company Chameleon Dance Theatre, this program offers exposure to the arts and a chance for growth and hope. The filmmakers gave some of these students cameras to document their lives outside of school and their personal thoughts about participating in the program. By incorporating this footage into the larger documentary, Art Connect (2014) gives us an intimate look at how these young people try to create a world of possibility to counter the often grim realities they face. It is an uplifting journey of transformation and a testament to the role art plays in genuine social change.

Caribbean Creativity served as the official representative of Art Connect in the Netherlands. We entered the film in World Cinema Amsterdam 2015 (Dutch premiere) as well as in the Da Bounce Urban Film Festival 2015. We also organized a high school screening of the film in Amsterdam arthouse cinema Rialto.

Dir: Miguel Galofré | 2014 | Trinidad & Tobago | Documentary

Watch the Trailer of Art Connect  |  Facebook Page Art Connect 

Yurumein (Homeland, 2014) presents the untold story of Carib/Garifuna resistance against slavery that deserves its place in the annals of the African Diaspora. The film recounts the painful past of the Caribs on St Vincent and the extermination of scores of their ancestors at the hands of the British, while building an intimate portrait of Garifuna culture-in-transition today. The film gives firsthand accounts from both Carib descendents who remain on the island of St Vincent and voices of returning descendents whose ancestors were exiled to Central America—where Garifuna traditional culture was able to survive and flourish.

Caribbean Creativity served as one of the official backers of Yurumein.

Dir: Andrea Leland | 2014 | St. Vincent/USA | Documentary

Official Yurumein site  |  Facebook Yurumein 

Miquel Galofré’s Hit Me With Music is a documentary about Jamaica’s dancehall scene and especially of one of its biggest names, Yellowman. The documentary is jam-packed with interviews from dancers and street kids to the scene’s biggest stars. Including Mavado, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, Bunny Lee, Black Scorpio, Jammys, Tony Rebel, Queen Ifrica, Bongo Herman, Mighty Crown and, of course, Yellowman himself. Their interviews bring insight into dancehall songs, their controversial lyrics, and how a musical phenomenon, such as dancehall, reflects the lives of the Jamaicans.

Thirty years after Bob Marley’s death, dancehall has become Jamaica’s prominent musical export. From the Caribbean soundsystems its sound has spread all over the world, even finding a foothold in far-off Helsinki and Joensuu. The documentary’s main character Yellowman’s reign in the scene started in the 1980s when he drove Jamaica wild with his explicitly sexual lyrics. His success was actually quite surprising as he was born an albino, who are normally discriminated heavily against in Jamaica. However, Yellowman was able to win the hearts of the soundsystem crowd despite his gruesome appearance and skin colour. He has garnered himself a reputation of a supreme performer with his highly physical concerts. His energy, and that of the dancehall scene in general, is beautifully captured by Miquel Galofré in the film that has been awarded multiple times at reggae film festivals.

Caribbean Creativity served as story editor of Hit Me With Music. We also organized the Dutch premiere of the film at the very first edition of Yard Vibes on July 15, 2011. Since 2021, so ten years later, we were able to add the film to our streaming platform YardVibes.

Dir: Miquel Galofré | 2011 | Jamaica/Spain | Documentary

Trailer Hit Me With Music  |  Facebook Hit Me With Music  |  Watch Hit Me With Music

The feature-length documentary RasTa: A Soul’s Journey presents the story of one young woman, Donisha Prendergast, and her journey to explore Rastafari, the spiritual legacy of her grandparents, Rita and Bob Marley. Born in 1984, three years after her grandfathers untimely death, her knowledge of him and his Rastafarian beliefs have been handed down primarily through family lore, his music and media stories. Donisha’s filmic odyssey is intimate and personal historic, as she balances revelations about Rastafarianism with her own self-discovery. She treks through time and geographic space – USA, Israel, Ethiopia, South Africa, UK, India, Canada, Jamaica – to reason with elders and new-school Rastas about the evolution and global impact of Rastafari since its beginnings in the 30’s.

Caribbean Creativity served as executive producer of RasTa. We also organized the Dutch premiere of the film at the seventh edition of Rootical Vibrations on November 9, 2012.

Dir: Stuart Samuels | 2011 | Jamaica/Canada | Documentary

Official RasTa site  |  Facebook RasTa | IMDb RasTa