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

Zwarte Ibis (Black Ibis) is a short poetic film made by Belgo-Dutch grassroots media platform Black Speaks Back portraying a young Black woman’s quest for intimacy in a world where the boundaries between the individual and the collective, the political and the personal, the past and the present, become ever blurrier. The short film is an afro-surrealistic reverie, poetically re-imagining our contemporary conceptions of relationships with the self and with imagined communities through a questioning of historically and culturally imposed views on Black people’s intimate lives in the diaspora.

Caribbean Creativity co-hosted the world premiere of Zwarte Ibis (Black Ibis) in January 2024, and currently serves as the film festival strategist of the film.

Dir: Emma-Lee Amponsah | 2024 | The Netherlands | narrative short | 18 min.

Eating Papaw on the Seashore is a short coming-of-age film produced by the Georgetown Film Festival in collaboration with the Commonwealth Foundation two queer Guyanese boys, who are navigating their feelings in a homophobic society.

Caribbean Creativity was one of the official backers of  Eating Papaw on the Seashore.

Dir: Nikose Layne | 2022 | Guyana | narrative short | 18 min. | Trailer

Yung Kunta is a short Afrofuturistic love story on migration, homophobia and racism. After yet another bullying incident, Yung Kunta, a young African DJ grappling with his sexual identity, decides to leave his home country, the Gambia, and to take the risky backway to Europe. He ends up in the Netherlands, where he gets to experience freedom and love he never thought possible. His former life seems far away, but for how long?

Emiel Martens, founding director of Caribbean Creativity, serves as the producer and story editor of Yung Kunta, which is currently in pre-production.

Dir: Bas Ackermann | 2022 | The Gambia / The Netherlands | narrative short | 20-30 min.

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 

Gifts from Babylon is an award-winning short film exploring the impact of Africa-EU migration through the lens of a Gambian return-migrant. The film captures the personal and cultural conflicts that arise when Amadou, a young West African, returns to his home country after having lived illegally in the once promised paradise, Europe. Gifts from Babylon shows the return of an African migrant after having lived illegally in Babylon for five years. Babylon is the name that is often used in West Africa when referring to Europe, the idealized destination of many young West Africans when taking the so-called backway, the dangerous and illegal journey to Europe across deserts and high seas. The main character is Amadou, a 28-year old Gambian who took the backway when he was in his early twenties. Back then, he stole money from local gang leader Jimmy to cross the desert by truck and ended up in a smuggler’s boat to Europe. Now, five years later he returns to his home country, to reunite with his family and friends. After a harsh life of hustling on the streets of Italy and the Netherlands, Amadou comes back to the Gambia as a changed man – a bluffing man his family and friends can’t get along with. On top of that, the debts he left behind have not been forgotten by local gang leader Jimmy. While suffering from intense flashbacks of his Babylon life in Europe, and experiencing the poverty and insecurity of African ghetto life all over again, he wonders what has become of him…

Emiel Martens, founding director of Caribbean Creativity, served as the producer and story editor of Gifts from Babylon, which has been shown at 75+ film festivals and other events wordwide and won various awards.

Dir: Bas Ackermann | 2018 | The Gambia / The Netherlands | narrative short | 24 min.

Website Gifts from Babylon  |  Facebook Gifts from Babylon  |  Watch Gifts from Babylon

After being smuggled into Trinidad and Tobago to be with her brother Wei, Zhenzhen, an illegal Chinese immigrant, discovers the true cost of her arrival.

Moving Parts is one of a handful of new feature films being produced within the Caribbean, poised to present new images and stories to the international market. After the death of her father, a Chinese immigrant, Zhenzhen, is smuggled into Port of Spain in order to be with her brother Wei. Unbeknownst to them, the restaurant where Wei has found her work serves more than just food. Zhenzhen arranges for an advance from the restaurant’s owner, Mrs. Liu, in order to pay the money she owes as a result of her illegal entry onto the island, and Mrs. Liu’s narcissistic son, Shin, takes a unwanted interest in Zhenzhen’s future. When a devastating event tears at the very fabric of Zhenzhen’s existence, only through the help of a neighboring art gallerist, Evelyn, and the restaurant’s Cook, does she have a chance at life. Moving Parts is unique in that it is not a thriller, but rather a human drama, exposed from the inside out. Utilising a local context, this film will address one of the most pressing contemporary global social issues, human trafficking. The film will present a fresh approach to a difficult topic through the eyes of female characters, crafted by a female writer/director, shot by a female cinematographer and produced by Caribbean women.

Caribbean Creativityserved as an official backer of Moving Parts through their Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

Dir: Emilie Upczak | 2017 | T&T | drama

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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