Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) is making a big push for the domestic film industry.

As part of this big push, JAMPRO is promising to continue urging the Government of Jamaica to put in place a comprehensive set of incentives for the industry. JAMPRO president Diane Edwards is pointing to the vast opportunities for the local industry, making reference to the current filming locally of Jamaican author, Marlon James HBO series.

She is looking forward to welcoming more productions like this in Jamaica whilst expressing her excitement at the potential for telling more authentic Jamaican stories through the medium of big screen and small screen productions.

In a post on LinkedIn, Edwards commented, “our team is building the right connections in Hollywood that will see a new appreciation of the diversity of Jamaican film locations, the talent and creativity of our local writers and actors and the technical capacity of our local crews.”

Successful Los Angeles meetings

This extra thrust by Jampro into more local filming follows a series of meetings with film industry executives in Los Angeles, California by a three-member delegation from JAMPRO and the local film commission.

The purpose of the visit by Film Commissioner Renee Robinson along with Tristan Alleyne, senior officer in the Film Commission and JAMPRO’s vice-president Norman Naar was to increase both investment and export opportunities for the Jamaican screen industries.

The Jamaican delegation met American film powerhouses including Disney, Paramount Pictures, Amazon Studios, Netflix and Sony Studios, as well as film financiers and film and television distributors.

The meetings focused on promoting Jamaica as a film business destination for international projects looking to film location, as well as opportunities for development, financing, production, and exhibition for local content.

In addition, the delegation also had meetings around opportunities for breaking ground on physical studio infrastructure.