Five local films will premiere at the upcoming Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF), slated for September 19 to 26 in Port-of-Spain.

The projects are ‘Code’ by Sarah Manley; ‘Fever Dream’, Nile Saulter; ‘Mango Wars’, Kyle Chin; ‘One Patty’, Gay Magnus and ‘This City of Mine’ by Danielle Russell.

The opportunity came from the Propella Initiative, a thrust by Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) and Jamaica Film and Television Association (JAFTA), to support the talent of Jamaican film-makers and garner international exposure for the culture through film.

Film Commissioner at JAMPRO, Renée Robinson, explained that Propella is a script-to-screen programme that nurtures Jamaican content creators and enables them to tell their stories cinematically by providing funding and technical support.

When aspiring filmmaker Danielle Russell attends a leading film festival in France later this year, she will likely be more concerned with making deals than simply showing her short film.

Industry events like the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and others around the globe, carve out the bulk of roughly US$3 billion in film financing between filmmakers, financiers, international sales agents, distributors and marketers.

The Government of Jamaica’s marketing arm, JAMPRO, wants more Jamaicans in that mix.

After all, films that registered with JAMPRO last year employed just under 2,800 persons and earned some $793 million, up from $745 million a year earlier, according to latest Planning Institute of Jamaica data published in the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica. That’s a sizeable chunk of the entertainment industry earnings, referred to as the creative industries. Not surprisingly, JAMPRO wants to grow that amount and the associated jobs.

Russell will show her short film, This City of Mine, at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. She, however, still awaits a call-back regarding showing her short film at Clermont-Ferrand, described by the organisers as the world’s largest short-film festival.