‘Reconnecting with the Motherland’ in film

A Barbadian movie, set to premiere here Tuesday and cinemas in the West African nations of Ghana and Nigeria, is being billed as a bridge between Barbadian moviegoers and the continent from which most of their ancestors came.

“An amazing experience that will help everyone in the African diaspora come to terms with their heritage” is how Step by Step Productions describes its latest movie, Joseph, said the film’s director, Marcia Weekes, head of the production company.

She told reporters at a media launch of the full-length feature film at the Praise Academy of Dance studios in Collymore Rock, that the film’s plot came to her while in central Africa.

Weekes said: “My husband Dave and I were in Rwanda for a film festival and we discussed the idea of making a movie that would reconnect us with Africa. We spoke with some producers while we were over there, then when we returned I took the idea to the Minister of Culture John King and he said he liked it.

“At that time, the Pan African Commission was taking a delegation to Ghana to take part in their celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the start of the slave trade, and they asked whether we would want to film them as they travelled.

“However, I didn’t see how that would appeal to an audience, so I suggested that we do a narrative.

“From that I started researching, thinking about the whole theme of reconnecting and Joseph was born”.

The film is the seventh from the makers of Barrow – Freedom Fighter and Chrissy.

It tells the story of young Jamaican doctor Joseph King’s burning desire to return to Africa based on stories he heard from his grandfather about the African motherland.

Weekes said: “His grandfather told him he is connected to the Ashanti tribe, and his desire to reconnect with them causes a lot of conflict in his family as he struggles with this aspect of his identity.

“Eventually, Joseph goes to Ghana, finds his roots and decides to stay there.”

Soca Queen Alison Hinds, who joins the cast as Joseph’s mother, described how she got involved.

She told reporters: “One day I received a phone call “out of the blue” from Marcia Weekes, who told me she was making a movie and she had written a part specifically for me.

“I asked to see the script and I loved the storyline and how Marcia had woven all the different elements together, so I contacted my management and told them I would be taking a month off to shoot the movie.”

The movie was filmed in Barbados, Ghana and Jamaica. Hinds spoke of a moving experience for the cast members in Ghana.

She said: “We went to Cape Coast Castle, one of the main castles where the captured and enslaved Africans would have been held before being sent off to the Caribbean.

“If any of you ever get the opportunity to go to Ghana, go and visit this castle or one of the others, because it is not a story, it is reality and part of our history.

“One day we had to film some scenes there, and some of the cast members were in tears when we finished.”

Errol Griffith, who is marketing the film, said: “One of our earlier films, Chrissy, stayed in the Olympus Theatres for 17 weeks, and we hope to surpass that with Joseph.

“We are already speaking to the schools about getting their students to come out and see it.”

The studio’s last film, Barrow – Freedom Fighter, a docu-drama on the life on the father of Independence, the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, which was released for the 50th anniversary of independence, won the Best Documentary – Diaspora Award at the African Movie Academy Awards in October 2018.

The world premiere of Joseph will open at the Barbados Independent Film Festival on January 14, followed by the Olympus Theatres the next day. A premiere is also planned for Nigeria later this month, and it will also be screened at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, California in February.