Claudine Housen , & Heather Henry, Gleaner Writers

The Henzell family as they watch the film 'No Place Like Home' at the Flashpoint Film Festival, at the Caves in Negril, last Friday. The members are: (from left) Laura Henzell, wife of son Jason Henzell, Jason, widow Sally and daughter Justine. - photos by Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

It was almost as if Perry Henzell was speaking from the afterlife when his film, No Place Like Home, made its Jamaican premier at the Flashpoint Film festival, in Negril last Friday.

A legendary director known for his work on the critically acclaimed film The Harder They Come passed away on Thursday, a day before the premier of the film.

The highlight of Flashpoint's opening night, the premier was preceded by homage to Henzell from his wife, Sally, whose reading of his tribute to Greer-Ann Saulter, one of the founders of the festival, set the stage for the screening, thereby invoking his presence.

"I happen to believe in life after death," she quoted him as saying. "Not because of religion but because of electricity which is throughout the universe and which is a recording medium."

After 30 years in the making, No Place Like Home can indeed be seen as Henzell's medium to the world.

Setting

Set in Jamaica during the 1970s, the film traces the experiences of Susan (Susan O'Meara), a New York producer whose sunflower shampoo commercial is thrown into a tailspin when its actress PJ (PJ Soles) disappears from the set. Anxious to recover what is left of the commercial, Susan, with the aid of Carl (Carl Bradshaw), a Jamaican taxi driver, combs the Jamaican countryside.

As the journey unfolds, it becomes clear that, while the film is largely about Susan's search for PJ and subsequent interaction with Jamaican people and their culture, there is a sub-plot in which Henzell seems to be speaking to his audience, trying to open their eyes to the beauty of their homeland.

This is epitomised in the recurring song "We all live in a world of beauty the sun is going to shine today."

There are clear instances in which the audience is taken on a visual and historical journey into the heart of the Jamaican experience, solidified in one of the images on a flyer in one, the early scenes which reads: "To know Jamaica you have to meet the people." This concept is carried throughout, as Susan visits go-go clubs and the market and engages in philosophical discussions with Rastafarians.

Unspoilt beauty

There is no stone left unturned as Henzell depicts an era of unspoilt beauty where people laughed together in the town market and when one dollar was a lot of money. Even the music is reflective of the time as the audience is treated to songs of the age such as Desmond Decker and the Aces' Israelites.

Also, for commentary on the politics of the early tourism trade, Henzell uses Carl to generate dialogue on the issues of development, representational politics and social ills.

No Place Like Home is a potential classic in which Henzell has captured and preserved the essence of Jamaican life in the 1970s and slowly releases it to his audience. It is indeed, "A cosmic cruising through the celestial ocean." Needless to say, the film closed to resounding applause.