National Gallery West Premieres ‘The Price of Memory’ in Montego Bay

The Montego Bay Cultural Centre and National Gallery West are pleased to present the Montego Bay premiere of the documentary ‘The Price of Memory,’ a documentary film by Karen Marks Mafundikwa, on Saturday, October 18, starting at 7 pm, at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, Sam Sharpe Square. The film maker will be in attendance to introduce the film and to answer questions afterwards. Admission will be free but donations in support of the Montego Bay Cultural Centre programmes will be gratefully accepted.

Filmed over the span of eleven years, ‘The Price of Memory’ explores the legacy of slavery in the UK and Jamaica and the initiatives and debates surrounding reparations. The film starts in 2002, with Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Jamaica as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations, when she is petitioned by a small group of Rastafari for slavery reparations. The film traces this petition and the first reparations lawsuit to be filed in Jamaica against the Queen, while interweaving stories of earlier Rastas who pursued reparations and repatriation in the 1960s. The filmmaker travels to the UK, exploring the cities which grew wealthy from slavery and the British monarchy’s legacy of slavery, and follows the debates about reparations in both the Jamaican and British parliaments. ‘The Price of Memory’ premiered at Pan African Film Festival 2014 in Los Angeles and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the upcoming Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival 2014 in late September. The Jamaican premiere was at UWI-Mona on September 7 and the film received a standing ovation from the capacity audience.

Karen Marks Mafundikwe is Jamaican filmmaker who originates from Montego Bay and the opening scene of ‘The Price of Memory’ is set on Sam Sharpe Square. She holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism and Anthropology from New York University and an MSc in International Development from the Tulane University School of Law. Mafundikwa is also credited with another  documentary feature ‘Shungu: The Resilience of a People’ (2009 which won the Ousmane Sembene Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival 2010 and Best Documentary, Kenya International Film Festival 2010.

All interested persons are cordially invited to attend the Montego Bay premier of ‘The Price of Memory’ on October 18. This event also launches the National Gallery West/Montego Bay Cultural Centre film programme.