With unemployment in Jamaica over 12 per cent, a contraction of the economy and anaemic aggregate demand, Jamaica must now look to its strengths and advantages. The country has undoubtedly exhibited a penchant for the creative industries, producing luminaries such as Harry Belafonte, Monty Alexander, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley, who are highly regarded the world over.

The question is, can the creative industries be positioned as a major contributor to the Jamaican economy at a time when the Government has to go cap in hand to the multilateral agencies and depend on the largesse of the world’s stronger economies?

The task of making the creative industries a more viable contributor to the economy lies with JAMPRO’s manager for the creative industries and Film Commissioner Kim-Marie Spence.

Spence has to make any list of most accomplished women under 40 in Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar and Oxford University graduate, she co-founded the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, the region’s pre-eminent think tank. She has served as a senior researcher for former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, and is the recipient of the United States’ Wesleyan University’s Black Women’s Collective Award. She also enjoyed a career on Wall Street with Lehman Brothers where she made a name for herself as an investment banking analyst.

Her interest in philanthropic and humanitarian endeavours has taken her to Israel and India where she has both lived and worked. She interned at the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation ( UNESCO) in Paris, France. This international background explains why she is fluent in French, Spanish, Hindi and Japanese.

Spence has always had a keen interest in the creative industries and believes that Jamaica can better monetise its gifts in this area. She subscribes to the generally held conviction that Jamaica has always punched above its weight class as far as the creative industries are concerned.

Spence is fortunate in that her ambitions coincide at a time when a lot is expected from a new minister of youth and culture, Lisa Hanna, who has exhibited both an interest in and an appetite for her portfolio. Also, a generation of young film makers and producers — more notably Storm Saulter, Ras Kassa and Justine Henzel — have come onto the scene and are making a reputation for themselves internationally.

On the fashion front, Carlton Brown, Juliet Dyke and Keenea Linton George are leading the charge. These denizens and arbiters of Jamaican culture will be showcasing a 21st century face of the country and are now part of the vanguards of Jamaican culture and arts.

Setting the environment for creative industries to flourish can lead to better employment prospects for Jamaica’s youth, something that is not lost on Spence. Traditionally, many young people have had to make a living in the tourism industry or be ‘desk jockeys’ at a cubicle in some private or public sector position where they follow and adhere to prescribed practices which do not encourage creativity. In short, you do as you are told.

So does JAMPRO propose to help Jamaica’s creative industries? Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from JAMPRO’s headquarters in Kingston Spence said: “We have a creative industries unit but we mainly focus on film, fashion and music, largely because they are the low-hanging fruit. What is important about them is that they are great job-creating devices because they mainly reside in entrepreneurial fields. OK, you may not create something tantamount to a 20th Century Fox in Jamaica just yet, but in the film world you can become an entrepreneur. Secondly, you can’t do it by yourself, so you end up forming a team as Storm Saulter has done with his New Caribbean Cinema collaborative. Unfortunately, we don’t have the public funding that Trinidad, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have, so our artistes have to become very creative and look to alternatives sources of funding. They have a number of short films that will be released soon which will make people sit up and take notice.

“Chris Brownie and his team did a fantastic job with the movie Getta Life. Here Justine Henzel and Natalie Thompson were involved and a collaborative approach was taken. This is the new model of the 21st Century. It means that you don’t have to wait for a job, you create your own by making the content. We see the likes of Shaggy and Beenie Man not only creating a brand but have formed a team around their endeavours. They are creating incubators for new artistes who help to brand Jamaica.”

Spence is of the view that this approach needs to be supported because it not only helps to put Jamaica on the map but creates jobs. From these efforts come producers, musicians, artistes, set designers and the like. She sees filmmakers having to find funds to make their films and here they have to be diverse. So making a few music videos, thus creating income, can assist in making that feature film and this goes some way in sustaining the film and music video industry.

“Music is huge for Jamaica and that needs to be recognised,” said Spence. “We all know what Bob Marley has done for Jamaica, but that was nearly 30 years ago. Today, we have Shaggy, Sean Paul and, to a lesser extent, Sean Kingston who have played a big part in continuing to champion brand Jamaica and quite frankly we cannot pay for the branding they give us.

“Even with Better Must Come winning an award at the Bahamas International Film Festival and then getting written up in the Hollywood Reporter, to buy advertisement space in the Hollywood Reporter is expensive, too expensive for us, so we have to rely on the multiplier effect.”

JAMPRO’s creative industries manager points to the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) estimate that Jamaica’s creative industries have a multiplier effect of four. She stresses the returns to the individual artistes, the linkages to other parts of the economy and then the branding of the country.

The new generation of Jamaican fashion designers have had very little help, if any at all, from State agencies and largely have had to get by through their own initiatives. Spence must now find a way to better help those who are playing their part in pushing the Jamaica brand and who can compete effectively with designers across the world. For instance, Carlton Brown’s reputation is growing and he is being acknowledged by many international menswear designers. He now needs the State’s assistance to some degree in order to put him in the big leagues.

Spence would like to see designers get more help with both promotion and manufacturing, and is calling on all Jamaicans to get behind Keenea Linton George’s TV show Mission Catwalk which begins its second season next month and will be showcasing talent right across the Caribbean. She notes the commendable work that Romeich Major has done dressing many of the country’s leading music stars and points to this as an example of linkages that work. Also, it could spur trade shows that would put the spotlight on local talent while at the same time serve as an income earner.

Animation has taken off in Jamaica, and Flow’s Cabbie Chronicles has done well. It will now be aired in Trinidad and there is potential for it to go to other Caribbean islands. Spence would like to help to facilitate the creation of demand for Jamaican animation and sees South America as a big market. This leads to another stated mission of hers — strengthening the Intellectual Property (IP) rights of artistes. At the moment, this area is a bone of contention, with many players in the creative industries being ripped off. Here the legislation needs to be tightened up and rules put in place.

Spence has outlined the film industry’s strategic objectives as follows:

1. Diversification of business type (into TV and Reality) and origin (Europe)

2. Diaspora business

3. Incentive policy change — to get incentives for incoming and local productions

4. Increased contacts (higher-end and distribution)

As far as music is concerned, the strategic objectives here are:

1. To effect a policy change and enact an Entertainment and Encouragement Act

2. Oversee better copyright awareness and utilisation

3. Higher end domestic business, ie publishing and labels

4. International promotion of recording facilities.

The fashion industry objectives are:

1. Ensure better manufacturing both internationally and locally

2. Increase press coverage

3. Increase buyer contacts, particularly in North America, UK and the Caribbean.