Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
Plot: The short film is based on the labour disturbances which took place in Jamaica in May 1938. These spontaneous labour riots and strikes spread island wide from the sugarcane fields of Frome, Westmoreland to the wharves at the waterfront of Kingston (Source: The Studio Eight YouTube page).
Review: It is always a challenge to make a documentary, especially an historical documentary, appealing to your average viewer. If it’s too bland and formulaic they may dismiss it as boring, and you lose them after the first couple minutes. But with The 1938 Unrest (2021) director JP Williams crafts a short with enough eye-catching visuals and entrancing music that one almost forgets that one is actually being educated about something.
The film mixes documentary footage of the unrest with striking visuals and a performance by just one actor, Jayden Chambers. As the personification of the frustration, passion and resilience of the Jamaican people at that time, Chambers is earnest in the role, though he is not given that much to do in terms of emoting. The real stars here are the abovementioned visuals, cinematography and the music by Teflon Zincfence (cool name alert). And the song “Burning” by Jahlil? Pure fyah! No pun intended whatsoever. Maybe a little.
At under six minutes, The 1938 Unrest is a very brisk watch. And it is a very competently made film with nuggets for both the eyes and the ears. Kudos to Williams and The Studio Eight production company. Just beware that while watching you may inadvertently learn some history in the process.
Editor Jules Score: 7 out of 10
You can watch The 1938 Unrest for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more Caribbean documentary content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.