JAFTA PROPELLA
JAFTA Propella is one of the Jamaica Film and Television Association’s signature initiatives. Established in 2016, JAFTA Propella is a short film script-to-screen developmental initiative geared at creating new and diverse Jamaican stories, honing local talent and skillsets and encouraging best practices in producing projects.
The relevant participants for each project undertake a series of workshops, including script development, directing and production, and are provided with constructive feedback and monitoring along the way, prior to the final edit. On fulfilling certain requirements, each project selected is awarded a grant to assist with the production of the project. In addition to partial funding, JAFTA Propella projects are supported through the collaborative efforts of JAFTA members and the Jamaican filmmaking community based on a mutual love of film and desire to see Jamaican projects and stories develop. All projects are Executive Produced by JAFTA.
Since its 2016 launch, JAFTA Propella has produced 14 original short film projects, many of which have been screened at various local and international festivals, won various awards and some of which are being developed into feature-films or series.
From 2016-2018, production funding support has been provided by the CHASE Fund. In 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport (MCGES) came on board to lend support as the new production funding sponsor and Phase 3 Productions came on board as an official sponsor for in-kind equipment support. MCGES continues it production funding sponsorship in 2022 and our longstanding associate partner from inception, JAMPRO, remains the initiative’s facilitation and market support partner.
For the 2016-2018 stagings of JAFTA Propella, the films have premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival who has also been a collaborative partner with JAFTA from the inception of the program. JAMPRO has sponsored a representative from each of the projects to attend TTFF and, for the 2017 and 2018 cohort, JAMPRO facilitated and sponsored a film market component for attendance of participants at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France. In 2021, the JAFTA Propella 2020 films premiered in Jamaica.
At their core, both JAFTA and our JAFTA Propella initiative, focus on developmental initiatives, emerging and creative voices and stories, structured collaboration, best practices, and community-building.
