“Wing”, New Short Film by Tony Hendriks, AKA Paleface
Here’s a somewhat controversial new short film by Jamaican born actor and comedian, Tony Hendriks who’s now living in the UK.
The film stars Marlon King.
Please view it and let me know what you think!
TONY HENDRIKS
www.myspace.com/jamaicanpaleface
www.tonyhendriks.com
The Author
18 Comments
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Loved this short film. Always loved Tony Hendriks work. Thought the acting was magnificent and the piece provocative and stimulating. Works like these do not change reality but simply put it on display to stimulate discussion and self contemplation.
This is unfortunately the reality of life for many people in many parts of this planet.
zeitgeistmovie.com and the venus project offers an american perspective of the root of the problem and a possible solution for those who are interested…
Congrats, Tony, Marlon
THe very strength of the piece is that it’s just him talking straight at us. No flashy cutaways to the cliche of Kingston ghettos (everybody must know what they look like by now, every movie shows them, boooorrrrrrrring, now) No gratuitous gory flashback to the shit & the fan and the murder of the neighbour. Just this one character that we get to know, and understand WHY a young man makes that choice.
However, I have to admit that I accept the bling benz at the end ONLY because I’m so well aware of the inevitable end for this character: jail or more likely, death. If one did NOT know the almost inevitable bad end, then the final shot of the benz and ‘life’ could be misleading. Great short to show with groups of youth… followed by discussion – does coke give you a life? for how long? what do you think will happen to this character, etc.
I did however want to see him in at least one ‘ugly’ setting because that’s also the truth of the choice he made. THe trees and flowers and gentle english locations soften it. No doubt that was your deliberate choice.
Anyway, well done!
nuff love and respek
Hilary
dammit!! the “video is no longer available” where else can I find it?????????
thanks for posting the flim and stirring debate. great to see a few sides of the argument being played out on yardedge. i agree with them all.
let me explain something: WING is one small part of a greater project called BRIXTON ROAD PORTRAITS. originally a one man play set in a brixton photographic studio with a photographer and his subjects, mainly jamaicans, couple of brits and a few caught somewhere in the middle. “every picture tells a story”.
In 2006/7 i developed BRP for tv but was turned by the bbc and C4. then my producer died on january 1st 2008. that was a blow. anyway i decided to go back to square one and half and shoot a couple of portraits myself with no budget. WING is number one. there will be more characters, more films, more scope, more dramatisation and more action on location. i am currently pressing friends and cohorts into becoming co-producers.
when i say i agree with all the comments i mean i agree with burrokeet. it is maddening when you see so many images of jamaica as a gangsta ridden ghetto glorifying violence and drug culture. I get bex regular about it. but we cannot deny that it is what life is for a large amount of people. certainly in downtown kingston. wing’s story is true. i write from what i have heard and learned, been told and know to be a mix of various real people’s lives.
you make up your own mind what happens to WING in the end. yeah he probably will dead or certainly end up in an hmp but don’t tell me that many of the benz, lexus and bimma driving round south london are not being navigated by wings and worse who are currently living off the spoils of drug war for now at least.
sure many more people in jamaica make do with an honest living. i write about them as well, you know that, you’ve seen laugh jamaica and will see more of what I do. i am not condoning the lives of those who go with the dark side, just painting a picture that helps some people understand a bit of their reasoning.
thanks for the other takes from mary and katherine. i agree wid unuh too.
but burrokeet when you say: i no longer buy the “just reflecting reality”… you don’t have to buy it me bredda but you cannot deny it. that is what art does. it mirrors society.
WING is a slice of life. not the whole nine yards. as I said before there are many more to come in this series. some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and thankfully some you will argue about. we wouldn’t be Jamaicans if we didn’t. however i hope to backside you agree they reflect the lives of real people and real situations.
1Love & Respect.
TONY HENDRIKS
i hear you. no easy answers and limited leadership. so that leaves us with “at least trying the right way”
what is that? and what makes it right?
when killing is condoned and encouraged by a government it’s okay, patriotic even. when you kill in your own name, to put money in your own pocket… it’s not okay.
going back to the film….
who is the real audience? who is going to see this short, interesting but somewhat sterilized version of the real thing?
my guess, is the youTube viewers, a somewhat privileged set. perhaps not unlike you and as you so kindly pointed out, me. so is there any utility in highlighting the desperation and futility to the rarefied? is there anything useful that can come out of us sitting around on our computers on a sunday night jockeying for who has a better handle on these dire circumstances?
i don’t have an easy answer for the problem, or much of an answer at all. after 18 years of crappy government, the JLP has failed so far just as miserably and doesn’t show much signs of improving.
a benevolent dictator perhaps combined with default on all overseas debt, disbanding of the JCF and replacing them with a UN force, massive public works project to employ people (mandatory perhaps), the government (both of them) not just paying lip service to growing SMSEs and thus the economy and jobs, PERFORMANCE based employment in the public sector, legalise ganja but make the penalty for exporting it ten times higher, the list goes on. does anyone have the political will to get close to this, no not remotely, not that idiot Portia nor that pansy Bruce.
but my lack of answers doesn’t justify glorifying bullshit, nor does it justify not encouraging people to at least try the right way.
how “it is”
http://www.first-magazine.net/wp-content/themes/mimbo2.2/images/dead.jpg
the rock is not the exclusive domain of the poor. the sad reality that drives someone to kill somebody else because they splashed shit on them is not so easily addressed by creating positive messages…. messages like what?.. go to school and get an education so you can get plugged in to a system that will suck you dry? get a job that will further undermine you and keep you oppressed and working poor? tell me with your rock hewn wisdom… messages like what?
bullshit- the reality is 95% of these people end up dead or in jail- that is how “it is”
second, this DOES sensationalise it- the guy drives off in a fucking benz!?! that moral is called “crime does pay”
if the “spirit” of the poor is to act in this way, then how can we criticise people on the other side (SSP Adams) who basically say we should just shoot all the poor.
show something positive or something real- this is neither
of course this info is on the street – that is the problem!!!! music and media fill them with images of gangsters and dons living the good life. poor kids think this is the get rich key to success. Maybe you should take your head out of your ass up there in Boston, as I assume from your email addy, and spend a little time on the rock
simple, poignant, eloquent, trenchant….
bravo to paleface for telling it like it is.
this is the reality many people face. western society creates scarcity and hardship to feed the coffers of the wealthy. if your life is so demeaned and undervalued why not take matters in your own hands, why not take a chance. whereas “shottas” sensationalized drugs and violence, “wing” just tells it like it is.
and if you think for a minute that this information is not readily available on the street then you are living in a vacuum with your head up your ass.
people are impoverished, people are hungry, angry…and this short pays homage to the indomitable spirit of jamaica’s poor.
( jus one ting – it would have been nice to have the opening really set in jamaica)
…in fact, Tony, if you want to make this film REALLY POWERFUL…rile up the Ja Govt…get ‘some’ action (Maybe)… dont just throw in ‘cut aways’… either recreate right there in the UK or come to Ja and re-enact the life…movie style! Dont have the guy telling us…boring. He looks like he has NEVER suffered. show us in drama form ‘the life’! …and then the guys choice or alternative… of course there are many alternatives, but thats sooo easy for us to say! Young people NEED other alternatives, but the film is an artistic expression on one artists ANGER on the NO ACTION… try to understand and interpret …”burrokeet”! 🙂
to the last poster- please explain the responsible part of this… i no longer buy the “just reflecting reality” excuse that our popular culture continues to use to justify the imagery and glorification of violence it puts forth. it gives the message that, well you could either end up dead, or you could “go for it” and maybe live large. we don’t need that message at all- what we need, as you correctly point out, are REAL OPPORTUNITIES for the poor and the youth in this country. Where that will come from I don’t know, but let’s at least offer images to them that show possibilities that don’t depend on murder and crime. There’s no “victory” in the film- in the end that character will be in jail in England (if he’s lucky) or in Jamaica (less lucky) or he’ll be one of the 1000s we read about each year murdered by his peers, his rivals or the state.
This is NOT irresponsible fimmaking…?? Congrats to you Tony Hendriks!!! But I will say it NEEDS to be visually more enticing to give it, its POWERRR!! I realise you’re in the UK, so how would you do this, but I need to see his hardship in JA to be convinced of his ‘victory’!! I do TV PSA’s for the NCDA (Ja’s Nat’l Council on Drug Abuse) in fact, editing a 15 sec spot right now!!! They mayb be unhappy, but NEED to conter-act it… Jamaica and the Jamaican Govt, need to come up with seeeerious life altering changes for especially young people! becasue as it stands now…there are none.
i think this is irresponsible and glorifying violence and criminality, just like Shottas.
Jamaica has the worst crime rate in decades, and yet here we have someone saying ‘yeah man life hard but now mi a live large inna england and a press a bimma’ – did they go to school? work hard? try and try again? nope, instead there a murderer and drug dealer.
what a great morality tale eh?
people need to watch the real story of this lifestyle, ala The Harder They Come- remember ‘hero cyan dead until the last reel’