Storm Saulter, renowned local director, is aiming to move away from the stereotypical storyline with his new movie, Sprinter. Speaking at the media briefing for the film, Saulter said there is a need to move away from the ‘life or death’ stories that are usually told about Jamaica, to reveal a new side to life on the rock. Sprinter is expected to show that there are so many different stories to be told about Jamaica and they can be just as exciting as one with guns, gangster and girls.

The media briefing took place at the JAMPRO headquarters yesterday. Present at the event were film commissioner Renee Robinson, vice-president of sales and production at JAMPRO, Claude Duncan, Saulter and lead actors Shantol Jackson, Dale Elliot and Kadeem Wilson.

“I see it (Sprinter) as a story that is pushing beyond the mould of what is specifically a story about people of colour, black people. I’ve found that in a lot of stories, if it’s not life and death, and your life is not on the line then it’s like ‘is the drama really dramatic enough’. Whereas, if it’s a story about people of colour, it could just be about a kid trying to pass a test and there is more than enough drama there to carry you through,” he said.

“That’s the reality that’s based on a history of stories we tell or the narratives that have been told of us. Living in that world of extremes too much just reinforces certain things. I’m trying to take it out of that world of life or death. This is my second film, my first was Better Mus’ Come, and so I’ve created a story in that world and I really just wanted to come out of that to a slightly more realistic world, to tell the stories of what regular people are dealing with. This is a story about working people, and these are the people that power our country.”

Duncan agreed that other stories need to be told about Jamaica as the country is full of talented people and exciting stories.

Film

“It happens in the film industry in the US, too, so the usual fear has been the ‘boys in the hood’ thing, gangsta. Tyler Perry came and showed a different side and took films in a different direction. It’s the same with Jamaica. We have so many stories to tell,” he said. “We have so many beautiful things about Jamaica. You see it when people reminisce about what they miss about Jamaica. All of those things are stories that if told in the right way will resonate with any audience. Not everything has to have violence or a crime element to it.”

Sprinter was shot over five weeks in locations in Jamaica and Los Angeles. Currently, the film’s runtime is 1 hour and 48 minutes. Sprinter tells the story of a family plagued by issues and centres around the main character, Akeem, fighting to find himself without the guidance of either of his parents as they are both living overseas. With that emotional support missing from his life, Akeem looks to his big brother (played by Wilson) as the ‘father figure’.

“I cant wait for the world to see this film because people see things in the work that you never even intend, and I think we’ve dropped enough thematic elements and enough plots and stories that I think the audience will give this a whole other life that I never saw,” Saulter said.