Nile Saulter decided to pursue filmmaking at a very young age, a passion he shared with his older brother Storm. Since 2001 he has travelled to London, New York, Miami and Los Angeles where he gained formal schooling as well as work experience within the sector. Now at 26 year old, he is no stranger to the world of film and a member of the newly formed New Caribbean Cinema.
Over the years he has developed his own sense of style, creating films that are essentially emotive in some way or another. "My style is a bit more sensitive. I'm into subjects that are kind of emotional; I'm not into the big brash kind of- 'out there' pieces where it's all about action. I'm kind of interested in exploring the human psyche a bit more and making beautiful things that's my intention all the time," the young director relayed. He has successfully filmed and directed six short films, two of which will be featured in the 'Ring Di Alarm' series.
The first film he directed for the series was 'Coast'. It was shot along the beautiful cliffs of Negril, Jamaica where Saulter grew up. Coast tells the tale of a young woman who sells certain substances to tourists in Negril. She comes upon a situation that forces her to make a moral choice and the film observes how she deals with the situation. "The content is one thing but the look of it something I'm really happy with also," said Saulter. Coast is visually impressive as he focused heavily on the setting, capturing the striking beauty of the island's west coast landscape.
His other short film is 'The Young Sea'. It was shot in Bullbay, St. Andrew and he describes it as "cerebral and artsy". "Its something I actually assembled from footage from a music video I shot separately and there's a lot of the shots I didn't use and I sort of created a new story line with a voice over from that footage. I wanted to make something sort of poignant and personal and that's the mood of that piece," he shared.
Although a considerable amount of films have been produced in Jamaica Saulter still believes we have a quite a bit of work to do. This is why despite being exposed to other more developed film industries during his stint abroad Saulter was adamant to return home to build the local film sector. He stated "I am Jamaican unuh, this is where I come from and this is the place that inspired me to be a film maker. It was with the intention of showing different aspects of our culture and really putting our country on display by telling stories, that's what really inspired me to become a film maker; all the characters here and just the beauty of the place and the complexity."
Nevertheless he still remains grateful for the experience he gained while living abroad saying, "Being among different people serve me well in terms of extending my aesthetics sensibility so I'm really glad for that, and also when you hang out with people from different cultures you really get interesting perspectives and outlook on life from totally different people and I think that feeds your own sense of creativity a bit better so when you come back to your own country you can adapt it in the appropriate way and tell your own stories."
In closing he remarked, "I wouldn't be opposed to working in other places because love to travel and I like to go out there and represent Jamaica but right now I think we really want to build an industry here. We're all very young but we have good energy with us and I think eventually we can leave a good legacy so I think that's every important"
As a part of New Caribbean Cinema's 'Jamaica We Love You' weekend in London happening from September 1st – 2nd, Ring Di Alarm will be premiered at the British Institute South Bank Theatre on the Sunday (2nd).
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/NewCaribbeanCinema
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