Amandla Wamagama | The Power of Words | By Bonilla

1. Who's your favorite character from the story and what kind of background do they come from? Why? I think my favorite character is by far Lorraine, I admire how she becomes capable of sharing equally with someone that comes from a poorer and "lower" background. Of course, she comes from a light skinned background, which makes her part of the most privileged people in all of Jamaica, but even with that, she becomes concious of her privileges and learns to love those who are mistreated by society. 2. Why do you think Lorraine's mother mocks the workers that want independence from England? It's clear that she's afraid that she may lose her status if Jamaica becomes independent. She, as a lot of light skinned did, sees the English as the protectors to her privileges and she's afraid that she may lose them if England ends the colonization in Jamaica. 3. What is a "pain tree" and how does it play a role in the story? The "pain tree...

1. How does Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace from Rockers compare to Ivan Martin from The Harder They Come ? They are similar until a certain point. To start, they're both trying to achieve their dream of being succesfull through the music business, Ivan is a singer and Leroy sells records and therefore becomes a drummer. Also, both have to deal with the mafia or drug deal in their stories, this is the point when they start differing from differing from one another. Ivan becomes a part of the mafia and ends up fighting against it from the inside, meanwhile Leroy does it completely from the outside. They are also pretty opposite in their personalities, Leroy cares for his people and Ivan couldn't care less about anybody, he's WAY more selfish than L-Man. 2. What is your favorite scene from the film? Why? I liked the scene just before they started the big heist in the mafia's warehouse and the mob boss's house that showed almost every member from the grou...

1. In general what did you like and dislike about the film? I loved that this movie shows the "Jamaican Dream" as I like to call it. It's just the story of some man looking for a way to be succesful, whatever it takes, he's just trying to leave a mark in this world without caring about the consecuences. Also, I always get empathy for antiheroes because they don't care about what people think, they just chase their goals regardless. I kind of disliked the fact that I never knew if this movie was serious or not, sometimes it looked like a comedy and sometimes like a deep movie about the state of Jamaican society. 2. Who is your favorite character from the film? After talking about how I enjoy antihero movies, it wouldn't make sense to not say that Ivan Martin is my favorite character, he was just reckless and audacious to achieve his objetives. We follow his journey from being just a know-nothing man from the country to accomplish his dream of becoming...

1. In general, what did you like and dislike about the film? Some people might say they didn't like the characters (I think even the teacher did haha) but that's what I found well done about the movie, the characters are not made to sympathize, but to look real and show how humans make mistakes which can make feeling empathy for them a hard task. A lot of people is not easy to sympathize with, but that's what makes them people, just like the characters from the film, they are rather showed like real human beings than fictional well structured characters and somehow I like that. I disliked how time jumps are handled, there are many things that happened right after others in the film time, but not in the actual real time  of the events, there isn't really any remarkable elements that contextualize the time in the movie. 2. How does the film make you feel about your future role as a journalist? I knew about this story before watching the film, specifically ab...

1. Who was your favorite character from the film? Why? It's pretty obvious that most people enjoyed Steve Biko's character and I'm not even close to being the exception, it was cool to know about somebody that wasn't a big leader like Mandela but still thought like him. I admired the way of thinking that Biko had, although he didn't had a great education, he molded himself to a cultured and tranquil but asertive lifestyle, with the objetive of convincing others with the ideology of equality. Also, I liked the story of Donald Woods for his search for justice and Mapetla because of his supportive role in the movie before his death. 2. What was your favorite scene from the film? Why? There is a couple scenes that I consider my favorites and they are all from the travel that Donald makes disguised as Father Curren in order to publish his book ''BIKO''.  Two that come to my mind right now are kind of similar, I'm talking about the ones from t...

1. How does the film, Kangamba, show Cuban internationalism in Angola? The movie potrays Cuba as a country with a really important role in supporting Angola and other african nations. Pretty much as a savior for those that are trying to achieve freedom and democracy in their territory. Cuba's Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (Revolutionary Armed Forces) or FAR, after the Cuban Revolution, took a assisting role for other countries, especially those known as the Third World for many reasons, one of them being the empathy Castro felt with those nations, seeing something similar to a pre-revolutionary Cuba in them. 2. What was the most impactful scene for you? Why? There is a bunch of scenes that comes to me mind when talking about "impactful" in this movie and one of them is when we get to see the Cuban and Angolan soldiers sneaking to the bottom part of a truck to take some water from it, desperately (and I mean DESPERATELY) drinking what they were able t...