Jamaica Kincaid: Liberating the Daffodil

FAIN: TR-285448-22

Women Make Movies, Inc. (New York, NY 10001-5059)
Stephanie Black (Project Director: August 2021 to present)

Production of a film that explores the life and work of Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid.

We are requesting a $635,479  production grant to support an 87-minute documentary on the life and work of Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid. The film will trace her life from her childhood in colonial Antigua, to working as an au pair in Scarsdale, N.Y. as a teenager, to becoming the first black female staff writer for The New Yorker at age 26. Kincaid's life and work will be used to explore themes of anti-colonialism, women's search for identity, the use of horticulture as a literary device, and Kincaid's ability to blur the lines between personal stories and history, among others. The film will also address her frequently controversial voice and criticism of her work. Jamaica Kincaid’s unique literary contributions will be brought to life through evocative documentary images set to narrated audio excerpts from her novels, rare archival material, interviews with scholars, and cinema vérité footage reflecting daily life of the now 72-year-old writer.