THE FILM WILL NOT BE SCREENED ONLINE, ONLY ONSITE. ONLINE PARTICIPANTS CAN JOIN THE Q&A FROM 16.15 PM.

During this seminar session, film scholar-practitioner Emiel Martens, who was affiliated with KITLV from 2013-2015, will screen his new documentary Beach Inna Bondage: The Fight for Jamaica’s Coastline (34 minutes). The film, much talked about in Jamaica and beyond, is one of the outcomes of his year-long Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, from which he has recently returned. Martens will discuss the film in relation to his work in postcolonial film and tourism studies, Caribbean film and tourism studies, film-based research, participatory storytelling, and activist filmmaking. He will also situate the film within the work of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM) and recent Grammy-winning Jamaican reggae artist Keznamdi, in collaboration with whom the documentary was made.

Beach Inna Bondage is a short documentary exploring the growing struggle for beach access in Jamaica. Since the 1950s, public access to the island’s beaches has steadily declined, leaving less than one percent of the coastline publicly accessible for Jamaicans. Over the decades, most of Jamaica’s beaches have been captured by private and tourist interests, and particularly since the 2000s large-scale hotel developments have limited beach access for Jamaicans. This film follows the grassroots movement resisting the privatization of Jamaican beaches by zooming in on three frontline struggles: Bob Marley Beach near Kingston, the Blue Lagoon in the parish of Portland, and Mammee Bay Beach on the island’s North Coast. The interviewees, all Jamaicans, reveal how the 1956 Beach Control Act, which is still in effect today, vests ownership of the foreshore in the Jamaican state (and actually the British Crown) and traces how this colonial-era law, combined with the island’s all-inclusive tourism model, has displaced communities, disrupted livelihoods, and degraded environments. 

Interwoven with archival footage, news clips, and recordings of protest rallies and court cases, the interviewees situate today’s beach access struggles within Jamaica’s troubled history of land ownership following emancipation and independence. They argue that the island’s tourism industry replicates plantation logic by monopolizing land, concentrating wealth, exporting profits, and, ultimately, marginalizing the people. Beach Inna Bondage shows that beach access – which is not only an issue in Jamaica but across the Caribbean and beyond – is an urgent matter of historical, economic, social, cultural and environmental justice, raising the question of who the tropical paradise of sun, sand, and sea truly serves, and at what cost...

Film maker

Emiel Martens is a Dutch film scholar-practitioner focusing on the interconnections between film, tourism, and empire in the Caribbean, with particular emphasis on Jamaica. He is Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam and served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, during the academic year 2025-2026. There, he worked, alongside several written publications, on the short film Beach Inna Bondage: The Fight for Jamaica’s Coastline. Martens is also the Co-Founding Director of the Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication (HUCOM) and Erasmus Knowledge Centre for Film, Heritage, and Tourism (FIHETO), as well as the Founding Director of Caribbean Creativity, a non-profit organization dedicated to the production, programming and promotion of Caribbean cinema in Jamaica and the Netherlands.

Discussant

Devon Taylor is the President of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM), an advocacy group and grassroots movement founded in 2022 dedicated to protecting Jamaica’s coastal ecosystems while affirming the inherent right of all people to access, enjoy, and steward the island’s beaches. Rooted in the belief that Jamaica’s shores are part of a shared cultural and ecological inheritance, JaBBEM advocates against land privatization, tourism development, environmental degradation, and exclusionary practices that limit public access to coastal spaces. The movement brings together community members, environmental activists, cultural practitioners, and youth to promote sustainable coastal management, climate resilience, and environmental justice. Through beach cleanups, public education campaigns, policy advocacy, and cultural events, JaBBEM highlights the interconnectedness of ecological preservation and social equity. JaBBEM considers beaches not just as natural resources, but as vital spaces of history, identity, and community life - places where heritage, livelihood, and environmental responsibility meet. By mobilizing local voices and fostering collective action, the movement seeks to ensure that Jamaica’s beaches remain protected, accessible, and thriving for present and future generations.

Moderator

Rosemarijn Hoefte is a historian specialized in the Caribbean. She is Professor in the history of Suriname after 1873 in comparative perspective at the University of Amsterdam. Her main research interests are the history of postabolition Suriname, migration and unfree labor, contemporary Caribbean history, and nation building and nation branding in postcolonial states.

Format, date, time & venue

The film screening will take place onsite only in the conference room of KITLV, Herta Mohr Building, Room 1.30, Witte Singel 27A, Leiden, on Thursday, 24 September, from 15.30 to 17.00 PM (CET). The Q&A session will be available to join online via Zoom after the screening around 16.15 PM.

Image

Film still from Beach Inna Bondage.