Perry Henzell’s “No Place Like Home” Jamaican Movie

Sunday is all about flicks here at missgaza and this classic Jamaican movie is a gem and a masterpiece that made some serious history from one of Jamaica’s most loved movie director, Perry Henzell.

No matter your age, Perry Henzell’s “No Place Like Home” it’s a ever green movie to get familiar with right now.

“No Place Like Home”, another great flick about Jamaica from Perry Henzell and producer David Garonzik, as for “Man Free”.

Perry Henzell has been called “the most important film-maker to emerge from the Caribbean.”

His landmark film THE HARDER THEY COME was responsible for introducing Reggae music to the world.

With unique insight, visual sense and original thinking, he forever changed the way we look at things.

Through his films, stage plays, and novels, the worldwide impact of his work continued to grow.

Following the success of THE HARDER THEY COME, Perry Henzell directed part two of what was supposed to be his Jamaican trilogy, which follows New York producer Susan as she ventures into the Jamaican countryside (reversing the country-to-city trajectory of the first film) in search of a runaway actress.

After working on the film throughout the 1970s, Henzell discovered that the footage had been lost; fortunately, it was found 30 years later, and  thanx also to David Garonzik and Chris Romano, the producers that worked on the movie’s restoration.

With music by Bob Marley & The Wailers, Toots & The Maytals and Peter Tosh and introducing then Grace Jones and P.J. Soles, “No Place Like Home” was intended to follow more closely on the heels of ‘The Harder They Come’, reversing Ivan’s journey from country to city with Susan’s journey from city to country, to find the real Jamaica.

Its road to the screen in 2006, however, was as tortuous as Ivan’s journey in Henzell’s first film.

The film was started almost 30 years ago, but funding became an issue and production was halted, and then re-started several times.

The director kept running out of money because the movie was made in a totally different way.

It is an experiment in realism that combines spontaneous footage with written footage in such way that nobody can’t tell the difference.

Perry‘s working method was to shoot the spontaneous footage first and then immediately afterwards, write and shoot the footage that would move the story forward.

Beside being stuck with no production money also the movie’s negative was lost in September 1987 and Henzell despaired that the film into which he had poured so much of his heart and energy was forever lost.

However, in a twist of fate, 30 years after ‘No Place Like Home’ began, the footage turned up in a lab in New York. Check the official trailer for “No Place Like Home” below.!  Premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. 

Watch Perry Henzell’s “No Place Like Home” Trailer