Perry Henzell
{{Short description|Jamaican filmmaker (1936–2006)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use Jamaican English|date=March 2012}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2009}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| image_size =
| name = Perry Henzell
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1936|3|7}}
| birth_place = Annotto Bay, St. Mary's, Jamaica
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2006|11|30|1936|3|7}}
| death_place = Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica
| occupation = Film director
| education = Shrewsbury School;
McGill University
| spouse = Sally Densham (1965–2006; his death)
| notable_works = The Harder They Come (1972)
| website =
| children = 3
}}
Perry Henzell (7 March 1936 – 30 November 2006) was a Jamaican director. He directed the first Jamaican feature film, The Harder They Come (1972), co-written by Trevor D. Rhone and starring Jimmy Cliff.{{cite news|title= Perry Henzell - Obituaries, News |work= The Independent|date=2 December 2006|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/perry-henzell-426679.html|first=Chris|last=Salewicz|access-date=2011-04-13|location=London}}
Life and career
Henzell, whose ancestors included Huguenot glassblowers and an old English family who had made their fortune growing sugar cane on Antigua,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-84/perry-henzell-master#axzz7ysUu4PhH|title=Perry Henzell: the master|first=David|last=Katz|author-link=David Katz (author)|issue=84|magazine=Caribbean Beat|date=March–April 2007|access-date=14 April 2023}} was born in Annotto Bay, Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica,{{cite news|url=https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061201/ent/ent2.html |title=Perry Henzell dies at 70 |first=Krista|last=Henry|newspaper=Jamaica Gleaner |date=1 December 2006 |access-date=1 March 2023}} and grew up on the Caymanas sugar-cane estate near Kingston.{{cite news|title= Perry Henzell: 1936 - 2006 |work=Chicago Tribune|date=3 December 2006|url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2006/12/03/perry-henzell-1936-2006/|access-date=2011-04-13}} He was sent to Shrewsbury School in the United Kingdom at the age of 14 and later attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1953 and 1954.{{cite news|title= The Harder They Come filmmaker dies |work= MSNBC|url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15977318|agency=Associated Press|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120928221904/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/15977318|url-status = live|archive-date = 2012-09-28|access-date=2011-04-13}} He then dropped out of this school, choosing instead to hitchhike around Europe. He eventually got work as a stagehand for BBC television in London. He returned in the 1950s to Jamaica, where he directed advertisements for some years until he began work on The Harder They Come with co-writer Trevor D. Rhone.{{cite news|title= Obituary: Perry Henzell |newspaper= The Guardian|date=4 December 2006|url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/dec/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries1|access-date=2011-04-12 |location=London |first=David |last=Katz}}
In 1965, Henzell married Sally Densham.
Henzell also shot some footage for what was planned as his next film, No Place Like Home, in Harder's aftermath in 1974, but he went broke before he could finish the film. Fed up by this, and the lack of finance for further production, he went on to become a writer, publishing his first novel, Power Game, in 1982.{{cite news|title= Perry Henzell, 70, Filmmaker of 'The Harder They Come,' Dies |work= The New York Times|date=5 December 2006|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/obituaries/05henzell.html|agency=Associated Press|access-date=2011-04-13}} Both were meant to complete a planned trilogy of films centring on Ivanhoe Martin. The footage for No Place Like Home was lost. Years later, he came across editing tapes in a lab in New York. Just to have a sense of completion, he worked on the project. When he showed it to a few friends, their response was enthusiastic. He eventually was able to retrieve the original footage.
A rough cut of No Place Like Home, which features music from Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, The Three Degrees, and Marcia Griffiths, was screened for the public at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006 at the Cumberland Theatre; it was sold out. Film leads Carl Bradshaw (The Harder They Come, Smile Orange, Countryman) and Susan O'Meara attended and answered audience questions with Henzell after the screening. The film was also screened at the Flashpoint Film Festival at the beginning of December 2006 in Negril. A fully restored version was premiered in 2019.{{cite news|last=Johnson|first= Richard |url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/a-labour-of-love/ |title= A labour of love: Lost Henzell film restored and premièred at former home|newspaper=Jamaica Observer|date=10 November 2019|access-date=14 April 2023}} The documentary Perry Henzell: A Filmmaker’s Odyssey, directed by David Garonzik and Arthur Gorson, traces the journey to bring No Place Like Home to the big screen.{{cite web|url=https://ttfilmfestival.com/film/perry-henzell-a-filmmakers-odyssey|title=perry henzell: a filmmaker's odyssey|website=ttfilmfestival.com|date=2020}}
Henzell had continued to work after being diagnosed in 2000 with cancer. He died from it on 30 November 2006.
Further reading
- Jonathan Ali, [https://www.watershed.co.uk/articles/it-came-after-harder-they-come-story-perry-henzells-no-place-home "It came after The Harder They Come: The story of Perry Henzell’s No Place Like Home"], Twelve30 Collective, 29 July 2021.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0378320|name=Perry Henzell}}
- {{IMDb title | tt0839928 | No Place Like Home }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061013065624/http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/films_schedules/films_description.asp?id=207 Toronto Film Festival Profile of No Place Like Home]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mck-vGQNXcU "Perry Henzell on The Harder They Come and Ancestral Spirit"]. Perry Henzell interviewed in 1988 by director Stafford Ashani, for Reggae Strong.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henzell, Perry}}
Category:20th-century Jamaican novelists
Category:Deaths from cancer in Jamaica
Category:Jamaican film directors
Category:Jamaican film producers
Category:Jamaican male novelists
Category:Jamaican people of English descent
Category:McGill University alumni